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 THE LIBRARY 
 
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 THE UNIVERSITY 
 
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 THE 
 
 EXPANSION OF WESTERN IDEALS 
 
 AND 
 
 THE WORLD'S PEACE
 
 Works by the Same Author 
 
 The Surface of Things : Three Stories (1899) 
 
 The Study of Art in Universities (1896) 
 
 The Work of John Ruskin (1890) 
 
 Essays on the Art of Phidias (1885) 
 
 The Balance of Emotion and Intellect (1878)
 
 THE EXPANSION 
 OF WESTERN IDEALS 
 
 AND 
 
 THE WORLD'S PEACE 
 
 BY 
 
 CHARLES WALDSTEIN 
 
 ^ 
 
 JOHN LANE: THE BODLEY HEAD 
 
 NEW YORK AND LONDON 
 
 1899
 
 Copyright, i8gg 
 By John Lane 
 
 jill rights reiervid 
 
 John Wilson and Son, Cambridge, U. S. A.
 
 134-3 
 
 Preface 
 
 THE lecture on the English-Speaking 
 Brotherhood, here printed as the sec- 
 ond essay, was written in the beginning of 
 the Spanish-American War and embodies 
 thoughts and feelings which I have nurtured 
 through my whole life. It was delivered 
 on July 7, 1898, at the Imperial Institute, 
 London, Lord Rosebery in the chair, while 
 this war was raging, and was published in 
 an abridged form in the " North American 
 Review" for August, 1898. When prepar- 
 ing it in unabridged form for publication last 
 summer, I wrote the following preface: — 
 
 " My greatest fear is that, from the nat- 
 ure of the subject and from the special 
 conditions which evoked my remarks, I 
 may not have been able on this occasion to 
 give proper emphasis to my positive and 
 friendly feeling for the European Powers 
 
 V 

 
 Preface 
 
 that are essentially the bearers of Oc- 
 cidental Civilisation. In urging the coaH- 
 tion and combined action of England and 
 the United States, I have but seized the 
 opportunity offered of advocating the union 
 of the two civilised Powers who are best 
 fitted by present circumstance to draw 
 nearer to each other, and who, from the 
 fundamental constitution of their national 
 life, are more closely related to one another 
 than any other two Powers in the civilised 
 world. Whatever negative attitude may be 
 manifest in this lecture towards the other 
 civilised Powers of the European Con- 
 tinent is due to the fact that these Powers 
 have, by their recent action, shown them- 
 selves to be opposed to any closer union 
 between the United States and Great 
 Britain ; that by several of their institu- 
 tions, as well as by their foreign and com- 
 mercial policy, they are not yet prepared 
 for a more general federation of civilised 
 nations; and that the prevailing spirit of 
 
 vi
 
 Preface 
 
 Ethnological Chauvinism among them is 
 not only an impediment to wider humani- 
 tarian brotherhood, but is destructive of 
 the inner peace and good-will among the 
 citizens of each nation. I feel so strongly 
 what I have said of this curse of Ethno- - 
 logical Chauvinisrn that if it were possible 
 to create effective leagues and associations 
 among the civilised nations, and, moreover, 
 associations with a negative or defensive 
 object, I should like to urge the institu- 
 tion of a great Anti-Chauvinistic League 
 among the enlightened people of all na- 
 tionahties, to join together in combating 
 this evil spirit in whatever form it may 
 manifest itself. But I am not so visionary 
 as to think that such a league could be 
 formed at the present juncture." 
 
 Since I wrote this preface last July, I have 
 visited the United States, where, the im- 
 mediate war with Spain being over, I found 
 the country drifting into a division on 
 what has been called the Expansion Policy. 
 
 vu
 
 Preface 
 
 I found that many of my friends, actuated 
 by the noblest motives, were opposed to 
 Expansion on grounds which, however 
 high and noble, appeared to me none the 
 less fallacious. Moreover, in conversation 
 with them and others, I came to realise 
 that there were points of view, inseparable 
 from an intimate knowledge of European 
 affairs gained in living on the scenes 
 where these events are enacted, with which 
 they were more or less unfamiliar. And 
 these points of view appear to me essential 
 to a correct understanding of the situation 
 and of the whole question of American 
 Expansion. The most prominent fallacy, 
 and at the same time the most misleading in 
 its effects, appeared to me the assumption 
 on the part of the Anti-Expansionists (an 
 assumption in danger of being accepted by 
 their opponents from the very frequency of 
 its repetition) : that those who oppose Ex- 
 pansion are actuated by the ideal side and 
 represent it exclusively ; that they uphold, 
 
 viii
 
 Preface 
 
 against material interests, the integrity of 
 American idealism. There was and is 
 danger that, when such statements are 
 repeated sufficiently often to become com- 
 monplaces, the Expansionists will ac- 
 quiesce in this misstatement from sheer 
 impatience and pugnacity, and will thus 
 be robbed of the living strength which is 
 at the very core of their own movement, 
 its lofty idealism, — that they will at 
 last subside into the cynical acceptance 
 of a low materialistic view which turns its 
 back upon " cant," and that the whole 
 national hfe will suffer in consequence. 
 When I realised this, it did not require 
 the encouragement of my friends to make 
 me feel that there was a call for me to 
 speak in the cause of truth and to publish 
 what I have to say on the Expansion of 
 Western Ideals. 
 
 THE AUTHOR. 
 South Orange, N. J. 
 June 5, 1899. 
 
 ix
 
 Contents 
 
 PAGE 
 
 THE EXPANSION OF WESTERN IDEALS 
 
 AND THE world's PEACE ... I 5 
 
 THE ENGLISH-SPEAKING BROTHER- 
 HOOD 115
 
 The Expansion of Western 
 
 Ideals and The World's 
 Peace
 
 I 
 
 IN his remarks following my lecture on 
 the English-Speaking Brotherhood 
 here published, Lord Rosebery ^ offers a 
 graceful and gentle criticism of two of the 
 chief points insisted upon by me. 
 
 With regard to my objection to the 
 racial element contained in the term 
 Anglo-Saxon, he says : " Our lecturer took 
 exception to the term Anglo-Saxon, and 
 he took exception very justly to that term 
 as not being truly a scientific description 
 of our race. But I think he would agree 
 with me in saying that the same objec- 
 tions would lie against a generic descrip- 
 tion of almost any other race in the world 
 
 1 See 'Appreciations and Addresses,' delivered by 
 Lord Rosebery, K. G., K. T., 1899, pages 261-269 
 (John Lane). 
 
 15
 
 The Expansion of Western Ideals 
 
 — that there is hardly a race in the world 
 inhabiting its ®wn territory — I cannot 
 recall one at this moment — which can be 
 strictly called a race, if all the objections 
 which lie against the term Anglo-Saxon 
 lie against the adjective which may be 
 applied to that race. I do not plead for 
 the word Anglo-Saxon. I would welcome 
 any other term than Anglo-Saxon which 
 in a more conciliatory, a more scientific, 
 and more adequate manner would de- 
 scribe the thing I want to describe. But 
 whether you call it British or Anglo- 
 Saxon, or whatever you call it, the fact is 
 that the race is there and the sympathy 
 of the race is there. How you arrive at 
 that sympathy, whether it be purely by 
 language, or as, perhaps, I think more 
 truly, by the moral, intellectual, and 
 political influences under which a nation- 
 ality has grown up — how you arrive at 
 that sympathy, it is foreign to my pur- 
 
 i6
 
 and The World's Peace 
 
 pose to discuss to-day. But this at least 
 we may say, that when a nation has in- 
 habited certain boundaries without dis- 
 turbance for a considerable number of 
 centuries, even though it has received 
 accessions from foreign nations, and when 
 it has fused those accessions from foreign 
 nations into its own nationality, and 
 made them accept the name and lan- 
 guage and laws and the facts of that 
 nationality, it seems to me that for all 
 practical purposes you have a nation and 
 a race." 
 
 Evidently in my lecture I failed to ex- 
 press as clearly and pointedly as I desired 
 to do the fundamental viciousness of the 
 idea of race as affecting modern inter- 
 national politics — nay, national politics, 
 — in its immediately disintegrating influ- 
 ence upon the life of the nation, and in 
 its ultimately retarding the realisation of 
 humanitarian ideals. And I was opposed 
 2 17
 
 The Expansion of Western Ideals 
 
 to the Chauvinism implied in, and engen- 
 dered by, racial distinctions; to the tone 
 of passion which it breeds; to the native 
 inimical attitude towards other races 
 which it fosters. In " community of race" 
 stress is laid, not upon the uniting power 
 of ideas, but upon that of mere consan- 
 guinity. It is true, love may grow out of 
 this as well as hatred — but in any case pas- 
 sion. In substituting the phrase " English- 
 Speaking Brotherhood " for " Anglo-Saxon 
 Alliance " I wished to accentuate the 
 communion of ideas, which do not in the 
 same way evoke passion, — that is, personal 
 passion, — and if they do, produce that form 
 which is least destructive and degrading, 
 namely, the passion for ideas. I know 
 that in the phrase I adopted the promi- 
 nence given to language fails to express 
 the full meaning I wished to convey. 
 "English-speaking" only stood as a sym- 
 bol for the life, institutions, laws, and ideals 
 
 i8
 
 and The World's Peace 
 
 of the English-speaking nations; and I 
 should gratefully accept any other phrase 
 which conveyed my thoughts more ade- 
 quately. But, after all, the Word, Xojo^, 
 has before this been used to symbolise a 
 vast range of thought. The more I con- 
 sider Lord Rosebery's criticism, the more 
 am I inclined to believe that his mis- 
 understanding of the main gist of my 
 objection was not wholly due to the in- 
 adequacy of my presentation. For I find 
 that at the end of the passage here quoted 
 he gives nation and race as convertible 
 terms — which is the last thing I would 
 admit. 
 
 If this was my general reason for object- 
 ing to the term Anglo-Saxon, the more 
 immediate and special reason, which at 
 the time led me to raise my voice at all, 
 has been proved by recent events to have 
 been good and strong. The opposition 
 which at first produced Mr. Davitt's 
 
 19
 
 The Expansion of Western Ideals 
 
 strictures as representing the Irish ele- 
 ment in Great Britain has, as I antici- 
 pated, found a more powerful response in 
 the United States. The ineptitude of the 
 phrase Anglo-Saxon, as meant to convey 
 the element of unity and cohesion be- 
 tween the inhabitants of the United 
 States and of Greater Britain, has not 
 only been properly exposed in the pages of 
 Mr. Dooley's powerful satire, but has also 
 quite recently been publicly condemned in 
 the mass-meetings held principally in the 
 Western States. This protest is headed 
 by the German section of the American 
 people; who, no doubt, incited to opposi- 
 tion by the misleading phrase, have 
 protested against the great idea it was 
 meant to carry. I feel confident that 
 every day will prove more convincingly 
 how mischievous the effect of such a 
 misplaced word can be. 
 
 With the doubts expressed by Lord 
 20
 
 and The World's Peace 
 
 Rosebery on a second point in my lecture 
 I can fully sympathise. They have since 
 found forcible expression in the United 
 States, notably in a leader in the " Spring- 
 field Republican" (May i8, 1899), in 
 which reference is made to an article by 
 a Russian writer in the " Independent " 
 showing the blessings arising out of an 
 extension of the Czar's rule through Asia. 
 Lord Rosebery says : " But I must warn 
 you against a pitfall that lurks even in 
 that expression. It is this — that, put- 
 ting the conscientious Russian, whom 
 the Professor summoned to give testi- 
 mony, aside, I am afraid all the other 
 great nations of the world are under the 
 same impression as to the spread of their 
 power and their empire. I doubt if the 
 Germans or the French, for example, and 
 I make bold to say even the Russians, 
 though they have been quoted against the 
 argument by the lecturer, would be dis- 
 
 21
 
 The Expansion of Western Ideals 
 
 posed to say that the extension of their 
 several empires was not in the best inter- 
 ests of the human race. That is a feel- 
 ing common to all nationalities, and we 
 can only hope that we indulge in it with 
 more reason and on a broader basis than 
 do the others I have mentioned." 
 
 Such arguments appear conclusive. 
 Still, I venture to believe that they will 
 not stand close and serious scrutiny. Of 
 course, what I have to reply is not so 
 much in the nature of argument as of fact ; 
 and these facts, from their very nature, 
 are not readily tested. I can only give 
 my personal experience, and rely upon the 
 faith in my personal veracity of state- 
 ment. But I venture to believe that there 
 are so many who will bear me out in my 
 experience, that we need not resort to a 
 universal census of uninfluenced popular 
 opinion throughout all European nations 
 (if this were possible) to test the truth 
 
 22
 
 and The World's Peace 
 
 of my contention. Ask the simple ques- 
 tion: "Do you think that the cause of 
 civilisation, generally social and politi- 
 cal, as well as in the national education 
 of the individual, would be furthered more 
 rapidly and effectually by the expansion 
 of the English-speaking nations or by 
 that of Russia or any other of the Con- 
 tinental nations or grouping of these?" 
 My own experience as regards this ques- 
 tion is conclusive. 
 
 I would, in the first instance, point, 
 not to Nihilists, political malcontents, or 
 those in the political opposition (these, 
 of course, disbelieve in Russian methods), 
 but to genuine patriotic Russians of the 
 educated and ruling classes, who have 
 distinctly expressed their admiration of 
 English and American social and political 
 institutions, and have looked forward to 
 the day when these institutions and the 
 moral and intellectual tone of the nations 
 
 23
 
 The Expansion of Western Ideals 
 
 possessing them would be introduced into 
 their own country. They distinctly im- 
 plied, and sometimes stated definitely, 
 that humanity would gain more by the 
 expansion of these advanced peoples than 
 by that of their own nation. 
 
 In spite of the temporary state of ill 
 feeling, arising out of rivalry and misun- 
 derstandings fostered by political rulers 
 in Germany for definite and immediate 
 political ends (a state of affairs as much 
 to be deplored as it is bound ultimately 
 to give way to a better understanding), 
 the number of Germans — and these the 
 best and highest among them — who are 
 intense admirers of the social and polit- 
 ical life and institutions of Great Britain 
 and America is greater than the German 
 Anglophobes are willing to admit. And 
 I am confident, that, though everybody 
 will willingly concede to Germany its high 
 place in the sphere of intellectual educa- 
 
 24
 
 and The World's Peace 
 
 tion as fostered by its excellent schools 
 and universities, the Germans themselves 
 whose opinions count will recognise the 
 superior political education and the social 
 element which is its outcome as they are to 
 be found in Great Britain and the United 
 States. The necessary logical conclusion 
 to such an admission is : that it is better 
 for the world at large that the politically 
 superior nation should expand its political 
 influence, even though the politically in- 
 ferior nation be possessed of superior scien- 
 tific attainment. For the first steps in 
 civilisation are necessarily political. 
 
 I shall never forget one of the most 
 impressive and touching — I was almost 
 about to say tragic — conversations I have 
 ever had. It was with a great statesman, 
 now dead, the leader of the political life 
 of one of the smaller states of Europe, 
 who, in the opinion of many eminent 
 diplomats of various nations, would have 
 
 25
 
 The Expansion of Western Ideals 
 
 found his fittest, and probably most suc- 
 cessful, sphere of activity in one of the 
 great states. Our conversation on patri- 
 otism, which we discussed from every 
 conceivable point of view, had lasted for 
 some hours during which his face beamed 
 with intellectual vigor and the strength 
 of his concentrated and controlled will, 
 while he maintained all his points with 
 incisive eloquence. He seemed to have 
 exhausted all that could be said on his 
 side, and then paused. I did not inter- 
 rupt his silence and watched him as he 
 sat in thoughtful concentration, blind to 
 the outer world, and merely following 
 the sequence of images that were passing 
 before his inner eye. I noted how grad- 
 ually the expression of youthful energy 
 and alertness faded from his face; the 
 eye grew duller as the lids, briskly raised 
 before, wearily descended over the orbs; 
 the features seemed to grow more heavy, 
 
 26
 
 and The World's Peace 
 
 the furrows and wrinkles more accentu- 
 ated, all the lines were drawn downwards; 
 the head sank further forward on the 
 breast ; the arms hung relaxed, and the 
 tall body seemed shrunk into itself. 
 
 After this long pause he slowly and 
 wearily turned his head towards me, and, 
 with an expression and a voice in which 
 deep sorrow and affectionate kindness 
 were mingled, he said: "You are fortu- 
 nate, inexpressibly fortunate, my young 
 friend. For you have never felt the soul- 
 deadening doubt which so often assails 
 me and clips the wings of my imagination 
 as it soars up like a dove in the morning 
 sun, carrying with it the great message 
 of my life, the love of my own country. 
 You have never felt the doubt which has 
 so often assailed me and which comes 
 over me now : Whether it is ultimately 
 right and good that my country should 
 live and grow, — nay, that it should exist, 
 
 27
 
 The Expansion of Western Ideals 
 
 as a country at all? Whether there are 
 sufficient grounds, sufficient in view of 
 what is ultimately to be in the rightness 
 of things, for the solidarity and separate- 
 ness of these people grouped together by 
 tradition and language? Whether these 
 traditions are likely to survive, and 
 whether they are worthy of survival? 
 Whether even this language, which I love 
 and do all to foster and improve in its 
 ancient purity, can ever develop effec- 
 tively, and ought to be maintained for any 
 reason beyond mere literary and philolo- 
 gical convenience? Whether, in short, 
 it would not be best to cast down the 
 barriers that separate us from you, and 
 whether, do what we will, our best acts 
 do not merely tend to bring us nearer to 
 you and to accelerate our ultimate absorp- 
 tion within the sphere of spiritual influ- 
 ence emanating from you ? I ask myself 
 whether my life, in so far as I am directly 
 
 28
 
 and The World's Peace 
 
 'patriotic,' has not been wasted; whether 
 I am not wasting it now ; and whether it 
 is not all a delusion ? You are fortunate, 
 my friend, for you need never have these 
 doubts which bring sadness to the very 
 core of man's heart; for you belong to 
 the great nations which manifestly, ad- 
 mittedly, beyond all doubt, represent the 
 best that man has thought out and acted 
 out up to this day. You can frankly be 
 a ' patriot ' at all times and in every 
 mood. For you can remain confident that 
 when you advance the interests of your 
 own country you are ultimately in har- 
 mony with the world's great good, you are 
 advancing the highest ideas which nations 
 have yet attained politically." 
 
 I quote these words because they ex- 
 press fully what the unbiassed thought 
 of foreign nations must concede to us. 
 
 Now if we ask the same question in 
 Great Britain or the United States, though 
 
 29
 
 The Expansion of Western Ideals 
 
 many of us admire many institutions, cus- 
 toms, intellectual habits and attainments 
 characteristic of other nations, and should 
 like to see these replace our own, we 
 should find it difficult to meet with any 
 responsible person who would seriously 
 and deliberately like to see our own social 
 and political institutions replaced by 
 those of any other nation. We do occa- 
 sionally meet with impatient outbursts 
 against the very core of our political life, 
 namely, representative or parliamentary 
 government ; especially when some defi- 
 nite abuses in individual cases, and the 
 slow and cumbersome procedure in view 
 of practical issues, have aroused such a 
 burst of impatient indignation. But 
 these are never the expression of deliber- 
 ate opinion as regards the ultimate tenets 
 of representative government. I have 
 even occasionally come across positive 
 admiration of the results of autocratic 
 
 30
 
 and The World's Peace 
 
 government and a momentary desire to 
 see it applied to our own difficulties. 
 
 We have all of us occasionally longed 
 for the " intelligent autocrat ; " but I 
 doubt whether any one in his senses 
 would have been satisfied with an unin- 
 telligent tyrant. Such a desire, moreover, 
 meant that this ruler should be placed 
 over people who have themselves been 
 for many generations trained in self- 
 government under advanced conditions 
 of life and order in the communities — 
 the outcome of our political institutions. 
 This momentary revulsion against parlia- 
 mentary forms of government among our 
 Western nations has generally been ex- 
 pressed by those who have definite prac- 
 tical and administrative ends in view, 
 which, for the nonce, they see retarded 
 by the cumbersome and sometimes cor- 
 rui)t machinery oi representative govern- 
 ment. They arc the administrators or 
 
 31
 
 The Expansion of Western Ideals 
 
 diplomats, those with whom it is natural 
 that the means of government should be 
 made the end, — dealing with questions of 
 internal administration or foreign con- 
 quest which are so readily solved and an- 
 swered in the simpler and ruder forms of 
 autocratic government. They ignore, under 
 the pressure of the immediate task before 
 them, the ultimate goal at which their 
 government aims, namely, the spread of 
 individual liberty, the education of the 
 people in all the ideas which stand for 
 the highest civilisation. Yet it is be- 
 cause we were more likely to fulfil these 
 great tasks which are ultimately condu- 
 cive to security of life and to freedom 
 of action, and thus to the happiness of 
 those governed, that the intelligent for- 
 eigner prefers our institutions — because 
 Great Britain and the United States rep- 
 resent these ideas. 
 
 If the English-speaking people are thus 
 32
 
 and The World's Peace 
 
 the representatives of the highest civili- 
 sation and are reaping its blessings, it is 
 their duty, as well as their privilege, to 
 hand on the torch which has thus been 
 placed in their hands by their ancestors, 
 even into districts where at present total 
 darkness reigns supreme. 
 
 These views are more or less con- 
 sciously held throughout the whole of 
 Greater Britain; and though there be 
 a small party of Little-Englanders, this 
 party is a "negligible quantity." I have 
 no doubt that they are also the views 
 held by the majority of citizens in the 
 United States, whose numbers will become 
 still greater the more Americans realise 
 the state of the world's politics and the 
 position they are bound to take in it, as 
 well as the duties which their prominent 
 position in the world's affairs imposes 
 upon them. But my present stay in the 
 United States has shown me that there 
 3 23
 
 The Expansion of Western Ideals 
 
 is a not inconsiderable portion of the 
 American people who are opposed to what 
 is called Expansion; and these are far 
 from being recruited from the least in- 
 telligent and high-minded citizens — in 
 fact they are made up, to a considerable 
 extent, of men actuated by the highest 
 motives and representing, as they hon- 
 estly believe, the truest and noblest tradi- 
 tions of American liberty. Their chief 
 objection to Expansion, as we shall see, 
 is that we are losing sight of our ideals 
 in following its allurements. Yet I main- 
 tain emphatically, and I hope to succeed 
 in showing, that the best Expansionists 
 and the best Anti-Expansionists are both 
 ultimately guided by ideals; only that 
 the Expansionist's ideals are wider than 
 those of the Anti-Expansionist and, being 
 greater, include them. 
 
 In considering the objections raised 
 against Expansion in the United States 
 
 34
 
 and The World's Peace 
 
 we discover three main grounds upon 
 which the objectors stand : the first is 
 distinctly and exclusively that of their 
 native soil; the second is that of their 
 supposed traditional American ideals; 
 and the third, more negative and modest, 
 is that of present unfitness for the wider 
 task. 
 
 It would not be fair to maintain that 
 the bulk of American Anti-Expansionists 
 hold this first ground : it is purely sel- 
 fish, narrow, "back-yard." "We are well 
 enough off at home, why trouble about 
 things outside ? " It is readily understood 
 how every thoughtful and far-sighted citi- 
 zen, not to speak of statesmen, must real- 
 ise, that if the United States is sufTicient 
 unto itself, materially and morally, at the 
 present day and for some years to come, 
 the enormous growth of industry, the in- 
 crease of population, the intensifying of 
 international relations, economically and 
 
 35
 
 The Expansion of Western Ideals 
 
 morally, make such an isolation in the 
 future, not only disastrous, but absurd. 
 A Chinese wall round a community living 
 under the highest conditions of modern 
 civilisation does not only debar it from 
 the introduction of advantages offered by 
 other nations, but may also lead to the dis- 
 agreeable surprise of finding closed doors 
 when it is found advantageous to issue 
 out of the Chinese wall. And it is not 
 reasonable to expect that he who has con- 
 sistently sat at home within his four walls, 
 while others have been paving streets and 
 forcing doors, should at some late period, 
 when it happens to suit him, find these 
 streets ready for his pleasant perambu- 
 lations and the doors complacently held 
 open for his easy entrance. This whole 
 view seems to me so fatuous and puerile, 
 that I cannot conceive of its being held 
 by thoughtful people. Meanwhile, it is 
 necessary to point out that this material- 
 
 36
 
 and The World's Peace 
 
 istic ground of objection is in fundamental 
 contradiction to tliat of the idealistic 
 Anti-Expansionist ; and that nobody can 
 consistently and sincerely urge the two 
 grounds together or a coalition between 
 those actuated by either of these two 
 motives. You cannot conceivably find 
 any element of the Ideal (American, or 
 otherwise), in the purely selfish view 
 which maintains that you need not ex- 
 pand because you are happy enough at 
 home. 
 
 I hope I am not wilfully caricaturing 
 the views of those serious and noble Anti- 
 Expansionists in America, among whom 
 are some of my most honoured friends, if 
 I maintain that there is, nevertheless, 
 some link, some half-conscious analogy of 
 reasoning, between their views and those 
 of the " back-yard " Anti-Expansionists. 
 They seem to hold, that one of the spe- 
 cific elements in the American ideal 
 
 37
 
 The Expansion of Western Ideals 
 
 is this separateness and aloofness from 
 the great current of international affairs 
 throughout the civilised and uncivilised 
 world. As if the framers of the " Con- 
 stitution," and those who formulated the 
 "Monroe Doctrine," had forever debarred 
 the United States from its share in fash- 
 ioning the world's destiny — or, rather, 
 as if they had granted them in perpetuity 
 immunity from the heavy burden of tasks 
 which the noblesse oblige of civilisation 
 puts upon those who enjoy its privileges. 
 "The Russian, the Italian, the French, 
 the Dutch, the Belgian, the German, and 
 the British may all carry the fruits of 
 their civilisation into distant parts. We 
 have no such task before us. Our ideal 
 is to stay at home ! " If the " back-yard " 
 Anti-Expansionist is materially selfish, 
 one who argues thus is morally selfish. 
 
 He must, moreover, realise that in this 
 diffusion of influence there is practically 
 
 38
 
 and The World's Peace 
 
 but one alternative to choose, namely, the 
 system of colonisation followed by the 
 Continental nations of Europe, most 
 prominently represented by Russia, as 
 contrasted with the system followed by the 
 English-speaking peoples, hitherto repre- 
 sented by Great Britain. As Mr. Kidd 
 has put it : ^ " More clearly than in either 
 England or America, is it perceived [on 
 the European Continent] that, as the re- 
 sult of existing developments, the world 
 outside of Europe tends in the future to 
 be controlled in the main by only two 
 sets of forces, those which proceed from 
 the peoples who speak English, and those 
 which proceed from the peoples who speak 
 Russian." When now he realises that, 
 of the two, the English-speaking system, 
 as well as the institutions and ideas en- 
 forced by it, is the higher and better, and 
 
 1 The Control of the Tropics, by Benjamin Kidd, 
 p. 27. 
 
 39
 
 The Expansion of Western Ideals 
 
 that his state is one of the most prominent 
 representatives of these institutions and 
 ideas, he cannot possibly leave the task 
 of the expansion of these ideas to the 
 British section of the English-Speaking 
 Brotherhood and self-complacently remain 
 at home. 
 
 History, however, is too much for these 
 doctrinaires. The unstemmable tide of 
 great events has proved kinder to the 
 United States, in view of its honorable 
 plaoe in the future history of mankind, 
 than the most well-meant advice of many 
 of its teachers. We are in the midst of 
 what may be the most thrilling moment 
 of the world's history in our own century 
 and perhaps of many centuries that have 
 preceded ours. The Heracles Soter stands 
 at the crossways; and it is of supreme 
 importance which direction the wielder 
 of great strength will take. Now, a new 
 direction has been given to the drift of 
 
 40
 
 and The World's Peace 
 
 international affairs within the last two 
 years, and this essential modification in 
 the current of the world's politics is 
 caused by the advent of the United 
 States of America among the powers 
 which fashion the destiny of nations. In 
 spite of the extent of its territory and 
 population, in spite of its great wealth 
 and the intellectual vitality of its people, 
 creating and solving so many problems of 
 internal national life, the United States, 
 up to our own days, was considered a 
 " negligible quantity " by the European 
 diplomat in all that concerned the vaster 
 issues of international policy. It might 
 have been used as a blind factor, as a 
 pawn in the great game, but never as an 
 active and determining agent. 
 
 All this has been changed within the 
 last few years. I am not referring solely 
 to the Spanish-American war and its im- 
 mediate results, still less to the mode 
 
 41
 
 The Expansion of Western Ideals 
 
 and methods of its beginning. It is to 
 the results of conditions preceding, and 
 incidental to, this war that I attach this 
 supreme importance of the United States 
 as a determining factor in the world's 
 politics. To understand this we must go 
 further afield into the study of recent 
 European politics; and we shall then 
 understand what part the United States 
 played and what part she is likely to play 
 in the future. 
 
 Whether Mr. Stillman^ be right or not, 
 the attitude of the United States towards 
 Great Britain, as displayed for many 
 years past, not only enabled Continental 
 diplomacy to ignore any check to its anti- 
 English policy which might come from 
 that quarter, but even to count upon this 
 very opposition as a means of neutralis- 
 ing any vigorous action, offensive or de- 
 
 1 See his letter on " Germany and the Armenians " 
 in the "Evening Post" of New York, of May 20, 1899. 
 
 42
 
 and The World's Peace 
 
 fensive, on the part of England. To any 
 doubts as to whether this state of un- 
 friendliness — if not animosity — was not 
 accidental and passing, an answer was 
 given which has some foundation in the 
 experience of social psychologists. It 
 was said : " Oh, there is no greater rivalry 
 and antagonism than that of cousins ; 
 family quarrels are the last to be adjusted ; 
 physical and moral proximity, besides 
 constantly creating conditions fostering 
 irritation and the loss of temper, make 
 the differences, even the slight ones, stand 
 out the more strongly, because of the 
 same plane of comparison, which is quite 
 absent where people are remote from each 
 other in every sense, and the differences 
 are so fundamental as to give full sway 
 to the sympathetic faculty." Historical 
 facts have constantly borne this out. It 
 was, is, and — in spite of all recent 
 changes — will be, upon this factor that 
 
 43
 
 The Expansion of Western Ideals 
 
 Continental diplomacy is likely to count. 
 Is it merely a coincidence, a mere mat- 
 ter of chance, that the petty Venezuelan 
 question should have twice turned up so 
 opportunely to enable the enemies of 
 England (surely, in this case, also of 
 humanity) to checkmate that country in 
 its endeavours to solve the Armenian 
 question? According to Mr. Stillman, 
 England had the support of Italy, and the 
 consent of Germany and Austro-Hungary, 
 in its plans to help the Armenians in 
 1887; and it was the Venezuelan question 
 which then occurred to distract the atten- 
 tion of England and to occupy her hands, 
 so that she had to desist from her noble 
 task. Again in 1896, when the English 
 government had practically pledged itself 
 to put a stop to Armenian oppression, 
 and was, at the same time, entangled in 
 one of the most difficult crises of its for- 
 eign history (the South African imbroglio 
 
 44
 
 and The World's Peace 
 
 almost threatening a great war, difficul- 
 ties in Egypt, warnings in India) — at a 
 moment when the American nation ought 
 to have joined her to give security of life 
 to the Armenians, and the majority of 
 the American people were actuated by 
 the same unselfish enthusiasm in the 
 cause of humanity and civilisation — it was 
 at this moment that the " Cleveland Mes- 
 sage " came, and the American jingoes 
 brought war with Great Britain within 
 sight. If this was a mere coincidence, then 
 such a conflux of conditions favourable 
 to the policy of Russia has never before 
 occurred. It is not to be wondered at 
 that some people in England and on the 
 Continent, who are prepared to attribute 
 any methods to a country which has no 
 account to give of its foreign action to 
 Parliament or to the public, should have 
 suspected that the action of the United 
 States was more or less directly brought 
 
 45
 
 The Expansion of Western Ideals 
 
 about by Russia. At all events that 
 " Message " led the Continental diplomat 
 to realise that even war was not impossi- 
 ble between Great Britain and the United 
 States, and that a good understanding, 
 or anything like common action between 
 them, was far removed on the distant 
 horizon-line of the Barely-Possible. I 
 remember discussing the European situa- 
 tion with a German diplomat more than 
 two years ago, and when I said, that the 
 whole character of civilised politics would 
 be changed when once the United States 
 entered the arena and came to a closer 
 understanding with Great Britain, he 
 answered : " No fear of that ! " and a know- 
 ing smile was on his face, "the 'Rhein- 
 gold ' is appearing in the Northwest of 
 the American continent; and that will 
 keep them asunder effectually, if nothing 
 else will." Let us sincerely hope that he 
 did not speak truth. 
 
 46
 
 and The World's Peace 
 
 But the whole face of the diplomatic 
 world has been changed since 1896. The 
 past two years have marked the great 
 crisis in the world's history, the turning 
 point in international politics. This is 
 due to the advent of the United States 
 and of American ideas as factors in Euro- 
 pean diplomacy. Negatively, this great 
 step was prepared for by a comparatively 
 smaller event, the Graeco-Turkish war. 
 
 I cannot, nor need I, enter here into 
 all the intricacies of the Cretan question 
 which led to the Graeco-Turkish war of 
 1897. Suffice it to say, that the Cretan 
 troubles existed for many years before 
 they led to that war; that by many diplo- 
 mats Crete was for many years looked 
 upon as the touch-hole to the Eastern 
 question, at which any great conflagration 
 in the Near East might easily be set 
 ablaze, if such a conflagration proved con- 
 venient and desirable at that moment to 
 
 47
 
 The Expansion of Western Ideals 
 
 the powers that directed European affairs. 
 Moreover, we have reason to know that 
 the pretensions, and even the revolu- 
 tionary agitations of the Cretans, were far 
 from being discouraged by the Russians 
 up to that moment. At no time were the 
 Cretans, and their Greek kinsmen with 
 them, more justified in claiming the sup- 
 port of the Powers that had directly or 
 indirectly encouraged them in putting for- 
 ward their just demands than in 1897. 
 The prompt action of the Greek govern- 
 ment in the Vassos expedition ought to 
 have made the intervention of the Euro- 
 pean Powers all the easier, as it also 
 intensified the sympathies of the Euro- 
 pean peoples. At all events it made it 
 impossible for the Greek monarchy to 
 recall Vassos and to maintain itself in 
 the country. It was then that the Euro- 
 pean Concert, headed by Russia, ordered 
 the Greeks to withdraw Vassos, and showed 
 
 48
 
 and The World's Peace 
 
 a decided antagonism to the whole Hel- 
 lenic movement, thus bringing about the 
 Graeco-Turkish war. England was dis- 
 tinctly favourable, if not to the granting 
 of all the requests made by the Greek 
 government, at all events to a course 
 which would have facilitated the partial 
 retreat of the Greeks under conditions 
 most favourable to the stability of the 
 monarchy and to the gradual remedy of 
 Cretan evils. But the European Concert 
 opposed the action of England in this 
 respect, and the most curious irony in 
 the eccentric course of diplomatic history 
 was then illustrated. Russia, who had 
 hitherto found her ready, obliging, and 
 most helpful ally in France, in the Dual 
 Alliance, which for some years had suc- 
 cessfully wrestled with the Triple Alli- 
 ance on the one side, and England on the 
 other — Russia found as complaisant, nay, 
 a more energetic, agent of its policy in 
 4 49
 
 The Expansion of Western Ideals 
 
 Germany (Austro-Hungary following in 
 the wake) than it had before found 
 in France. And, more singularly ironi- 
 cal still, France, whose national sym- 
 pathies were all with the Greeks, found 
 herself joining hands with Germany in 
 obsequiously doing the will of Russian 
 diplomacy. The result was that not only 
 was Greece left to its fate, but the whole 
 moral — nay, even more than moral — sup- 
 port of Europe was thrown into the scales 
 in favour of Turkey. And when Greece 
 was beaten, was thus " set back " in its 
 national aspirations, and had been taught 
 its lesson of humility, the privileges 
 begged and fought for by the Cretans 
 were granted, and were wrested from the 
 Turk, who had meanwhile been victorious 
 and was supposed to have gained a new 
 lease of life. These privileges were, 
 moreover, graciously granted to the Cre- 
 tans and to the defeated Greeks at the 
 
 50
 
 and The World's Peace 
 
 manifest initiative of the Russians. What 
 may have appeared puzzling, if not in- 
 explicable, to the uninitiated, is the un- 
 friendly and relentless attitude of Russia 
 towards Cretans and Greeks before their 
 defeat, when the Cretan question (to a 
 great extent made what it had become by 
 Russia in the preceding years) came to a 
 climax. This is not the place to enter 
 fully into this question. But it will be 
 enough to suggest to the intelligent and 
 thoughtful, that, in view of the geograph- 
 ical and ethnological conditions of the 
 Eastern Mediterranean shores (the Greek 
 population predominating, from Thessaly 
 round through Constantinople, down the 
 whole coast of Asia Minor, not to men- 
 tion the islands), the national aspirations 
 of the Hellenic people had grown too 
 rapidly and too strongly within the last 
 few years, when considered in their rela- 
 tion to the interests of the Slav nations 
 
 51
 
 The Expansion of Western Ideals 
 
 in the southeast of Europe, These 
 national aspirations had found a manifest, 
 though quite peaceful, expression in the 
 Olympic games celebrated at Athens in 
 1896, and, still more powerfully, in the 
 secret National Greek Society which 
 played so sad a part during the Greek 
 catastrophe in 1897. It appeared high 
 time that Hellenic aspirations should be 
 repressed and not allowed to prove too 
 dangerous a rival to the Slav predomi- 
 nance of the future. 
 
 I venture to maintain now, in the light 
 of what has happened since, what I be- 
 lieved and urged, so far as I was able 
 to do so, before these events happened, 
 that it would have been possible for the 
 British government — without in any way 
 falling a victim to the bugbear of a 
 great European war — to have settled the 
 Cretan question fully as well, if not bet- 
 ter, than it has been settled now, without 
 
 52
 
 and The World's Peace 
 
 allowing the Greek war to have taken 
 place at all, and without the severe dis- 
 asters that have befallen the Greek mon- 
 archy and impaired the outer prestige and 
 the inner self-respect of the Greek nation. 
 It is, however, important to consider 
 the further results of these events upon 
 the position of England in the European 
 world during the six months following 
 the Greek defeat. Russia, with Germany 
 as well as France to back her, stood 
 supreme as the leader, if not the dicta- 
 tor, of the world's affairs, England, 
 completely isolated, had absolutely lost 
 her prestige in the Near East (through 
 her failure in the Armenian and Greek 
 affairs), and was in imminent danger of 
 losing it in the Far East as well. In the 
 West it had but shortly before been on 
 the verge of war with its kinsfolk of the 
 United States, and the cause of discon- 
 tent was far from being removed. In 
 
 53
 
 The Expansion of Western Ideals 
 
 South Africa it had to adjust a compli- 
 cated and humiliating imbroglio, and, 
 meanwhile, stormy clouds appeared on 
 the northern boundary of its Indian em- 
 pire, where the Russian antagonist lies 
 ever watchful, in the serious Afridi 
 rising. 
 
 Never was the position of Russia 
 stronger, and that of England weaker. 
 This, therefore, was the moment for the 
 colonial expansion of the Continental 
 Powers, as opposed to that of Great 
 Britain. It looked like the easy victory 
 of the old Continental system of foreign 
 possession and of "closed doors," over 
 the English-speaking system of colonisa- 
 tion with "the open door." 
 
 This was indeed a most dramatic mo- 
 ment in the world's history. And it was 
 then that the United States entered the 
 arena and for the time being saved the 
 situation. I say entered, but I ought 
 
 54
 
 and The World's Peace 
 
 rather to say was pushed or sucked in by 
 the force of circumstance, and perhaps by 
 the over-hasty diplomacy of Russia. As 
 a matter of fact they had over-reached 
 themselves. The rapid succession of 
 diplomatic victories which had flowed in 
 with an ease and readiness that must have 
 appeared like a chapter in the "Arabian 
 Nights" to the Russian Foreign Office; 
 the good fortune, the good cheer, coming 
 alike to the pampered appetite of Russia 
 glutted with empire, and to its allies, 
 starving for foreign possessions, seemed 
 to go to their heads and to produce a 
 hasty, manifest voraciousness, which at 
 last startled even those who had a good 
 store of provisions for the present, but 
 began to feel apprehensive about their 
 sustenance in the future. If not Russia, 
 then, at least, her helpmate in the over- 
 throw of the poor Greek, Germany, re- 
 vealed these signs of aggressive expansion 
 
 55
 
 The Expansion of Western Ideals 
 
 with an energy and haste which has char- 
 acterised its action of late years. The 
 partition of China among the Continental 
 Powers began ; the main point being to 
 diminish, so far as possible, the influence 
 of England there as well as in Africa — 
 in fact, over the whole world. But the 
 very violence and haste of this action 
 began to arouse the people of the United 
 States to the consciousness that they too 
 had paramount interests in the F'ar East ; 
 that, considering their Pacific coast, they 
 had vital interests at stake in China with 
 which an intimate commercial relation 
 exists, and must necessarily grow in the 
 future. And the far-sighted among the 
 American people, who know and are 
 familiar with history in the past and can 
 apply its teachings to the future, realised 
 that they owed it to the future genera- 
 tions of their countrymen, if not to them- 
 selves, that the United States should not 
 
 56
 
 and The World's Peace 
 
 be shut out of the world's commerce in 
 future years — an event which the action 
 of the Continental Powers made only too 
 probable. And from this just apprehen- 
 sion they turned to realise positively that 
 the system of expansion of Great Britain 
 with the "open door," was the one which 
 conformed completely to their present 
 and future interests — that, in short, there 
 were two clearly defined systems opposed 
 to one another, the one that of the 
 English-speaking peoples, to which the 
 United States belongs, the other that 
 followed at present by the Continental 
 European Powers headed by Russia. 
 
 I need not enlarge upon this fact in 
 view of the admirable exposition which it 
 has received at the hands of Mr. Benjamin 
 Kidd. ^ But, while naturally accentuating 
 in his book the question of commercial 
 
 ^ " The Control of the Tropics," by Benjamin Kidd, 
 New York, 1898. 
 
 57
 
 The Expansion of Western Ideals 
 
 and material interests as represented in 
 the two systems, I am glad to find that 
 he has done justice also to the political, 
 social, and ethical aspects involved in the 
 adoption of the English-speaking or Rus- 
 sian system. He has shown how the one 
 responds to the fundamental spirit of the 
 self-governing peoples in considering the 
 ultimate good of those who are thus to 
 come under the rule of expanded empire; 
 while the other system primarily and 
 essentially considers these "colonies "as 
 possessions which are to be exploited for 
 the good of the expanding country. To 
 him the acquisition of such territory and 
 power is primarily to be conceived as a 
 " trust for civilisation " with the full sense 
 of the responsibility which such a trust 
 involves.^ 
 
 In the crisis brought about by the 
 aggressive Continental Powers in China, 
 
 1 Page 53. 
 
 58
 
 and The World's Peace 
 
 the people of the United States further 
 realised that, beyond the community of 
 material interests, they had, in common 
 with Great Britain, the spirit which 
 would modify the expansion of their in- 
 terests in contradistinction to that inher- 
 ent in the methods followed by the other 
 nations. 
 
 And then, at last, with renewed force, 
 which seemed to have gained additional 
 strength from the long delay and the wil- 
 ful oblivion of its existence, they realised 
 their kinship in national, more even than 
 in racial, character, the political, social, 
 and moral kinship which binds them to- 
 gether. Then came the war with Spain, 
 and by the action of Great Britain in con- 
 trast to that of the Continental Powers, 
 all these ties which make for union were 
 manifested by deeds, as before by feelings 
 and their expression. We must leave 
 it to the future to make clear to the 
 
 59
 
 The Expansion of Western Ideals 
 
 American people to what extent, and how 
 effectually, this national kinship was 
 manifested by Great Britain during the 
 Spanish War. It would, however, be 
 vain for those whose interest it is to op- 
 pose the closer affiliation between these 
 two great peoples, to point to the acci- 
 dental community of material interests 
 on the part of England and the United 
 States in order to account for the warm 
 feeling of kinship which has grown up 
 between them within these days. The 
 fact remains that such feelings could not 
 exist between them if they were not based 
 upon, and did not arise out of, the kin- 
 ship of political, social, and moral views, 
 the fundamental identity of character, as 
 well as the community of ideals. 
 
 The Spanish War thus brought to an 
 intense, if not passionate, climax, by a 
 final appeal to sentiment, the recognition 
 of a community of interests between the 
 
 60
 
 and The World's Peace 
 
 United States and Great Britain, which 
 the action of Continental Europe in 
 China awakened. The united aggression 
 of these powers against England, which 
 at that moment appeared isolated and 
 helpless in the face of these combined 
 forces, had already appealed to the na- 
 tional sentiment of the American people, 
 who, in spite of Venezuelan and Behring 
 Sea complications, would have been un- 
 willing to stand aside and look on while 
 the British Empire, and all it means to 
 civilisation, was dismembered and over- 
 thrown, or even weakened in its influence 
 upon the affairs of the world. The sen- 
 timent of the British people would not 
 have, for a moment, brooked the interfer- 
 ence of the combined Continental Powers 
 to check the advance of American arms, 
 which were taken up in Cuba (whatever 
 the nefarious spirit of "yellow" journal- 
 ism may have done, however bungling the 
 
 6i
 
 The Expansion of Western Ideals 
 
 diplomacy which preceded the outbreak) 
 — which were taken up by the people in 
 a sincere wish to further the cause of 
 humanity. 
 
 At the same time the United States 
 demonstrated to the world its great mili- 
 tary and naval capacity, especially when 
 it has time to prepare, and when it has set 
 on foot an adequate military and naval 
 organisation. The quantity n^gligeahle at 
 once manifested itself to the European 
 diplomat as far from negligible. More- 
 over he began to see that "family quar- 
 rels " are often "made up," especially 
 when outer enemies become manifest; 
 and that the united family then turns 
 upon the interfering neighbour. And 
 what happened then? The Czar's mani- 
 festo of universal disarmament was an- 
 nounced by the Russian Foreign Office. 
 
 Now, I do not for a moment mean to 
 imply that the Czar was not sincere in 
 
 62
 
 and The World's Peace 
 
 his humanitarian enthusiasm, and that he 
 did not also realise the great economical 
 and social problems calling for all the 
 energy the Russian government could ex- 
 pend for home use — in a country which 
 has greater need of its inner resources, 
 and perhaps is nearer bankruptcy than 
 the world at large realises. But we must 
 also remember that no government pos- 
 sesses a Foreign Office which carries on 
 its own tradition and its long-matured 
 plans of campaign without regard to any 
 other department or authority as does that 
 of the great Autocrat. All must make 
 room to this iron machine, moving on 
 relentlessly in spite of Czar and nation. 
 
 Well, is it again a mere coincidence 
 that the Czar should have been urged 
 to publish his manifesto to the world 
 through the Foreign Office just at this 
 moment ? That moment was marked by 
 the fact that a new English-speaking 
 
 63
 
 The Expansion of Western Ideals 
 
 Nation had entered the lists as a naval 
 and military Power and had distinctly 
 shown its intention of joining the other 
 side. 
 
 At the same time it was a curious and 
 fortunate coincidence that, just at that 
 moment, France had completed its part 
 in furthering Russian interests and was 
 becoming inconveniently exacting to see 
 some return of courtesy on its side. A 
 proclamation of universal disarmament 
 must be, in the eyes of a people whose 
 political life centred round the claim 
 of Revanche, and the readjustment of its 
 boundaries by the force of arms, a clear 
 hint that the contract is over, the alliance 
 ended. No more convenient means of 
 getting out of the disagreeable relation to 
 France could ever have presented itself 
 to Russia. Could there be any harm in 
 weakening the military parties in all 
 countries possessed of representative gov- 
 
 64
 
 and The World's Peace 
 
 eminent by strengthening the parties 
 opposing them and swelling their num- 
 bers? Might it not help the Peace 
 advocates even in the United States (be- 
 sides the Anti-Imperialists in England 
 and Germany) and ultimately produce 
 an Anti-Expansionist movement there? 
 Meanwhile the whole situation left noth- 
 ins: to be desired. Russia had staked out 
 all its "claims," all the districts it ever 
 hoped to hold, including the Hiiitcrlands ; 
 and all it need ask for from a Supreme 
 Court of Arbitration, should the Confer- 
 ence succeed, was a maintenance of the 
 Status Quo when such a court was once 
 formed. And the interval between the 
 Czar's manifesto and the meeting of the 
 Peace Conference — not to speak of any 
 authoritative body that might issue out of 
 its deliberations — was this employed by 
 Russia in preparing for its own disarma- 
 ment? On the contrary, it was spent in 
 5 6s
 
 The Expansion of Western Ideals 
 
 increasing the number of " claims " and, 
 in breathless haste, staking out as much 
 as possible. 
 
 Now let me revert to the development 
 of affairs and of national feeling in the 
 United States. The inevitable course of 
 events, which, for a time had raised the 
 American people aloft into the purer 
 region of ideas and ideals, and had, 
 through such tortuous channels, finally 
 led the stream of international feeling 
 flowing between the United States and 
 Great Britain into the broader current of 
 sentiment in which the kinship of ideas 
 and ideals was uppermost — the same 
 course of events again forced this current 
 back into the definite material channel of 
 colonial expansion. A new aspect of this 
 question was now forced upon the Ameri- 
 can people, new, not only because, after 
 the fortune of war had delivered into their 
 hands Spanish possessions which could 
 
 66
 
 and The World's Peace 
 
 not simply be left to themselves, the 
 responsibility of their good government 
 had fallen upon the United States; but 
 new in that the United States had now 
 realised the broader and more general 
 aspect of the whole question of colonisa- 
 tion and expansion in its international 
 relation. It has had forced upon it all 
 the experiences in the general develop- 
 ment of modern international politics 
 which I have just endeavoured to outline 
 in part. It must now face these ques- 
 tions with the full knowledge of all that 
 has been done in European politics as it 
 affects the question of colonial expansion; 
 and this must necessarily modify its own 
 individual attitude with regard to any 
 individual district or people with which 
 the Spanish War has forced it into imme- 
 diate relation. It is thus forced to choose 
 to which of the two systems, standing 
 directly opposed to each other, it is to 
 
 67
 
 The Expansion of Western Ideals 
 
 adhere, — whether it is to be the English- 
 speaking system of colonisation, or that 
 of the Continental European Powers 
 headed by Russia. This question has at 
 once come to a head in a most acute form 
 in the case of the Philippines. And it is 
 naturally here that the opposition of the 
 Anti-Expansionists in the United States 
 has arisen. 
 
 We have here reached the really crit- 
 ical point in the development of Anti- 
 Expansionism. Many who oppose the 
 policy of the present government might 
 say: "We agree in principle with your 
 ideals of Expansion as you have just put 
 them ; but we do not approve of the means 
 you apply for their realisation as seen in 
 our treatment of the Filipinos." And 
 having said this, by imperceptible phases 
 of fallacious reasoning, they will gradu- 
 ally move round the circle until they 
 will end, as the German phrase goes, " by 
 
 68
 
 and The World's Peace 
 
 pouring the child out with the bath 
 water," i.e., by violently opposing the 
 whole policy of Expansion, because they 
 disapprove of the government's action in 
 the Philippines. Still more powerful and 
 misleading are the arguments of those 
 who oppose Expansion on the ground that 
 it contradicts the fundamental traditions 
 and the fundamental ideals of the Ameri- 
 can people. "You must not," they say, 
 "buy the blessings you enumerate at the 
 cost of war; you must not even benefit 
 people against their will; you must not 
 impose your rule upon others at the sacri- 
 fice of the very idea you wish to expand, 
 namely, that of self-government." 
 
 Now I will not, though this would be 
 the most effective way of showing the 
 groundlessness of their arguments, call 
 upon them to state clearly and definitely, 
 with the possibility of its early practical 
 application, the line of conduct which 
 
 69
 
 The Expansion of Western Ideals 
 
 they would have the government follow 
 in each individual case presenting such 
 complicated difficulties in view of the far- 
 reaching intricacy of the problems before 
 us. Were it possible thus to compare 
 the two rival schemes of administration, I 
 believe the intelligent public would soon 
 recognise the amateurishness of the criti- 
 cism offered at this stage. 
 
 But I deny their right of appeal to 
 American tradition and American ideals. 
 Among the great deeds of the past which 
 come nearest to embodying American 
 ideals, two stand forth most clearly in the 
 world's history. These justify the high 
 place which the United States can ever 
 claim in fashioning the world's destiny 
 for good, — the one is the War of Inde- 
 pendence, the other is the Abolition 
 of Slavery. Yet both these ideas were 
 realised by means of war, — moreover, 
 fratricidal war, carried on with all the 
 
 70
 
 and The World's Peace 
 
 rieour and harshness of warfare. And in 
 both cases we were using force to confer 
 upon the people at large ultimate bless- 
 ings, which, at the time, a large number 
 of them were unwilling to recognise as 
 such, — the Tories in the War of Indepen- 
 dence, and the Secessionists in the Civil 
 War. And the initiators of these great 
 deeds were certainly imconstiUitio7ial in 
 the Revolutionary War, and possibly so 
 in the Civil War. At the present mo- 
 ment, moreover, the United States is at 
 war with the Filipino insurgents; it is 
 an accomplished fact; and it is disloyal 
 for any American citizen to counteract 
 the success of American arms, materially 
 or morally, while the recognised govern- 
 ment of the country has raised them 
 against an enemy at war. Should the 
 spirit of humanity which actuates these 
 protesters detect methods of warfare ap- 
 plied by his own country which are 
 
 71
 
 The Expansion of Western Ideals 
 
 opposed to the essential spirit of civilisa- 
 tion and humanity, to the national con- 
 science of this country, he is justified in 
 his protest — but in no other case. 
 
 Still more misleading is the appeal 
 which the Anti-Expansionist makes to the 
 fundamental principle of the American 
 Constitution, the principle of self-govern- 
 ment. There has been more nefarious 
 abuse of this term, and what it is sup- 
 posed to imply, than of any other I can 
 recall. The glorious proclamation of the 
 Declaration of Independence— " All men 
 are created equal " — does not mean, 
 that we give the right to govern to each 
 individual at his birth or for some years 
 after this important event in his personal 
 history. On the contrary, we take great 
 care to defer the period in which he is 
 to exercise his function of contributing 
 to the government of the country to an 
 advanced period in his life, when we 
 
 72
 
 and The World's Peace 
 
 have reason to believe that he will exer- 
 cise this function, not, at least, to the 
 detriment of his neighbours. Nor do we 
 admit the insane or the criminal to these 
 privileges of self-government. It is im- 
 portant for us to realise that, in princi- 
 ple as well as in practice, the United 
 States has always maintained essential 
 limitations to the general principle of 
 personal liberty and of self-government. 
 And it is important always to remember 
 that " self-government " really implies the 
 governing of our neighbour. One of the 
 chief tasks of our law-making bodies is 
 constantly to define, to restrict as well as 
 to safe-guard, the rights of the individual, 
 his personal liberty and his function of 
 self-government. Now, what applies to 
 the individual applies a fortiori to larger 
 recognisable bodies of individuals in the 
 form of communal bodies and states. 
 And as little as we remain content with 
 
 73
 
 The Expansion of Western Ideals 
 
 the past definitions of personal liberty in 
 common and criminal law, so little are we 
 justified in expecting to remain stationary 
 in our dependence upon the past in con- 
 stitutional law. 
 
 It is the natural and justifiable tendency 
 for the legal mind to be, not only gen- 
 erally conservative and to worship that 
 which is, but even to regard the dead 
 word rather than the living spirit, the 
 anatomy rather than the physiology of 
 human existence. I have before me a 
 very able essay dealing with the present 
 Philippine situation from the point of 
 view of constitutional history and law, by 
 one who is manifestly a master in these 
 departments of juridical science.^ Pro- 
 fessor Freund analyses the protectorates 
 of the past, from those of the ancient 
 Romans, through the Ionian Islands, the 
 
 1 " The Control of Dependencies through Protec- 
 torates," by Ernst Freund, Boston, 1899. 
 
 74
 
 and The World's Peace 
 
 States of the Balkan Peninsula, Egypt, 
 Tunis, Madagascar, Anam, Tonquin, the 
 native States of the Dutch Indies, the 
 native States of British India, and 
 the Samoan Islands. He then points out 
 forcibly the difficulties of fitting a new 
 colonial system into the legal conditions 
 of the present American Constitution. 
 But important and useful as the exposi- 
 tion of such difficult tasks is, the ques- 
 tion must be asked : " Whoever expected, 
 or had the right to expect, that these new 
 tasks would not be fraught with difficul- 
 ties.''" Have we a right to expect that 
 we shall be able at once to find the proper 
 constitutional status for new bodies called 
 into the world by such new conditions of 
 national life, and that supremely mark 
 the vitality of our national existence.'* 
 That we shall do this in one day, without 
 having to retract and to modify in the 
 future, sitting peacefully in our secluded 
 
 75
 
 The Expansion of Western Ideals 
 
 studies surrounded by our reference books 
 on constitutional law and history, — one 
 system, perfect and complete in itself, 
 which shall suit all cases? And can we 
 ask for this in face of the fact that the 
 British Colonial Department, after many 
 generations of colonial expansion and ex- 
 perience in the government of dependen- 
 cies, has to deal with the list of colonies 
 presenting, as regards the nature of their 
 government, a variety at once confusing, 
 and, at the same time, creditable to the 
 good sense of the British people and the 
 colonial administrators?^ — "At the head 
 of it come the great self-governing States 
 like Canada, Victoria, New South Wales, 
 South Australia, the Cape, Natal, New 
 Zealand, and others, all colonies in the 
 true sense of the word, off-shoots of Eng- 
 land in temperate regions of the world, 
 many of them engaged in the practical 
 
 1 Kidd, o. c. pp. 33, 34. 
 
 76
 
 and The World's Peace 
 
 solution of some of the most advanced 
 political and social problems which occupy 
 the attention of the modern world. If we 
 look further down the list, we have a 
 strange medley. Vast territories in trop- 
 ical lands, acquired at various dates in 
 the course of war and trade; countries 
 inhabited by different races and governed 
 under a variety of constitutions; regions 
 representing every type of administrative 
 problem — questions of war, of defence, 
 of finance, which raise the whole modern 
 policy of the Empire, questions of respon- 
 sibility to weaker races, of the relations 
 of the governing power to great systems 
 of native jurisprudence and religion, 
 which take us back to the very childhood 
 of the world, and in which the first prin- 
 ciple of successful policy is that we are 
 dealing, as it were, with children, are all 
 grouped together as 'colonies,' in com- 
 mon with those modern self-governing 
 
 77
 
 The Expansion of Western Ideals 
 
 States, the reproductions of England in 
 temperate regions." 
 
 Whether the Phili^Dpine Islands are now 
 to be called colonies, dependencies, pro- 
 tectorates, possessions, or suzerain States, 
 is immaterial. The future, as well as 
 the moral and political conscience of the 
 United States (and it is here that the 
 noble section of the Anti-Expansionists 
 will, in the future, be called upon to man- 
 ifest their ideals), will decide this ques- 
 tion. But at this juncture there are two 
 points that stand out clearly and that 
 must determine the present policy of 
 the government; and due regard for these 
 is to be had in the interest of the 
 Philippine people themselves, as well as 
 for the preservation of peaceful relations 
 of the United States to other powers, 
 and, consequently, in the interest of the 
 world's peace. The first is, that the 
 American possession of these territories 
 
 78
 
 and The World's Peace 
 
 be complete, and its rule unquestioned in 
 the eyes of the inhabitants, as well as of 
 the outer world; the second is, that no 
 rash promises be made as to what will be 
 done in the future. 
 
 Once granted the right, and the duty, 
 of the United States to expand its 
 influence into regions not yet possessed 
 of Western civilisation, the first steps in 
 carrying out this policy are so intricate 
 and complicated, and demand so much 
 intimate knowledge, wide as well as thor- 
 ough, of facts that are essentially techni- 
 cal, that the general public is most likely 
 to err at every stage when attempting to 
 deal with them, and must leave them to 
 the responsible heads of government 
 which it has chosen to solve these techni- 
 cal problems. Yet we can all of us 
 realise how disastrous would have been 
 the effect of granting absolute "self-gov- 
 ernment " to the population of the Philip- 
 
 79
 
 The Expansion of Western Ideals 
 
 pine Islands the moment they were freed 
 from the Spanish yoke, in view, not only, 
 of the complicated internal conditions of 
 that country, but also of our experience 
 by analogy in countries on the same 
 (some of them on a much higher) level 
 of political education. And the re- 
 cent history, while our occupation was 
 effected, and the present troubles in 
 Samoa, force us to appreciate to what 
 international complications a title of 
 possession that is not clear may lead. It 
 is important to remember the advice ^ 
 given by a German authority. Baron- von 
 Liittwitz, to Germany, "that the prevail- 
 ing conditions in China and the unstable 
 condition in many South American States 
 offered opportunities for German expan- 
 sion in these regions." But the danger 
 of a hesitating occupation of such coun- 
 tries is far from being restricted to the 
 
 ^ Quoted by Kidd, o. c. p. 47. 
 80
 
 and The World's Peace 
 
 attitude of Germany; it will apply, at 
 least potentially, to any other State. In 
 view of future danger from within and 
 without, it is not only wise, but also 
 charitable, to make the first stages of 
 occupation as clear and unequivocal 
 as possible. Let us remember what 
 would necessarily be the waste of blood 
 and treasure if, in the future, the 
 United States was forced constantly to 
 intervene between the belligerent fac- 
 tions within such a country, or to make 
 real the claims of its own inhabitants, 
 who, by the action of the Philippine 
 Legislature, were hampered and repressed 
 by laws dealing with them as Uitlanders. 
 The same applies to any promises which 
 any government might make for its future 
 action with regard to occupation or the 
 degree of self-government to be granted 
 in the future. England's experience in 
 Egypt ought to teach a great lesson. 
 6 8i
 
 The Expansion of Western Ideals 
 
 Such promises on the part of a statesman 
 are either insincere or foolish. For the 
 true statesman must know that the force 
 of circumstance and the altered condi- 
 tions demand new treatment, perhaps new 
 concessions; and that it is always easier 
 to grant more liberties than to retrench 
 existing ones. 
 
 When once the union of these countries 
 with the United States is made clear to 
 their inhabitants and the outer world 
 sees that they are beyond all doubt an 
 integral part of the United States, then 
 will be the time for those actuated by the 
 high ideals of the noble section of Anti- 
 Expansionists to raise their voice and to 
 maintain constantly an attitude of watch- 
 fulness and criticism, to give an upward 
 direction to the administration of these 
 countries. Yet even here it will be wise 
 for them to learn from the experience of 
 those who, for generations past, have been 
 
 82 
 
 «k
 
 and The World's Peace 
 
 struggling with the solution of similar 
 problems. I would recommend all inter- 
 ested in this subject to read what Mr. Kidd 
 says in commenting on the institution of 
 the English Indian Civil Service,^ and 
 will select a few passages here, which the 
 present Anti-Expansionist might bear in 
 mind for his future efforts. Speaking of 
 the responsibility of those who " colonise " 
 distant countries, he says : ^ "If he has 
 any right there at all, he is there in the 
 name of civilisation; if our civilisation 
 has any right there at all, it is because it 
 represents higher ideals of humanity, a 
 higher type of social order. This is the 
 lesson which, slowly and painfully, and 
 with many a temporary reversion to older 
 ideas, the British peoples have been 
 learning in India for the last fifty years, 
 and which has recently been applied in 
 other circumstances to the government of 
 1 rp. 53-60. 2 r. 54. 
 
 83
 
 The Expansion of Western Ideals 
 
 Egypt. Under a multitude of outward 
 aspects, the one principle which sepa- 
 rates the new era from the old in India, a 
 principle the influence of which has come 
 to extend even to the habits and dress of 
 the governing class, is the recognition of 
 the fact that the standards according to 
 which India must be governed have been 
 developed and are nourished elsewhere. 
 The one consistent idea which, through 
 all outward forms, has in late years been 
 behind the institution of the higher 
 Indian Civil Service on existing lines is 
 that, even where it is equally open to 
 natives with Europeans through competi- 
 tive examination, entrance to it shall be 
 made through an English University. In 
 other words, it is the best and most dis- 
 tinctive product which England can give, 
 the higher ideals and standards of her 
 Universities, which is made to feed the 
 inner life from which the British adminis- 
 
 84
 
 and The World's Peace 
 
 tration of India proceeds. " And further : ^ 
 " But in this, as in all other matters, the 
 one underlying principle of success in 
 any future relationship to the tropics is 
 to keep those who administer the gov- 
 ernment which represents our civilisation 
 in direct and intimate contact with the 
 standards of that civilisation at its best; 
 and to keep the acts of the government 
 itself within the closest range of that 
 influence, often irksome, sometimes even 
 misleading, but always absolutely vital, 
 — the continual scrutiny of the public 
 mind at home." Andfinally:^ "Apolicy 
 in such relations is a matter beyond the 
 control even of governments; it is ulti- 
 mately regulated only by the development 
 of a people, by standards which are the 
 slow growth of time. If the English- 
 speaking peoples do not mean to shirk 
 the grave responsibility which lies upon 
 1 P. 57. 2 p. 59. 
 
 85
 
 The Expansion of Western Ideals 
 
 them in this matter, they must act at once, 
 with clear purpose and with courage. 
 Neither the purpose nor the courage 
 should be wanting to those who possess 
 a conviction of the far-reaching impor- 
 tance in the future of the ideas and prin- 
 ciples for which these peoples now stand 
 in the world." 
 
 It is at this very point that the third 
 group of Anti-Expansionists come in, 
 those whose ground of opposition has all 
 the strength of modesty in its favour. 
 "Great Britain," they say, "may be pre- 
 pared to rule distant colonies, for that 
 people have set their house in order at 
 home, which we have not yet done. They 
 have a well-organised Civil Service, with 
 a firmly rooted tradition of integrity and 
 honour inherent in the very offices them- 
 selves, and thus they have been able to 
 devise an admirable Indian Civil Service 
 which we, at least for the present, cannot 
 
 86
 
 and The World's Peace 
 
 aspire to. We must learn to govern our- 
 selves honestly and effectually at home 
 before we think of extending our govern- 
 ment in distant lands. For, at present, 
 the addition of a long list of offices in 
 distant parts, removed from the watchful, 
 critical eye of those at home who are 
 earnestly exerting themselves to counter- 
 act corruption here, will only add to the 
 wealth of 'spoils' which the unscrupulous 
 party politician already possesses as a 
 means of corrupting the whole nation." 
 May not this Anti-Expansionist be put- 
 ting the cart before the horse? The 
 "spoils" system existed in England not 
 so very many years ago in its most cyni- 
 cal form, and British party politics were 
 as corrupt as they could well be. I main- 
 tain that the gratifying reforms which 
 have been introduced during the last two 
 generations were in great part due to the 
 reactive influence of colonial administra- 
 
 87
 
 The Expansion of Western Ideals 
 
 tion upon the Home government, until 
 they gradually formed new national tra- 
 ditions. Corruption, when circumscribed 
 and local, may shock with great intensity 
 the inhabitants dwelling within the imme- 
 diate limits where it is active, and may 
 lead to intense protests and indignation. 
 There may be, as in the case of Tammany 
 frauds, periodical risings of those repre- 
 senting the purer and higher public opin- 
 ion. But it is far from being a paradox 
 to say, that such inquiries into local cor- 
 ruption tend ultimately to debase rather 
 than to elevate the public conscience. 
 For radical and lasting reforms have not 
 yet been introduced, and the inability to 
 extirpate such vicious growths, root and 
 branch, is to be sought in the more re- 
 mote, yet fundamental, spirit of national 
 political life. And when a community 
 has ultimately to acquiesce in the reten- 
 tion of even a portion of the corrupting 
 
 88
 
 and The World's Peace 
 
 forces, the community, as such, becomes 
 party to the corruption itself. Public 
 spirit is thus ultimately robbed of the 
 keen edge of its conscience, its moral 
 substance becomes blunted, and lower 
 traditions become fixed and firmly estab- 
 lished. The newspapers all over the 
 country may find abundant " copy " in the 
 inquiry into local frauds of one city or 
 district, and the sensationalism inherent 
 in the trials may stimulate the curiosity 
 of the readers all over the Union; but 
 this form of reading matter soon makes 
 room for the newest sensation, and the 
 trouble really only concerns a definite 
 locality or department. 
 
 It will not be so with the maladminis- 
 tration of a protectorate or colony; this is 
 not a purely local or departmental affair. 
 Nay, the watchful criticism will not be 
 confined to the nation itself; but the 
 whole world, all other nations, those 
 
 89
 
 The Expansion of Western Ideals 
 
 inimical and covetous as well as those 
 friendly and sympathetic, will be ever 
 present to reveal hidden corruption and 
 to call for justice and redress for the 
 colonists protected or ruled. I venture 
 boldly to predict that in the future the 
 department which will lead the way, as 
 regards efficiency and integrity, in the 
 whole United States government, will be 
 the "Colonial" department/ 
 
 Moreover, the creation of such new 
 offices will, directly and indirectly, accel- 
 erate Civil Service Reform in the United 
 States. For, on the one hand, it will 
 demand, on the part of officials, qualifica- 
 tions of a technical and un-local character 
 which will necessarily raise the standards 
 
 1 Since this was in type I have had the privilege of 
 making the acquaintance of General Wood, and have 
 heard from him what he has done at Santiago and 
 intends to do in the future. I can only say that if the 
 United States can produce more men of this stamp, 
 there will be no fear for the " colonies," nor for the good 
 fame of the home government. 
 
 90
 
 and The World's Peace 
 
 for the applicants to such offices. And, 
 on the other hand, in itself, in its imme- 
 diate bearing upon the Department of 
 State, and, ultimately, upon the whole 
 administrative machinery of government, 
 it will, from the nature of the issues 
 raised, call upon the educated intelli- 
 gence of politicians and those aspiring 
 to political honours, and thus will make 
 it practically impossible for the ignorant 
 "ward-politician" to face the public at 
 all without making himself manifestly 
 ridiculous in the eyes of the whole public. 
 A timely appeal to the immediate inter- 
 ests of any class of audience which such 
 a politician may be addressing, in con- 
 nection with even the widest economical 
 or fiscal issue in national politics, may 
 always help him to hide his fundamental 
 ignorance and unscrupulousness. This 
 convenient loop-hole is not so likely to 
 present itself when American politics 
 
 91
 
 The Expansion of Western Ideals 
 
 have developed out of the infantile stage 
 of national provincialism. 
 
 Here we come to the more indirect, 
 though none the less important, influence 
 which expansion will have upon the polit- 
 ical and social education of the nation as 
 a whole; it will enforce a wider view of 
 politics upon the whole people. It has 
 often been pointed out that one positive 
 reason for the wide-spread political cor- 
 ruption among the American people, pos- 
 sessed as a nation of comparatively so 
 high a standard of social and commercial 
 morality, is to be found in the great and 
 growing prosperity of the country itself 
 and the all-absorbing attraction of its 
 active life outside of politics. The su- 
 preme abundance of opportunity, the 
 alluring and clamorous appeals to the ad- 
 vance of individual prosperity are within 
 the reach of all its f reeborn citizens ; and 
 thus no time and energy remain for direct 
 
 92
 
 and The World's Peace 
 
 participation in public affairs to those 
 best fitted to struggle in life's battle. 
 Tliis very wealth and prosperity within 
 the country, which thus absorb the best 
 men and draw their moral and intellectual 
 power away from politics, make the re- 
 sults of political maladministration, which 
 would be keenly and painfully felt in an 
 older and poorer country, less sensible to 
 the actual life of the American people. 
 But if these be truly the positive reasons, 
 the negative cause, it appears to me, lies 
 in the absence of wider political issues 
 which break through the narrow bounds 
 of local interests and produce more 
 attractive as well as elevating political 
 ideals. 
 
 With all its disasters and incidental 
 inhumanities, the Civil War aroused and 
 satisfied the higher cravings for wider 
 political ideals on the part of the nation. 
 The period succeeding this, down to our 
 
 93
 
 The Expansion of Western Ideals 
 
 own days, has been one of unprecedented 
 economical development and prosperity. 
 But the moral and ideal side of national 
 life has been starved, and these national 
 faculties are gradually approaching a 
 stage which pathologists designate by the 
 term atrophy. All questions have pre- 
 eminently had a topical, and, hence, a 
 personal character. Even the great ques- 
 tions of general economical and fiscal 
 policy, far-reaching in their effect upon 
 the world though they be, — the questions 
 of protection or free-trade, of gold or 
 silver currency, — can always, and will 
 always, be reduced to the personal, ** back- 
 yard " view. 
 
 All this has favoured a national tone 
 of cynical self-sufficiency which leads 
 the American not so much to feel pride 
 in his glorious freedom and independence, 
 as to assume an almost negative atti- 
 tude of mind towards the rest of the 
 
 94
 
 and The World's Peace 
 
 world, and to cultivate a growing emas- 
 culating habit of self-admiration. Now, 
 there is death from congestion and hyper- 
 aemia, following the inner concentration 
 of vital forces, as well as from attenua- 
 tion and anasmia, following the diffusion 
 and dispersion of such vitality. Whatever 
 may be said against the motives and 
 methods of "yellow" journalism and 
 those whose opinions it represented, the 
 spirit which moved those who called the 
 Americans to arms to better the conditions 
 of the oppressed Cubans gave a new lease 
 of life to the national morality of the 
 American people. 
 
 I verily believe that if the American 
 could have seen himself before, as in a 
 mirror, and realised what sort of a political 
 physiognomy he had in the international 
 world, he would have been astonished. 
 While meeting Americans in Europe I 
 have often heard the naive complaint, with 
 
 95
 
 The Expansion of Western Ideals 
 
 the suggestion of wounded vanity under- 
 neath, that the European newspapers did 
 not contain more news from the United 
 States. Beyond despatches concerning 
 presidential elections and wider ques- 
 tions bearing upon federal policy, with 
 commercial and financial news, there was 
 very little. But such a complainant did 
 not stop to ask himself, whether, in the 
 news he craved for, there were any events 
 or facts that concerned or affected, even 
 the whole people of the United States, 
 not to mention the other nations of the 
 civilised world .'' The complaint, and the 
 ideas which caused it to be made, ema- 
 nated from what, after all, we should in 
 sober judgment call provincialism, which 
 always implies an absence of the sense of 
 proportion. On the other hand, it appears 
 to me that the newspapers of the United 
 States have, in spite of growing facil- 
 ity in the means of rapid communication, 
 
 96
 
 and The World's Peace 
 
 reduced the proportion of impersonal 
 news (they have unfortunately used the 
 facility for communication to increase 
 the publication of matters of a personal 
 nature) — news bearing upon the inter- 
 national life of the civilised world. I 
 am not referring to foreign events which 
 have attained a sensational stage, such as 
 actual war; but to facts which, though 
 less satisfying to grosser curiosity, have 
 the most important bearings upon the 
 world's civilisation, — events, for instance, 
 in a small state like Bulgaria or Rou- 
 mania, or in a distant "colony" in Aus- 
 tralasia — an enormous and important 
 empire of the future with most vital bear- 
 ing upon the civilised life of the world. 
 I am often astonished to observe how even 
 the most educated, not to mention the 
 people at large, are ignorant of the most 
 rudimentary notions in these affairs. 
 A perusal of the leading English news- 
 7 97
 
 The Expansion of Western Ideals 
 
 papers, on the other hand, and a consid- 
 eration of the choice they make of the 
 abundant news from all over the world, a 
 choice not affected by the sensationalism 
 of events, but by the well-considered bear- 
 ing of events upon the wider issues of the 
 world's politics, illustrate the political 
 education of the people whom in turn they 
 tend to educate. Besides the "news," 
 they frequently contain exhaustive and 
 well-matured accounts of different coun- 
 tries, each filling several columns and 
 dealing with the social, political, and com- 
 mercial life and prospects of these distant 
 communities. These are generally writ- 
 ten by special correspondents sent out for 
 the purpose and well-qualified for the task, 
 or by scholarly and experienced travellers, 
 such as the present Viceroy of India, 
 whose studies we may often find the more 
 profitable from the fact that they are not 
 written by professional journalists. 
 
 98
 
 and The World's Peace 
 
 The English people as a whole thus 
 command a wider horizon for their poli- 
 tical interest and judgment. And this 
 training has come to them chiefly be- 
 cause they have expanded in the past 
 into an empire with distant and diversi- 
 fied interests and duties. Nay, even the 
 distant investment of capital and infusion 
 and diffusion of commerce, though they 
 arise in every individual case out of 
 purely selfish and personal motives of 
 gain, have this ultimate good for the 
 nation and for the world at large (and 
 this to many of us is their only justifica- 
 tion from a national and universal point 
 of view) — that they increase the knowl- 
 edge of distant countries, the interest in 
 them and the realisation of duties toward 
 them. They ultimately make clear to the 
 nation standing in such relation to the 
 distant colony that they hold this rela- 
 tion as a "Trust for Civilisation." 
 
 99
 
 The Expansion of Western Ideals 
 
 In the United States the first effect of 
 such a widened sphere of political activ- 
 ity and responsibility will be that it will 
 strike the death-knell to the rule of the 
 "ward-politician," which has hitherto 
 been the corner-stone and the key-stone 
 to the whole of national American poli- 
 tics. If the timid fear that the United 
 States is at present not prepared for such 
 high tasks and grave responsibilities, the 
 answer is : that it never will become so if 
 it remains under the bane of " back -yard " 
 politics. The life of nations and the 
 life of individuals have shown that those 
 who are possessed of real vitality and 
 strength are always elevated by the lofti- 
 ness of the aims which they hold before 
 them, and that they ultimately live up to 
 the high standards which an idealism not 
 divorced from reason sets before them. 
 And so long as the Expansionists in the 
 United States remain conscious of these 
 
 loo
 
 and The World's Peace 
 
 ideals and never lose sight of the ulti- 
 mate duties which they have towards their 
 new dependencies, holding them as trusts 
 for civilisation, the effects upon the 
 American nation, and, through it, upon 
 the world at large, can only result in 
 blessing. 
 
 When the question of Expansion is 
 viewed in this light it must be realised 
 that the claims, implied in the criticism 
 of the best Anti-Expansionists, namely, 
 that they are moved by American Ideals 
 which others have forsaken, are absolutely 
 groundless. And if it be thought, by 
 some who pride themselves upon possess- 
 ing a sober and practical mind, that these 
 Expansionist ideals are rather vague and 
 remote as forces which directly move 
 the interested action of a nation, and 
 have no power to check its aggressive 
 action when passionate interest strongly 
 
 lOl
 
 The Expansion of Western Ideals 
 
 urges it on in the wrong direction; if 
 they doubt whether these ideals are suffi- 
 ciently proximate and tangible to enter 
 into the conscious life of the individual 
 and to affect his actions, I will sin against 
 the dictates of good taste and will make 
 a personal confession, confident as I am 
 that there are thousands who feel as I do. 
 So far from being remote and ineffect- 
 ual, I solemnly declare that these ideals 
 with regard to the aims of Western civili- 
 sation form the foundation of my con- 
 scious existence even in the most practical 
 aspects of my life. That, if I were not 
 aware of their existence at the base of 
 my consciousness, I could not pursue the 
 vocation of life to which I have hitherto 
 devoted myself, and by means of which I 
 gain my subsistence. If I did not believe 
 that ultimately all individual efforts cul- 
 minate in the increase and strengthening, 
 as well as in the diffusion, of Western 
 
 I02
 
 and The World's Peace 
 
 civilisation and its highest and most sub- 
 tle attainments, the best that man's intel- 
 ligent efforts has yet devised, — I should 
 wish to spend my life in lotus-eating, 
 if not to seek peace in Nirvahna. 
 
 As I have arrived at this lofty sphere 
 of aspiration, I will draw one last conclu- 
 sion in the direction of ideals from the 
 policy of Expansion as it ought to be fol- 
 lowed by the United States; and I do 
 this at the risk of being considered a 
 "mere dreamer." But there are different 
 kinds of dreamers; there are rational 
 and irrational dreamers. Those who 
 have succeeded in attaining the highest 
 achievements in the world's history might 
 all be called, and generally were called, 
 dreamers. No man — and for that mat- 
 ter no nation — can do great things un- 
 less his imagination can produce, and 
 hold up both before the intense discrimi- 
 nating power of his intellect, and be- 
 
 103
 
 The Expansion of Western Ideals 
 
 fore the untiring and unflinching energy 
 of his will, some great ultimate goal to 
 lofty endeavour. In so far all great men 
 are idealists. But the difference between 
 these idealists and the mere dreamers is 
 that the latter spend their lives in the con- 
 templation of their ideals, whereas to the 
 former the ideals illuminate their lives. 
 The dreamer gazes upon the brilliant sun 
 until his vision is dimmed, and his 
 whole brain lapses into an hypnotic state. 
 The world outside the immediate radius 
 of this brilliant sun is one great dark- 
 ness, and he expends the weakened energy 
 which is left to his somnolent nature in 
 railing at this darkness and despising it. 
 He is even unable to detect the lighter 
 shades and half-tones, the infinite grada- 
 tions which lie between the brilliancy of 
 his distant sun and the darkness below 
 and behind his feet. The idealist, on the 
 other hand, having raised high aloft on 
 
 104
 
 and The World's Peace 
 
 the pinnacles of existence his brilliant 
 beacon-light, does not spend his time in 
 gazing immediately at it; but allows it 
 to shed a lustre of illumination upon the 
 whole roadway of life over which it 
 shines; and instead of casting what is 
 immediately at his feet into greater dark- 
 ness, this distant light searches out every 
 nook and cranny of existence, and enables 
 him to pursue his path unfalteringly, to 
 recognise the size and dimensions of each 
 object in his path, its power of facilitat- 
 ing or impeding progress, of yielding or 
 resisting; and, finally, it gives him a 
 clear notion of distance itself. And thus 
 he is patient, and not petulant, as regards 
 what lies immediately before him, know- 
 ing that he has beyond a clear, lofty goal 
 which lights and warms. 
 
 It is thus that the expansion of Western 
 ideals will ultimately tend towards the 
 supreme goal of the World's Peace; and 
 
 105
 
 The Expansion of Western Ideals 
 
 I maintain in all sincerity of conviction, 
 that it is through the introduction of the 
 United States into this great expanding 
 movement, and through, as a first step, 
 the realisation of the English-Speaking 
 Brotherhood, that this ultimate goal is 
 most likely to be attained. 
 
 When, within the last decade, colonial 
 expansion more and more asserted itself as 
 the dominant motive power in the policy 
 of European nations, the lovers of progress 
 and peace were struck with horror at the 
 appearance of this new Leviathan, this 
 great enemy of humanity, that threatened 
 to furnish a continuance of causes for 
 internecine warfare after the dynastic 
 rivalries had died away, and when the 
 racial and territorial differences seemed to 
 be gradually losing their virulent energy 
 in Europe. It looked as if we were 
 entering into a chaotic period of Uni- 
 versal Grab, in which each nation would 
 
 1 06
 
 and The World's Peace 
 
 rush in to seize all the spoils it could 
 carry, and would frequently have to drop 
 them in order to fight its equally vora- 
 cious neighbour. This gloomy view has 
 been completely dispelled by the prospect 
 of a real English-Speaking Brotherhood. 
 For, as regards colonial expansion, I can 
 see the English-speaking conception of 
 colonisation in clear opposition, in the 
 domain of material interests as well as 
 in that of ideas and ideals, to that of 
 the Continental European Powers. And 
 this common ground of thought, feeling, 
 and action will of necessity tend to bind 
 the English-speaking peoples together. 
 Through it I look forward to much more 
 than an Anglo-Saxon Alliance. I can 
 see the day when there will be a great 
 confederation of the independent and 
 self-governing English-speaking nations, 
 made clearly recognisable and effective to 
 the outer world by some new form of 
 
 107
 
 The Expansion of Western Ideals 
 
 international corporation, which states- 
 men and jurists will be able to devise 
 when the necessity of things calls for it. 
 For, day by day, this union of the Eng- 
 lish-speaking peoples is becoming more 
 of an accomplished fact in the social and 
 economical life of the people themselves. 
 Consider the strength of such a confedera- 
 tion! Who will say nay to it.-* And the 
 stronger it is, the better for the peace of 
 the world; it will insure this more effectu- 
 ally than any number of Peace Congresses 
 convoked by the mightiest of monarchs. 
 
 Step by step this power will advance, 
 binding the nations together, not severing 
 them. For it will be based upon ideas 
 which unite, and not upon race which 
 severs. And all those who share these 
 ideas are ipso facto a part of this union; 
 Germany, which stands before the world 
 as a great leader of human intelligence 
 will be with us. France, which over- 
 
 io8
 
 and The World's Peace 
 
 threw niediaeval feudalism and first raised 
 the torch of freedom, will be with us in 
 spite of the tragic crisis through which 
 it is at present passing, when vicious 
 reaction is contending with delirious 
 anarchy; — for it must never be forgotten 
 that the France of to-day produced the 
 Picquarts, Zolas, and many other heroes 
 who fought for the sanctity of justice. 
 Thousands of Russians, their numbers 
 constantly swelling, will be with us in 
 spirit, and the spirit will force its es- 
 sence into inert matter; these leaders 
 will educate the people until they will 
 modify (let us hope gradually) the spirit 
 of their own government. 
 
 Then we shall be prepared to make an 
 end of war; because behind the great 
 humanitarian idea there will be the power 
 to safeguard these ideas. " No right 
 without might " is a cynical aphorism of 
 which history has proved the truth. To 
 
 109
 
 The Expansion of Western Ideals 
 
 be effective, the law must have behind it 
 the power to enforce its decisions. It is 
 so in national law, and it will be so in 
 international law. 
 
 Let us allow our "dream " to material- 
 ise still further. I can see this great 
 Confederacy of the future established per- 
 manently with its local habitation, let us 
 say on one of the islands, — the Azores, 
 Bermuda, the Canaries, Madeira. And 
 here will be sitting the great Court of 
 Arbitration, composed of most eminent 
 men from all the nations in the Confed- 
 eracy. Here will be assembled, always 
 ready to carry into effect the laws enacted, 
 an international army, and an interna- 
 tional fleet, — the police of the world's 
 highways. No recalcitrant nation (then, 
 and only then, will the nations be able to 
 disarm) could venture to oppose its will to 
 that of this supreme representative of jus- 
 tice. Perhaps this court may develop into a 
 
 no
 
 and The World's Peace 
 
 court of appeals, dealing not only with mat- 
 ters of state. The function of this capital 
 to the great Confederacy will not only con- 
 cern war; but peace as well. There will 
 be established here "Bureaux " represent- 
 ins: the interests which all the nations 
 have in common. As regards commerce 
 and industry, they will distribute through- 
 out the world important information con- 
 cerning the supply and demand of the 
 world's markets, and counteracting to 
 some extent the clumsy economical chaos 
 which now causes so much distress 
 throughout the world. Science and art, 
 which are ever the most effective bonds 
 between civilised peoples, will there find 
 their international habitation, and here 
 will be established the great international 
 universities, and libraries, and museums. 
 There will be annual exhibitions of works 
 of art and industry, so that the nations, 
 comparatively so ignorant of each other's 
 
 III
 
 The Expansion of Western Ideals 
 
 work now, should learn fully to appreciate 
 each other. And at greater intervals 
 there will be greater exhibitions and in- 
 ternational meetings, the modern form of 
 the Olympic games. The Amphyctionic 
 Council of Delphi, as well as the Olympic 
 Games of the small Greek communities, 
 will find their natural and un-romantic 
 revival in this centre of civilisation, this 
 tangible culminating point of Western 
 Ideals. Thus will the World's Peace be 
 insured, the nations be brought together, 
 and the ancient inherited prejudices and 
 hatreds be stamped out from the face of 
 the earth. 
 
 112
 
 The English-Speaking 
 Brotherhood 
 
 A Lecture delivered at the Imperial Insti- 
 tute, London, the Earl of Rosebery, 
 K.G., K.T,, in the Chair, on July 7, 
 1898
 
 IP 
 
 THE discussion of an Anglo-Saxon 
 Alliance, while evoking almost 
 universal enthusiasm and approval, both 
 in England and in the United States, has 
 at the same time called forth criticisms 
 and strictures which it is well for us to 
 study dispassionately. Though these ob- 
 jections come from those who are either 
 decidedly inimical to the main spirit and 
 substance of such an alliance, or at least 
 show no friendly attitude towards it, their 
 attacks are undoubtedly directed towards 
 the weakest point of this great and all- 
 important scheme. When, moreover, we 
 find that these vulnerable parts are in no 
 way essential to the main stem and body, 
 
 1 This lecture is here printed as prepared for delivery 
 in London last year without any change.
 
 English-Speaking Brotherhood 
 
 and that, by lopping them off, we can 
 ensure the only form of sane and healthy 
 growth, these criticisms ought to be 
 gratefully considered at this early stage. 
 Strictures similar to those made by Mr. 
 Davitt in his letters to "The Times" 
 might be made — though on different 
 grounds and from different motives — by 
 one who is the most ardent devotee to 
 the idea of an alliance or complete 
 understanding between Great Britain and 
 her Colonies and the United States of 
 America. It would be most distressing 
 to him if what is, after all, a minor point 
 were to destroy the whole of this scheme 
 at its very inception, or that, if this 
 minor point itself were to gain impor- 
 tance, such an alliance would be jeopard- 
 ised in its leading purpose, and for all 
 time its vitality and durability would be 
 threatened. For an effective and close 
 amity, if not a federation, between Great 
 
 ii6
 
 English-Speaking Brotherhood 
 
 Britain and the United States has been 
 one of the dreams of my life, which ap- 
 peared remote, sometimes very remote; 
 yet which, whatever may happen, has now 
 fortunately been brought near to realisa- 
 tion in the minds of the best and even the 
 most sober people in both countries. 
 
 Mr. Davitt has shown that the Ameri- 
 can nation cannot be considered to con- 
 sist of Anglo-Saxons. He has pointed 
 with force, perhaps with some exaggera- 
 tion, to the people of Irish birth or 
 descent as a strong component element 
 in the American nation. That this is so 
 as regards the Irish cannot be doubted, 
 and it can be extended to other nationali- 
 ties within the American people clearly 
 not of Anglo-Saxon origin. Whatever 
 the practical reasons or interests in speak- 
 ing of such an alliance as an Anglo-Saxon 
 Alliance may be, as a matter of truthful 
 and accurate statement such terms can 
 
 117
 
 English-Speaking Brotherhood 
 
 never be used to convey and to cover ade- 
 quately the ideas which they are meant to 
 impart. An alliance between the British 
 Empire and the United States of America 
 can never rightly be called an Anglo- 
 Saxon Alliance; nor do we mean Anglo- 
 Saxon when we have in mind the British 
 Empire or even the English people — 
 still less the American nation. They ca7i 
 all be called English-speaking nations. 
 
 Take the case of the English people. 
 Who can define, with any claim to scien- 
 tific accuracy, the ethnological elements 
 to be found in the earliest pre-historic 
 inhabitants, followed by Celts, Romans, 
 Angles, Jutes, Danes, Saxons, and Nor- 
 mans? Who would compute and give 
 their accurate value in the formation of 
 the English people, its government, 
 policy, its intellectual, social, and eco- 
 nomical life, to the subsequent immi- 
 gration of Dutch and Flemish, French 
 
 ii8
 
 English-Speaking Brotherhood 
 
 Huguenot, Italian, Jewish, weavers and 
 craftsmen, bankers and traders, thinkers 
 and artists? All these elements com- 
 bined and intermingled, merged and fused 
 into one another in the social and politi- 
 cal unity of this people, have made the 
 British Empire of to-day. 
 
 It profits little to disintegrate these 
 component parts and weigh them sepa- 
 rately in the scales of abstract science; it 
 mars much, however, to turn this inaccu- 
 rate abstract thought into action, into 
 practical life and politics, and to use its 
 theoretical dryness to fan the flames of a 
 misguided political passion. If this be 
 true of the dwellers in England itself and 
 of the English people of the present, it 
 is still more true when we consider Great 
 Britain and Ireland, not to mention the 
 transfusion of the Anglo-Saxon in Scot- 
 land with Celtic and other ethnological 
 elements. 
 
 119
 
 English-Speaking Brotherhood 
 
 Unfortunately the misdeeds and blun- 
 ders of those who governed England in 
 the past, as well as the leading questions 
 of actual politics in our own days, have 
 made the Irish Question synonymous 
 with the measure of separateness claimed 
 by, or to be given to, the inhabitants of 
 Ireland. But there is another side to the 
 Irish Question which, if political pas- 
 sions and interests allowed of it, would 
 be recognised as equally interesting and 
 instructive. This Irish Question would 
 consider the actual and historical claims 
 which Irish people have to be an integral 
 and important part in the wholeness of 
 the British people and in the making of 
 the British Empire. And if there be 
 glory in the making of such an Empire, 
 and justified pride in the strength and 
 superiority of such a nation, the Irish 
 people, whether they accept it or not, 
 have an undeniable claim to such glory. 
 
 I20
 
 English-Speaking Brotherhood 
 
 I am not only thinking of great individ- 
 uals who made, framed, or modified the 
 lasting fabric of this Empire, not of 
 Wellington (who is and remains an Irish 
 Briton more than William the Conqueror 
 and his successors were Englishmen), of 
 the Wolfes and Coughs, and Dillons, 
 and Inchiquins, the Bourkes and O'Con- 
 nells, the Grattans, and scores of others. 
 I am not only bearing in mind the huge 
 number of. great Englishmen who inher- 
 ited their personal greatness perhaps more 
 from their Irish mother than from their 
 English father; but I am thinking of the 
 compact army of Irish Britons who fought 
 our battles and who force us to recall the 
 heroism of the Connaught Rangers, the 
 Royal Irish Regiment, the Royal Innis- 
 killing Fusiliers, the Royal Munster Fusil- 
 iers, and many others, while we glorify the 
 Gordon and Seaforth Highlanders in their 
 recent victories. Moreover we must not 
 
 121
 
 English-Speaking Brotherhood 
 
 limit our estimate of the Irishman's share 
 in the making of Greater Britain to the 
 consideration of the fighter's in war; but 
 there are the armies of working men who 
 have contributed by their skill and the 
 sweat of their brow to the supremacy of 
 our manufacture and trade in Manchester, 
 Liverpool, and all the industrial centres, 
 and who had so great a share in the early 
 formation of our thriving colonies beyond 
 the seas. 
 
 Can we, even after a hasty considera- 
 tion of these facts, use the term Anglo- 
 Saxon in connection with Greater Britain 
 in anything but the sense of a figure of 
 speech, and a very inaccurate one at that ? 
 And when such a figure of speech is not 
 only misleading in thought, but may 
 work upon the feelings of great masses 
 of people, cripple or stultify or misdirect 
 action, what use can there be in applying 
 it at all ? 
 
 122
 
 English-Speaking Brotherhood 
 
 If now we turn to the United States, 
 the term Anglo-Saxon with its faults and 
 pedantic suggestion of ethnological fun- 
 damentality is still more inaccurate and 
 misleading. It is true, and will always 
 remain so, that the substructure of Amer- 
 ican national life is English, English in 
 language, in its social and political insti- 
 tutions. But ethnologically the Ameri- 
 can nation presents a huge and unequalled 
 mixture of different European races ; and 
 I venture to hold that upon this very mixt- 
 ure depends its ultimate strength, though 
 it may be the source of occasional weak- 
 ness and danger when the national fusion 
 is not recognised as paramount. Nay, I 
 venture to say that, in the present phase 
 of American historical evolution, the in- 
 complete state of national unity in the 
 process of this fusion is the greatest na- 
 tional danger. It is, for instance, well 
 known and readily recognised, that the 
 
 123
 
 English-Speaking Brotherhood 
 
 preponderance of Irish influence in the 
 politics of our own day has, on more than 
 one occasion, given a serious turn to the 
 gravest questions of federal politics, as it 
 constantly and continuously affects local 
 administration. And it will readily be 
 seen how this may in turn evoke similar 
 groupings and antagonisms of the other 
 national components, which, to say the 
 least, do not contribute to the compact- 
 ness and political unity of a nation. 
 Whenever in the United States one or 
 the other of these would-be racial ele- 
 ments rises up as a majority, or even as 
 an effective minority, and carries its sepa- 
 rateness into political action, we shall 
 have distinct cases of national disease 
 and of national crises. The geographical 
 vastness of the country is not, as De 
 Tocqueville anticipated, the chief source 
 of danger to American unity, not even 
 the stereotyping of opposed interests in 
 
 124
 
 English-Speaking Brotherhood 
 
 the East and West and the recognition 
 of such an opposition on the part of the 
 people. It is only when this difference 
 of so-called interests^ is fixed and intensi- 
 fied and appeals to the passions and prej- 
 udices of the people, when it becomes 
 social in character and develops Chauvin- 
 istic antagonisms, that it acts as a real 
 
 1 I do not mean to say that when such material 
 interests can be clearly grouped according to districts 
 or social divisions they do not tend to strengthen ten- 
 fold the existing antagonisms ; as, on the other hand, 
 the recognition of common interests increases amity 
 and the need for alliance, in fact, brings these uniting 
 currents to a head. That is why the Far East, 
 as a common fund of material interest between Great 
 Britain and the United States, has given a consistent, 
 firm, and strong immediate impulse to the idea of such 
 an alliance. Such common interests will ultimately 
 strengthen amity into alliance. But this is only be- 
 cause these material seeds fell upon the fertile ground 
 of a common civilisation, national sympathies and 
 ideals. Conversely we must hold that the Franco- 
 Russian Alliance will always remain precarious, because 
 it is purely opportunistic and is only based on material 
 interest. 
 
 125
 
 English-Speaking Brotherhood 
 
 revolutionary force. The moment the 
 Westerner is recognised by the Easterner 
 as distinct from himself, and recognises 
 himself as such, the seeds of disruption 
 are sown.^ 
 
 Of this there are and have been danger- 
 ous symptoms in the United States, never 
 quite clear and clearly defined, but there 
 all the same. It is not only that the 
 Western farmer is opposed in his inter- 
 
 1 The careful student of politics will realise that the 
 fundamental danger to Italian unity, as well as to the 
 stability of government in France, lies in the dualism and 
 antagonism between the Northerner (Piemontese) and 
 the Southerner (Neapolitan), the Northerner in France 
 and the Meridional or Southerner; just as, in the first 
 stages of the contemporary German Empire, the differ- 
 ences between the Prussian and South German was 
 the most potent factor against German unity. These 
 differences and antagonisms of temperament only be- 
 come effective in the world of politics when they mean 
 differences of social institutions, tastes, and aspirations, 
 of tradition and ideals. They make real and full 
 understanding impossible ; and most quarrels grow out 
 of misunderstanding. 
 
 126
 
 English-Speaking Brotherhood 
 
 csts to the Eastern merchant and manu- 
 facturer,' the Western borrower to the 
 Eastern capitalist. These differences 
 may no doubt create severe competition 
 and legislative struggles; but there is 
 no reason why they should penetrate 
 deeply into the most complex develop- 
 ments of social life, and there produce, 
 not rivalry, but actual antipathy and social 
 antagonism. 
 
 Now this social antagonism between 
 the East and West of the United States, 
 so far as it may exist, is chiefly due to 
 the very same conceptions as might be 
 grouped round such vague and pernicious 
 terms as Anglo-Saxon. In spite of the 
 great emigration from the New England 
 States to the West, and though the most 
 
 1 As a matter of fact, it would be more natural to 
 assume that the Western farmer and the Eastern mer- 
 chant or importer are combined in economical interest 
 against the Eastern manufacturer. 
 
 127
 
 English-Speaking Brotherhood 
 
 active element in the West may be of 
 New England origin, the obtrusion of 
 such New England origin in the West 
 and the recognition of " Mayflower pre- 
 tensions " in the East are at the bottom 
 of a great part of this social antagonism. 
 It is no doubt true that a great deal of 
 the active opposition against England in 
 America within the last few years was 
 immediately excited by the Irish enemy 
 of the Saxon. But though this Irish 
 opposition accounts for a good deal of the 
 anti-English feeling in the East, it is 
 not so in the West. In the West the 
 antagonism to England was very much 
 the same as the Western opposition to 
 the pretensions to, perhaps the posses- 
 sion of, superior education, manners, and 
 breeding prevalent in the Eastern States 
 of the Union. Nay, with a large section 
 of the population in the East itself, it 
 was not Irish sympathy which produced 
 
 128
 
 English-Speaking Brotherhood 
 
 the anti-English feeling, but elements of 
 a social nature which, consciously or 
 unconsciously, aroused antagonism, and 
 which might be defined as the English or 
 Anglo-Saxon elements. It was a protest 
 and reaction against the wave of Anglo- 
 mania which has made itself felt as a 
 social force in those classes which were 
 socially predominant. The gibes and wit- 
 ticisms grouping round the catch phrases 
 such as " 'T is English you know," or the 
 New York street-arab's query, addressed 
 to the "dude" whose trousers were turned 
 up, "Is it raining in London.-*" — the 
 report that in certain fashionable clubs 
 card and betting debts were computed in 
 sovereigns and shillings, — all this is 
 clearly indicative of social antagonisms. 
 
 When the social pretensions of such 
 classes were thus expressed in " Anglo- 
 Saxon " terms and when the ethnological, 
 quasi-feudal, basis for such social distinc- 
 9 129
 
 English-Speaking Brotherhood 
 
 tion was fixed upon pure English descent, 
 the internal, local, social antagonisms in 
 the United States itself were, on suita- 
 ble occasions, readily turned into strong 
 antagonism against the original corpus 
 vile, namely, England. Not only the 
 Irish, but the Americans of German, 
 French, and Dutch descent, and the mass 
 of population coming from other Euro 
 pean nations, all are naturally opposed to 
 any Anglo-Saxon assertiveness. 
 
 What really unites all these different 
 peoples, massed together in this great 
 country, are the actual political institu- 
 tions, the basal views and habits of life 
 and living, and the common language. 
 To remind them of the English origin 
 of these at a moment when the English 
 part of them is used to mark a distinc- 
 tion between certain groupings in their 
 national society, to call upon the rivalry 
 which comes from separateness and exclu- 
 
 130
 
 English-Speaking Brotherhood 
 
 sion in the common life of social bodies 
 — produces discord where the result ought 
 to be harmony. For there can be no 
 doubt that complete national and social 
 assimilation into the American people is 
 reached when the foreign emigrant and 
 his descendants, — who were at first stig- 
 matised by cries of " Mickie" for the Irish, 
 allusions to Sauer-Kraut for the Germans 
 or Dutchmen, Dago for the Italians, — 
 when these are no longer grouped together 
 in distinct quarters in the larger towns, 
 and when the English language, which 
 includes or suggests common ways of 
 thinking and habits of living, has been 
 fully mastered. 
 
 If these differences are felt in the East, 
 and are in great part responsible for Eng- 
 lish antagonisms, their original meaning 
 has become still more comprehensive in 
 the minds of the Westerner. To him the 
 Easterner stands in a relation similar to
 
 English-Speaking Brotherhood 
 
 that which obtains between the social 
 Anglo-maniac and his opponent in the 
 East. He must recognise that the condi- 
 tions of Eastern life are more favourable 
 to higher education and to all the ameni- 
 ties of culture than those of his own 
 younger and ruder home, and he is on the 
 lookout for, and on the defensive against, 
 any arrogation of higher claims on the 
 part of the Easterner whom he may meet. 
 This may often blind him to the fact that 
 it evokes in him a peculiar form of asser- 
 tiveness which is frequently less dignified 
 than it is boisterously manifest. The 
 Western stories which turn upon the 
 ridiculous unfitness of the florid New 
 York "dude," the "Harvard man," or 
 "the young lady from Boston," to adapt 
 themselves to the healthy and unostenta- 
 tious simplicity of their own life, illus- 
 trate the prevalence of feeling which goes 
 deep down into the life of the people. 
 
 132
 
 English-Speaking Brotherhood 
 
 Similar differences exist in England be- 
 tween, let us say, the Public School and 
 University man and those who have not 
 spent their youth in such institutions. 
 
 Now the term Anglo-Saxon, besides 
 being inaccurately pedantic and funda- 
 mentally untrue when used to denote the 
 uniting element between the two great 
 peoples, is as misleading in America as 
 it is in Great Britain and comes danger- 
 ously near to the natural prejudices of 
 both peoples. These prejudices can be 
 skilfully awakened and intensified, and 
 will be effectively used on the numerous 
 occasions which will present themselves, 
 by those whose interest it is to keep the 
 two nations asunder. How much such 
 people are aware of this, and how readily 
 such ethnological differences can be used 
 to sow the seeds of discord, is illustrated 
 by a telegram to the "Times " quoting a 
 letter signed by a well known Russian 
 
 133
 
 English-Speaking Brotherhood 
 
 writer in the " Novoe Vremya " on the 
 occasion of Mr. Gladstone's death. He 
 says: 
 
 "The strength and weakness of Mr. 
 Gladstone consisted in the fact that he 
 was not an Englishman but a Celt, with 
 a great soul and a great mind, but a mind 
 without English cruelty, narrow-minded- 
 ness, and unscrupulousness in the choice 
 of means towards an end. He was able 
 to inspire the souls of others, but his 
 ideals were too much for the average 
 Englishman, in whom the spirit of the 
 old Saxon and Norman robbers is still to 
 be traced. He would have felt himself 
 more at home in Russia than in England, 
 had he known our country, but it was felt 
 that he was attracted to our side. Little 
 by little, the scaly covering of the Eng- 
 lishman left the soul of the great Celt, 
 and he became convinced of the necessity 
 of liberating his kinsmen the Irish. The 
 
 134
 
 English-Speaking Brotherhood 
 
 English, however, refused to join with 
 him when they felt that he was not one 
 of themselves, and he died with French 
 words upon his lips. Peace to his ashes ! 
 He has been a grand elevating example 
 to all humanity." 
 
 I object to the term Anglo-Saxon when 
 used to qualify the amity or alliance 
 between Great Britain and the United 
 States, because the ideas it conveys are 
 inaccurate and untrue, and further be- 
 cause it opens the doors to that most 
 baneful and pernicious of modern national 
 diseases, which has disseminated its virus 
 through most European States and from 
 which we have hitherto enjoyed compar- 
 ative immunity, namely. Ethnological 
 Chauvinism. The slightest infusion of 
 such a spirit suggested by the term Anglo- 
 Saxon will not only stultify the efforts 
 towards closer national amity, but may, if 
 insisted upon and strengthened, produce 
 
 135
 
 English-Speaking Brotherhood 
 
 disintegrating disturbances in the inter- 
 nal national life of these countries. 
 
 It is interesting to note that the ex- 
 treme and unbalanced form of so-called 
 patriotism which is now designated by 
 the term Chauvinism had its origin in the 
 time of Napoleon, when Chauvin lived 
 as the unbounded admirer of that great 
 leader of men. But Chauvinism can in 
 no sense be called an outcome, or even 
 a modification, of patriotism. They are 
 two distinct, if not opposed, ideas, the 
 following of either of which points to 
 characters and temperaments as different 
 as the generous are from the covetous. 
 Patriotism is a positive attitude of the 
 soul. Chauvinism is a negative tendency 
 or passion. Patriotism is the love of, 
 and devotion to, the fatherland, to the 
 wider or the more restricted home, and to 
 the common interests and aspirations and 
 ideals of these. Chauvinism marks the 
 
 136
 
 English-Speaking Brotherhood 
 
 antagonistic attitude to all persons, inter- 
 ests, and ideas, not within this wider or 
 narrower conception of the fatherland or 
 home. Patriotism is love, Chauvinism 
 is jealousy. The one is generous, the 
 other is envious. The loving tempera- 
 ment makes for expansion, the jealous 
 tends towards contraction and restriction. 
 While the patriot who loves his people 
 and his country is therefore likely to be 
 tolerant, even generous and affectionate, 
 towards the stranger, the Chauvinist is 
 likely to turn the burning fire of his 
 animosity inwards, within the narrow 
 spheres and groupings of even his own 
 country. Now this vice of hatred and 
 envy which may, alas, be ingrained deep 
 down in human nature, may have existed 
 in all times and places of human history 
 and may have been predominant in some; 
 yet in our own times it has received a 
 peculiar character, a special formulation, 
 
 137
 
 English-Speaking Brotherhood 
 
 with an attempt at justification. I have 
 tried to qualify the general Chauvinism 
 in the form predominant in our time by 
 the attribute Ethnological Chauvinism. 
 
 The origin of this social disease within 
 the nations of Europe may be traced back 
 first to Napoleon, when, with the inner 
 growth of France and its power, and his 
 successes in Italy, he coupled the de- 
 signed enfeeblement, if not the destruc- 
 tion, of the German Empire by splitting 
 it up into insignificant principalities 
 under his own influence. There is no 
 doubt he conceived the bold idea of the 
 predominance of the Latin race and Em- 
 pire over the Teutonic race and over the 
 world in general. But he found him- 
 self wedged in between two forces which 
 checked the advance of this Latin Hege- 
 monia, and which ultimately crushed him. 
 On the one side was the Slav, on the 
 other side there was the Anglo-Saxon.
 
 English-Speaking Brotherhood 
 
 He succeeded for the time in repressing 
 the Teuton, but he failed both in Russia 
 and in his struggle with Great Britain. 
 
 As a reaction against this Latin wave 
 which submerged the Teuton Empire, the 
 German patriots endeavoured to restore 
 the vitality of the sturdy Teutonic oak. 
 But while the Latin Crusade had for its 
 inspiring preacher the great leader and 
 man of action himself, the Germanic 
 revival fell to the lot of the theorist and 
 thinker, and a German philosopher and 
 professor, Fichte, in his Reden an die 
 Deutsche Nation, is the fullest exponent 
 of these views. These again are further 
 formulated and carried into the realms of 
 romantic thought, theory, and science by 
 the learned enthusiasts who led the Revo- 
 lution of 1848 in Germany. 
 
 But again there turned up a great man 
 of action who, knowing his countrymen 
 and the trend of the times, utilised all 
 
 139
 
 English-Speaking Brotherhood 
 
 these currents to weld together the sepa- 
 rate blocks, — smoothly polished and florid 
 marbles of prince-ridden principalities, 
 and clumsy unhewn stones and rubble- 
 stones of independent cities and towns, 
 — the huge edifice of the German Empire. 
 The scientific spirit which was pervading 
 the civilised world of Western Europe 
 was recognised by Bismarck as a useful 
 force which could be turned into practical 
 advantage for the great purpose he had in 
 view. He called upon the German pro- 
 fessor — even the ethnologist, philologist, 
 and historian — and they obeyed his com- 
 mand with readiness and alacrity. The 
 theoretical and scientific lever with which 
 these huge building blocks were to be 
 raised in order to construct the German 
 Empire was to be the scientific establish- 
 ment of the unity of the German people 
 based upon the unity of Germanic races. 
 An historical basis for German unity was 
 
 140
 
 English-Speaking Brotherhood 
 
 not enough; an ethnological, racial unity 
 had to be established. The historical 
 and philological literature of German uni- 
 versity professors belonging to the time 
 of Bismarck's ascendency can almost be 
 recognised and classified by their relation 
 to the problem of establishing, fixing, 
 and distinguishing from those of other 
 races, the laws and customs, literature, 
 languages and religions, the life and 
 thought, the productions and the aspira- 
 tions of the Germanic race. 
 
 This influence went beyond the bounds 
 of Germany: by sympathy in England, 
 the Freemans, and those who felt with 
 him, thumped the Saxon drum; while, 
 by contrast, in France, the Fustel de 
 Coulangcs played variations in softer 
 strains on the theme of the Cit^ Antique. 
 In course of time and of events Russia, 
 in the growing vigour of its racial and 
 national expansion, formulated and de- 
 
 141
 
 English-Speaking Brotherhood 
 
 veloped its Panslavistic theory and war- 
 cry. 
 
 The distinctive feature in this modern 
 version of the old story of national lust 
 of power is, that it now assumed a more 
 serious and stately garb of historical jus- 
 tice in the pedantic pretensions of its 
 inaccurate ethnological theories. The 
 absurdity of any application of such 
 ethnological theories to the practical 
 politics of modern nations at once be- 
 comes manifest when an attempt is made 
 .to classify the inhabitants of any one 
 of these western nations by means of 
 such racial distinctions. What becomes 
 of the racial unity of the present Ger- 
 man Empire if we consider the Slavs of 
 Prussia, the Wends in the North, and 
 the tangle of different racial occupa- 
 tions and interminglings during the last 
 thousand years within every portion of 
 the German country.? And the same 
 
 142
 
 English-Speaking Brotherhood 
 
 applies to France and England, Italy 
 and Spain. 
 
 But the German professor, with his 
 political brief wrapped round the lecture- 
 notes within the oilcloth portfolio, pressed 
 between his broadcloth sleeve and ribs, 
 as he walks to his lecture room, was 
 forced further afield and deeper down in 
 his "scientific" distinctions. The divis- 
 ions he established for the purposes of 
 national policy were but minor sub- 
 divisions of broader ethnological distinc- 
 tions. Here the philologist took the 
 lead and established "beyond all doubt" 
 the difference, nay, the antagonism, be- 
 tween the Arian and the Semitic, which 
 makes the Hindoo more closely related to 
 the German and Saxon than these are to 
 Spinoza, Mendelssohn and Heine, Carl 
 Marx and Disraeli. We can perhaps now 
 appreciate the singular oversight of the 
 last named statesman in not having made 
 
 143
 
 English-Speaking Brotherhood 
 
 use of the scientific establishment of this 
 fact in order to strengthen his imperialist 
 views of the Indian Empire as an integral 
 part of Great Britain. 
 
 This last named classification could 
 further be turned to practical advantage 
 by those in Germany whose interest it 
 would be to set one part of the German 
 people against another section, and to 
 create a new party or to strengthen the 
 hands of decrepit old ones. And thus 
 there grew up the anti-Semitic parties in 
 Germany and elsewhere, who could give 
 strength and some semblance of sober 
 dignity to their party passions or violent 
 economic theories by so respectable a 
 scientific justification as a racial distinc- 
 tion fixed thousands of years ago. This 
 step once made, however, has necessarily 
 led further afield into wider and unsafer 
 regions, the exploration and exploitation 
 of which may ultimately lead to most dis- 
 
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 English-Speaking Brotherhood 
 
 astrous results. For, when once the dis- 
 tinction between Arian and Semite led 
 to the anti-Semitic movement, religious 
 prejudices, or, at all events, religious dis- 
 tinctions, are necessarily carried in the 
 wake and tend to serious complications. 
 Were it not for the clamorous interests 
 of recent politics in the East and West, 
 as well as in Africa and the Far East, 
 which absorb the attention and the pas- 
 sions of the nations of Europe, I venture 
 to believe that the current Ethnological 
 Chauvinism would have drifted more and 
 more into the channels of religious Chau- 
 vinism. And we need but recall the 
 history of the seventeenth and early 
 eighteenth century in Europe to realise 
 the effect of religious and sectarian ele- 
 ments when mixed up with international 
 partisanship ! 
 
 There were striking indications within 
 the last few years that the ethnological 
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 English-Speaking Brotherhood 
 
 game was played out. In Russia the 
 Pan-Slavistic cry was growing feebler 
 and feebler and was gradually merging 
 into something like a Pan-Orthodox move- 
 ment, which carried very practical, if not 
 material, plans and purposes within the 
 religious breast of its spiritual devotion. 
 Feeble echoes of Pan-Anglicanism made 
 themselves heard; while the Catholic 
 Church followed its old tradition, and 
 the national and Germanic ardour of Ber- 
 lin, if not of the whole of Germany, was 
 diverted from the monster statues on the 
 hills of the Rhine and the Teuteburger 
 forest to the national Protestant churches 
 in the German capitals. Arminius was 
 after all a Pagan! And if this new old 
 cry is silenced for a time beneath the din 
 of Gatling guns, the axes of the coloniser, 
 and the hammer of the colonial prospec- 
 tor, they are not silenced for good and all, 
 and will shortly be raised again. 
 
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 English-Speaking Brotherhood 
 
 The result of all this is, that old antag- 
 onisms have been intensified by the intro- 
 duction of these ethnological distinctions, 
 and that new ones, non-existent before, 
 have been created to swell their nefarious 
 phalanx. No doubt other passions have 
 been added to them, the greed of gold and 
 the lust of Empire. 
 
 The result is that, with all our printing- 
 press and the rapid exchange of thought 
 through its channels, with our railways 
 and telegraphs, which are supposed to 
 bring us together and to thwart invidious 
 distance standing between human hearts 
 and brains, there has never been a period 
 in the world's history when, in spite of 
 triple and dual alliances, every nation 
 feels more opposed to the other, its hand 
 ready to strike. Ask a typical French- 
 man whom he loves and feels at one with ? 
 The Russian? One would like to answer 
 him in his own vernacular: Qii allcz 
 
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 English-Speaking Brotherhood 
 
 voiis me chanter la ! And whom does the 
 German feel a brother or a cousin to? 
 Surely not the Englishman ! Let every 
 one go through the list for himself and 
 appeal to his past experience. The con- 
 ception of Humanity as a really potent 
 thought, with meaning and significance, 
 calling forth definite feelings if not im- 
 ages, a conception which pervaded the 
 thought and feeling which were supreme 
 in the second half of the eighteenth cen- 
 tury and moved whole nations to action, 
 these are disused and unheard in our day, 
 or are pityingly and incredulously smiled 
 away as cant. 
 
 If we cannot resuscitate and infuse the 
 spirit of life into the corpse of Humanity, 
 we can at least prick the ethnological 
 bubble and recall the sane nations to the 
 reality of their inner history and the truly 
 effective elements in the actual national 
 and social life of our times. 
 
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 English-Speaking Brotherhood 
 
 Patriotism is the love we bear to our 
 country and its people, represented by its 
 government; the love of order and law; 
 and the submission of the interests and 
 the life of the individual to the State and 
 its government, because they stand for 
 order and law. The modern State is a 
 product of modern history, and we need 
 not go to the nebulous regions of pre- 
 historic ages to seek for its rationale and 
 the order and law which are its essence. 
 If you wish to go back to the ethnological 
 foundations, you must ignore and wipe 
 out the history of centuries in Germany, 
 France, Italy, England, and the United 
 States. You must ignore the language 
 and literature and the thought and feeling 
 they embody and convey, the form of gov- 
 ernment evolved, the freedom and integ- 
 rity of the citizen that are established, if 
 you wish to build your commonwealth 
 upon racial distinctions. Arminius did 
 
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 English-Speaking Brotherhood 
 
 not make the modern German Empire; 
 the Anglo-Saxon did not make the Eng- 
 land of to-day. But government, laws, 
 institutions, customs, habits, language, 
 thought, — these are clearly' defined in 
 each State. Every day of our lives these 
 facts are impressed upon us in the streets 
 of the towns and in the lanes of the coun- 
 try, they make up our feeling of home, 
 our feeling of belonging to this country 
 and not to another. These are not evoked 
 by the stagey picture, all out of drawing, 
 of a Saxon in wolf's-skin with spear and 
 club, which the ethnological brush of a 
 sign-painting politician holds before the 
 eyes of the masses. 
 
 England is the only country in Europe 
 which has not yet been affected to any 
 harmful extent by this disease of Chau- 
 vinism ; and there is no fear that, in spite 
 of all the provocation which the attitude 
 of other nations towards us arouses, we 
 
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 English-Speaking Brotherhood 
 
 shall respond to them in the same tone. 
 But, to call an alliance, or the growing 
 amity between Great Britain and the 
 United States an Anglo-Saxon alliance, 
 and to accept such a term as embodying 
 the essential bond of union between these 
 two great nations, would familiarise us 
 with evil ideas, if it did not create the 
 evil passions. What brings us, and will 
 hold us, together is something quite dif- 
 ferent and far more potent than the empty 
 words and the unsound theories with re- 
 gard to our racial origin. 
 
 If the forces we have just considered 
 lead to Chauvinism, and are not the essen- 
 tial elements which hold people together, 
 the question must be asked, what these 
 binding elements really are.-* Sir John 
 Seeley maintained that "the chief forces 
 which hold a community together are 
 common nationality, common religion, 
 common interest." I believe that this 
 
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 English-Speaking Brotherhood 
 
 epitome errs in being too narrow and in 
 omitting some elements which are per- 
 haps the most efficient in binding people 
 together, while at least one of the three is 
 not essential to national unity or national 
 amity. 
 
 I should prefer to summarise these ele- 
 ments under the following general head- 
 ings: A common country; a common 
 nationality; a common language; com- 
 mon forms of government ; common cul- 
 ture, including customs and institutions; a 
 common history; a common religion, in so 
 far as religion stands for the same basis of 
 morality; and, finally, common interests. 
 
 Now I maintain that when any group 
 of people have all these eight elements in 
 common, they ought of necessity to form 
 a nation, a political unity, internally and 
 towards the outside world; and when a 
 group of people have not the first of these 
 factors (the same country) , but are essen- 
 
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 English-Speaking Brotherhood 
 
 tially akin in the remaining seven, they 
 ought to develop an international alliance 
 or some close form of lasting amity. In 
 the case of the people of Great Britain 
 and of the United States seven of these 
 leading features that hold a community 
 together are actively present. 
 
 It may even be held that the first con- 
 dition, a common country, which would 
 make of the two peoples one nation, in 
 some sense exists for them. At all 
 events a country is sufficiently common 
 to them to supply sentimental unity in 
 this direction. For, as regards England, 
 Seeley has well remarked, referring to a 
 period when steam and electricity had not 
 yet reduced the separating distance of the 
 ocean, "there is this fundamental differ- 
 ence between Spain and France on the 
 one side and England on the other, that 
 Spain and France were deeply involved 
 in the struggle of Europe, from which 
 
 153
 
 English-Speaking Brotherhood 
 
 England has always been able to hold her- 
 self aloof. In fact, as an island, England 
 is distinctly nearer for practical purposes 
 to the New World and almost belongs to 
 it or at least has the choice of belonging 
 at her pleasure to the New World or to 
 the Old." As for the proximity between 
 the two countries for persons travelling 
 and goods interchanged, I can only say 
 that, from continuous experience, the 
 expenditure of money, nerve-tissue, and 
 comfort is higher in a trip from England 
 to Greece or any of the Balkan States, 
 than in a voyage to New York; while it 
 is a significant fact that the transport of 
 goods from an American to an English 
 port is not only cheaper than from any 
 point in England to a short distance on 
 the Continent, but even from one point 
 of England to a comparatively near point 
 on the same island. But if we turn from 
 this question of mere physical propinquity 
 
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 English-Speaking Brotherhood 
 
 to the feeling of the American people as 
 regards the country, the actual soil of the 
 British Islands, we come to a sentiment 
 far deeper and more cogent in its binding 
 power. It would be a very small minor- 
 ity of the American people who would 
 not be overcome by a sense of home the 
 moment they arrive on British soil, be it 
 at Cork or Liverpool ; and, after a short 
 halt at Chester, during which they have 
 walked through the streets of that pictur- 
 esque city, they settle down in London 
 and set foot in Westminster Abbey, pass- 
 ing by the monuments of patriots, states- 
 men, and poets whom they can rightly all 
 claim as essentially their own! To all 
 these people Great Britain is the " Old 
 Country. " But I will go further and ven- 
 ture to say, that this does not only apply 
 to the Americans of distinctly British 
 origin ; but also to those of German and 
 French and Dutch descent, or from any 
 
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 English-Speaking Brotherhood 
 
 of the other European peoples, whose 
 • home has been sufficiently long in the 
 United States for them to have become 
 thoroughly nationalised through the lan- 
 guage with its literature, the customs 
 and institutions which are practically the 
 same in both countries. Such an one 
 has read his Shakespeare, Macaulay, and 
 Walter Scott from his childhood up- 
 wards; and thus Westminster Abbey and 
 Stratford-on-Avon, and Kenilworth, and 
 Scotland strike an old familiar tone in 
 his mind and his heart, — whether his 
 name be Sampson or Schley or Shafter. 
 
 Leaving the question of a common 
 country, the bond of union becomes closer 
 the further we proceed with the other 
 essential features which make for unity, 
 when once we drop the misleading and 
 wholly illusory ethnological basis of na- 
 tionality and, instead of flying to the 
 nebulous and unknown regions of pre- 
 
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 English-Speaking Brotherhood 
 
 historic ages, we take into account the 
 process of real history. We then must 
 acknowledge that the people of Great 
 Britain and of the United States are of 
 one nationality. I say this in spite of 
 the Revolutionary War, and, if I did not 
 fear to be too paradoxical, I should almost 
 say because of it. I mean by this, that 
 the establishment of independence in the 
 British Colonies of North America marks 
 a phase in the expansion of international 
 freedom, as the advance of representative 
 government marks the development of 
 national freedom ; and that, as the rec- 
 ognition of the separate household of an 
 adult son, who has been fretting with 
 growing animosity against the domina- 
 tion of parental authority, re-asserts, on 
 a new and more propitious basis, the kin- 
 ship of the two, so is it in the relation of 
 the two nations since America is free. 
 There is but one real and material fact 
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 English-Speaking Brotherhood 
 
 amongst many to which I wish to draw 
 attention in view of the claims of com- 
 mon nationality between these two great 
 peoples, and that is, the question of 
 kinship and intermarriage. If statistics 
 could be established concerning the citi- 
 zens of each country, as to those who 
 have some member of their kith and kin, 
 however remote, residing in the country 
 over the sea, the numbers of these would 
 be found to be astonishingly large — at 
 all events, much larger than such rela- 
 tionship between any other two nations. 
 And in this respect the importance of 
 the continuous process of intermarriage, 
 which promises to grow even more fre- 
 quent and effective in the future, cannot 
 be overestimated. For, in the making 
 of nations, intermarriage is the most im- 
 portant factor in welding the diversity of 
 race into the unity of nationality. In 
 the history of England, Germany, France, 
 
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 English-Speaking Brotherhood 
 
 and Italy it was chiefly this custom which 
 enabled the nunVerous and discordant eth- 
 nological elements to fuse into national 
 unity. Where larger masses of the popu- 
 lation, as with the Hungarians and the 
 Austrians, or smaller sections within a 
 nationality, are kept from intermarriage, 
 from whatever cause, the unity of the 
 nation or of the smaller community is not 
 complete, and no amount of government 
 action and of administrative pressure can 
 supply this want. 
 
 As regards the actual intercourse be- 
 tween the two nations, a great deal can 
 here be done by individuals to improve 
 and strengthen the relations between us. 
 I would recommend a little more toler- 
 ance, intellectual sympathy, and fairness 
 of judgment to Americans as well as to 
 Englishmen. We must shift our stand- 
 ards of judgment if we mean to be fair to 
 those who have not put themselves within 
 
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 English-Speaking Brotherhood 
 
 the pale of our own social — often ex- 
 tremely provincial — laws. Such provin- 
 cialism argues a want of education in 
 some and a want of imagination in others. 
 To put it tritely and epigrammatically : 
 Let us charitably remember that there is 
 still some salvation for the man who 
 wears a frock-coat and a round hat — if 
 he be a foreigner! We may be ever so 
 sure that our own rules of life and habits 
 and fashions are the best, but we cannot 
 judge those by them who have never rec- 
 ognised their sway. Also it is well for 
 us to remember that, whatever we may 
 justly feel with regard to our national 
 greatness, the individual citizen — even 
 the least distinguished — is not neces- 
 sarily responsible for the superiority of 
 his nation and country, 
 
 I would recommend every Englishman 
 to read Lowell's essay "On a Certain 
 Condescension in Foreigners." He there 
 
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 English-Speaking Brotherhood 
 
 strongly impresses the fact, that a first- 
 rate American must not be confounded 
 with a second-rate Englishman. And I 
 should like to add : that a second-rate 
 Englishman will never make a first-rate 
 American. The difficulty will remain, 
 how to recognise ''the first-rate Ameri- 
 can or Englishman } " Well, there is no 
 wholesale tag attached to them. They 
 are not known through the paragraphs in 
 the newspapers, nor are they always rec- 
 ognised by their own estimate of them- 
 selves. We can only meet each other 
 courteously and generously, and find out 
 for ourselves. It takes some time and 
 acuteness of perception to realise that 
 there is a native dignity and quiet mod- 
 esty in the American, though he may 
 successfully hide it under the boisterous 
 ebullience of his vigorous life and man- 
 ner; while, I hold, that there is a native 
 fund of amiability and genuine cordiality 
 II i6i
 
 English-Speaking Brotherhood 
 
 deep down in the Englishman's nature — 
 only it is often so deep down that it never 
 appears on the surface. It is effectively 
 checked by a narrow, "provincial" edu- 
 cation, continued and fixed by stupid 
 social traditions slavishly accepted and 
 followed by all classes. 
 
 The unity of nationality is expressed 
 in the State, in the laws and the forms 
 of government, which actually hold the 
 people together. Now, though England 
 is a monarchy and the United States a 
 republic, the fact remains that the inhab- 
 itants of both countries feel that they 
 belong to the freest nations of the world. 
 This freedom is the outcome of represen- 
 tative government, an idea and a fact 
 born in England, to the development of 
 which the history of the British people is 
 one continuous illustration. It does not 
 diminish the glory of the framers of the 
 American constitution to say, that the 
 
 162
 
 English-Speaking Brotherhood 
 
 central idea of liberty and self-govern- 
 ment, which that document embodies and 
 develops, was the natural evolution of 
 political principles sunk deep down in 
 their hearts and minds by their English 
 ancestors. And the reality of a common 
 foundation for the government and all 
 political institutions in the case of the 
 United States and of Great Britain im- 
 presses itself upon us, not only when we 
 ponder or generalise on things political, 
 but when we are living our ordinary daily 
 lives and follow the natural interests and 
 calls of our several avocations. It is not 
 merely a question of political theory and 
 speculation, it is eminently one of prac- 
 tical experience and of the action of life, 
 individual as well as collective. At 
 every step, while the Englishman or 
 American travels abroad, even in the 
 most civilised countries, he meets with 
 administrative enactments, privileges, rc- 
 
 163
 
 English-Speaking Brotherhood 
 
 strictions, injunctions, and directions, 
 sent from the summits of government 
 into the busy plains of ordinary daily life, 
 which are foreign to him and which evoke 
 a sense of criticism, if not of irritation 
 and revolt. The same feeling of strange- 
 ness and of foreignness constantly comes 
 over him, if he attempts to follow their 
 political life, though the American con- 
 siders the legislative and administrative 
 proceedings of a European republic, and 
 the Englishman observes the laws and 
 enactments of some other constitutional 
 monarchy. On the other hand, every 
 Englishman becomes readily familiar with 
 the political system of the United States, 
 and feels at home under its rule, as the 
 American lives happily under the laws of 
 Great Britain and can at once follow with 
 interest the legislative work of the House 
 of Commons. 
 
 Far more potent, however, than the ties 
 164
 
 English-Speaking Brotherhood 
 
 of common descent, country, and govern- 
 ment, is the all-comprising bond of a 
 common language. Nay, so much do I 
 consider this the chief force of union and 
 amity, that I would substitute for Anglo- 
 Saxon, or even Anglo-American, the title 
 English-Speaking Brotherhood. For this 
 conception is at once so wide that it com- 
 prises, not only Great Britain and Ire- 
 land and the United States, but every 
 distant colony where English is spoken 
 and the same thoughts and feelings, laws 
 and institutions are therefore bound to 
 prevail. 
 
 But with the comprehensiveness of this 
 term we also at once come to the most 
 important, the central and essential man- 
 ifestation of a common life necessarily 
 leading to close relationship. 
 
 We may differ from those philologists 
 and philosophers who have exaggerated 
 the supreme importance of language, and 
 
 165
 
 English-Speaking Brotherhood 
 
 maintain that it actually covers the whole 
 of human thought, so that it is supposed 
 to precede thought. We may hold that 
 there are other means of communicating 
 thoughts and feelings, through the chan- 
 nels of other senses besides the ear. But 
 it is an undoubted fact that language is 
 the chief vehicle of human thought and 
 its communication. For none covers the 
 whole range of human experiences, from 
 the highest to the lowest, as does lan- 
 guage. And if we compare the more 
 emotional, the artistic aspect of language, 
 with that of the other arts, which are all 
 such powerful exponents of the national 
 and historical life of a people, we must 
 assign to the literary arts an exceptional 
 position, as conveying the distinct indi- 
 viduality of a nation with more directness 
 and precision than any of the other arts. 
 I would but suggest one important dis- 
 tinction among many, namely, that while 
 
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 English-Speaking Brotherhood 
 
 sculpture and music and painting and 
 decoration can all reflect the past and 
 express the present, literature is the only 
 art that, with these, can also foreshadow, 
 nay, directly evoke, the future of a 
 nation's life. 
 
 But in art we are, no doubt, approach- 
 ing the international, the common sphere 
 of all humanity. It is on the more purely 
 linguistic side that language becomes 
 such a force in national life and gives 
 such distinctness and solidarity to the 
 communities which have the same lan- 
 guage in common. Great statesmen have 
 ever recognised this. We need but con- 
 sider the efforts made in Prussia to intro- 
 duce the German language into Poland; 
 we need but follow in our own day the 
 troubles of the Austrian Empire, in deal- 
 ing with the Czech and German languages 
 in Bohemia, or the power of the mere 
 Italian language in giving substance to 
 
 167
 
 English-Speaking Brotherhood 
 
 the cry of Italia Irridcnta in districts 
 nowise Italian and with populations of 
 ethnological origin quite distinct from 
 the main bulk of the Italian people. 
 
 We can never feel fully at home in a 
 country where our own language is not 
 spoken. Das Land das meine Sprache 
 spricht is our true fatherland. We need 
 the language of our parents and, still 
 more important in the creation of national 
 sentiment, the language of our childhood, 
 used by those about us, our nurses and 
 the friends of our childhood, in our first 
 work and play, associated with our earli- 
 est daily impressions and — prejudices. 
 
 Here we come to the very root of na- 
 tional sentiment. This is the very core 
 and centre of our thought and feeling, 
 and it takes a considerable development 
 of mind and experience to make us realise 
 tha other languages can exist. We need 
 not merely laugh at the young people 
 
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 English-Speaking Brotherhood 
 
 who have just left the schoolroom for a 
 trip abroad and are astonished to find that 
 even the children in the street speak 
 French and German fluently; for this is 
 but a proof of the central, vital position 
 which our language holds in the con- 
 sciousness of ourselves as social and 
 political beings. When the British or 
 American pater familias, travelling with 
 a large family, jumps in despair on one 
 of his numerous boxes at the Naples rail- 
 way station, worried and harassed to dis- 
 traction by an army of officials, porters, 
 and beggars, and, frantically waving his 
 hands, shouts : " Is there anybody here 
 speaks God's ozvn language f^' — we can 
 appreciate of what supreme importance 
 his native language is to him. 
 
 It is further interesting to watch how 
 delicate and sensitive an instrument a 
 language is in the formation and crystalli- 
 sation of its words for the reflection of 
 
 169
 
 English-Speaking Brotherhood 
 
 peculiar, even subtle national character- 
 istics. I would but ask you to consider 
 for yourselves the nature, history, and sig- 
 nificance of the foreign words borrowed 
 or domesticated in a language. Such 
 study will tell you a good deal about the 
 position of language in national life and 
 about the national life itself. In the 
 literature of other European nations, be- 
 sides the whole vocabulary of field sports 
 and pastimes, which they have directly 
 borrowed in their English form, you will 
 find such words as "self-government," 
 "gentleman," "fair play," "the morning 
 tub,"^ made quite at home in their for- 
 eign English garb in a whole page of 
 German, French, or Italian. And in our 
 books you will find "esprit " and "chic" 
 and "homme du monde " and "rou6," as 
 
 1 No doubt you may also find " snob " and " flirt " 
 andsimiliar terms. But it is not my object to point to 
 our national defects on this occasion, 
 
 170
 
 English-Speaking Brotherhood 
 
 well as "Zeitgeist" and "Sehnsucht," 
 " Gemiithlichkeit " — perhaps even " Bak- 
 shish " and "Kismet." If you ponder on 
 such words, and what they stand for, which 
 nation has produced them, and that the 
 other was forced to borrow them, they 
 may tell you much about the national life 
 of the different people. The idea of self- 
 government, of fair play, of gentleman, 
 do not only happen to be expressed in 
 English, the facts which the words em- 
 body — the soul of the thing — were 
 born among the English-speaking peo- 
 ples, and these terms of self-government, 
 of fair play, and of the gentleman, cor- 
 respond to the essential, most lasting, 
 most all-pervading, and most character- 
 istic features of the life of the people 
 in Great Britain and in the United States, 
 whether they were first used in England 
 or America. Purists in language and 
 literature may deplore the importation of 
 
 171
 
 English-Speaking Brotherhood 
 
 Americanisms into English books and 
 periodicals; but the fact remains that 
 they do come, and naturally and neces- 
 sarily come. They very soon emerge out 
 of the stage of slanghood and quotation 
 marks to fully established and recognised 
 linguistic respectability, and their right 
 of existence is tested by this process and 
 their power of persistency. 
 
 The binding power of a common lan- 
 guage has never been more forcibly put 
 than in two lines of the poet Davidson : 
 
 " In all the hedges roses bud 
 And speech and thought are more than blood." 
 
 But language in this aspect reflects 
 more than mere words and thoughts and 
 feelings: it shows the common customs 
 of living as well as of thinking and feel- 
 ing. People who, besides speaking the 
 same tongue, eat and drink in the same 
 manner, find their pleasure in games and 
 
 172
 
 English-Speaking Brotherhood 
 
 sports and the exertion of vitality, and in 
 contemplating the same plays and pag- 
 eants, to whom the "morning tub" is an 
 essential instrument of daily life, such 
 people not only live together in peace, but 
 they ought to live together. 
 
 Language thus merely reflects the same 
 customs and institutions, the same 
 thoughts and aspirations, the same cul- 
 ture. I have already referred to the in- 
 fluence derived from the fact that we 
 read the same books. The people of the 
 United States hardly feel that their debit 
 account to England, with regard to poets 
 and writers, is greater than their credit 
 account; because they consider these 
 authors their own, as the Englishman 
 claims Poe, Longfellow, Hawthorne, Em- 
 erson, Lowell, Bret Harte, Mark Twain, 
 Howells, and James. So with the artists 
 born in America, who are fully domes- 
 ticated in England, and the actors who 
 
 173
 
 English-Speaking Brotherhood 
 
 divide their performances between the 
 two countries; while the chairs in univer- 
 sities and schools in America, are, and 
 have been, held by Britons, and an inter- 
 change is daily growing more active and 
 frequent. Day by day our life in every 
 sphere is becoming so thoroughly inter- 
 woven and intertwined that, not only 
 the merchant, manufacturer, and farmer, 
 but the author and artist, nay, the student 
 in his remote study, must consider the 
 sister-country while he is working for his 
 own. 
 
 This inevitable course of the future is 
 borne out by the past. We have a com- 
 mon history. Whatever the Revolution- 
 ary War may have meant and means to 
 the people of the United States, it can 
 only be regarded as a natural step in the 
 English feeling for self-government and 
 independence. Meanwhile, the whole of 
 American history before 1776 is to be 
 
 174
 
 English-Speaking Brotherhood 
 
 found, not with Red Indians, but with 
 the people of Great Britain. And what 
 Seeley has impressed so vigorously and 
 clearly for the Britons, when they regard 
 Greater Britain, that the British Colonies 
 form an integral part of Greater Britain, 
 and that every English political view 
 which does not include the national life 
 of Australasia and Canada is crippled and 
 distorted, — this applies to the attitude 
 which the Briton must hold to the United 
 States. The United States have not only 
 formed a central factor in the English 
 history of the seventeenth and eighteenth 
 centuries, but they are an essential ele- 
 ment in the growth of national life in the 
 present, and will become still more vital 
 in the future. 
 
 I have more than once quoted Sir 
 John Secley's "Expansion of England." 
 There is much in this book with which I 
 heartily agree, still more that I admire 
 
 175
 
 English-Speaking Brotherhood 
 
 unreservedly. But there are two points 
 in which I decidedly disagree with him : 
 first, in the state-making importance he 
 assigns to religion among communities 
 on an advanced scale of political civilisa- 
 tion. I mean the power of religion as a 
 fixed Church or Creed in the formation of 
 state, as an element which binds commu- 
 nities together. I also disagree with him 
 in his assumption that our Colonies are 
 not bound to the mother-country by com- 
 munity of interest. 
 
 Though a common creed may be power- 
 ful in bringing or holding together peo- 
 ple or races or nations in comparatively 
 early phases of political development, 
 this cannot be maintained in the more 
 advanced stages of modern politics. 
 
 Of all Western States, for instance, 
 Italy is perhaps the one in which one 
 definite Church preponderates among the 
 population with hardly a dissentient sect 
 
 176
 
 English-Speaking Brotherhood 
 
 that might not be considered a negligi- 
 ble quantity. Yet it can hardly be said 
 that this common creed was an active 
 agent in unifying Italy in the past, nor in 
 holding together the Italian monarchy of 
 our own immediate days. Germany on 
 the other hand has in our days achieved 
 complete Imperial unity against most 
 powerful separatist interests and tradi- 
 tions; and yet in Prussia, a Protestant 
 State, there are more than one third 
 Roman Catholics; while in Baden and 
 Bavaria nearly two thirds are Roman 
 Catholic. 
 
 The principle of religious toleration by 
 the state, strangely sinned against by the 
 early Pilgrim Fathers, is one of the fun- 
 damental principles in the political con- 
 stitution of the United States; and, in 
 spite of the existence of an established 
 church in England, this principle is 
 becoming more effective in the political 
 
 12 177
 
 English-Speaking Brotherhood 
 
 and social life of Great Britain with every- 
 day. 
 
 Sectarian differences, even in commu- 
 nities where the differing sect forms but 
 a small minority, always act as a sever- 
 ing element, disturbing or endangering 
 the stability of the state and community. 
 On the other hand, religion as a civilis- 
 ing power, as creating or modifying the 
 national conscience, the national ethics, 
 the force and direction of national aspira- 
 tions and ideals, religion passing through 
 the life and history of a people, is one of 
 the most effective elements in political 
 life. It leaves its deep and broad stamp 
 upon national character, and thus creates 
 or strengthens sympathy or antipathy, 
 spiritual relationship or estrangement. 
 
 Thus, for instance, the Pilgrim Fathers, 
 from the depths of their religious life, 
 convictions, and sufferings, did give a 
 definite character to the national ethics 
 
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 English-Speaking Brotherhood 
 
 of the United States: a stern sense of 
 duty, of veracity and honesty, which, in 
 spite of all individual instances in which 
 these have been disregarded or contra- 
 vened, permeate as leading principles the 
 life of the American people in every 
 phase. This is the historical resultant 
 of the Puritan supremacy in America, 
 and the British people passed through the 
 same historical process in Europe. The 
 Puritanism of the Commonwealth, nur- 
 tured by the Hebrew sense of abstract 
 duty, derived direct from Moses, the 
 Psalms, and the Prophets, however vio- 
 lent, coarse, or dry it may often have been, 
 and however much, from an artistic or 
 aesthetic point of view, we may deplore 
 its effect upon the life of Merry England, 
 was and is a most potent factor in the 
 historical evolution of the national ethics 
 of Great 13ritain of our day. 
 
 This and many other religious elc- 
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 English-Speaking Brotherhood 
 
 ments, which in the course of history 
 have made us think and feel as we do, the 
 two nations have in common, and this 
 binds us together more than the mere 
 adhesion to the same dogmatic creed. 
 They make us feel at home in a country 
 where, in the smallest dealings of daily 
 life, we at once realise that the established 
 expectations of truthfulness in word and 
 deed, as well as the ultimate ideals of a 
 high and noble life, are the same as in 
 our own home. This common foundation 
 of popular and national ethics and relig- 
 ion, the American and the Briton who 
 have travelled far afield realise as exist- 
 ing to a greater degree in each of these 
 two countries than in any other foreign 
 land, and this will always act as a real 
 and practically efficient link between the 
 two nations. 
 
 And finally I come to the question of 
 Interests which Sir John Seeley enumer- 
 
 i8o
 
 English-Speaking Brotherhood 
 
 ates as one of the three chief elements 
 holding communities together. Yet, 
 strange to say, in dealing even with the 
 British Colonies in their relation to the 
 mother-country, this great historian has 
 ignored the potency of their common in- 
 terests, and has even implied that they 
 might normally be opposed to one another. 
 Now what we say of the relation between 
 the United States and Great Britain ap- 
 plies a fortiori to that existing between 
 Great Britain and her colonies. 
 
 The state of affairs which in the last 
 few months has brought the question of 
 an effective amity between the two great 
 countries, — allies by the fulfilment of 
 all the other conditions we have just 
 examined, — ^ within such close range of 
 possible consummation and at least seri- 
 ous discussion, is the best answer to the 
 doubt concerning the commonness of 
 interest. In spite of all the historical, 
 
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 English-Speaking Brotherhood 
 
 national, social, and ethical relationship, 
 the most sanguine of us could not have 
 hoped to see the discussion taken up 
 seriously for the next fifty years. And 
 now, by one move in the Far East of sev- 
 eral Continental Powers, bound together 
 for the time being by common interests, 
 — and interests only, — and by the thrill- 
 ing and far-reaching events of the im- 
 mediate present, the realisation of these 
 common interests on our part has made us 
 see with the clearness of day the essen- 
 tial kinship between us in every aspect of 
 our national life. 
 
 And this condition of things is not 
 fortuitous, and isolated, so that it occurs 
 once now, has never occurred before, and 
 will never occur again ! Whoever studies 
 carefully the international history of 1823 
 will see how strikingly parallel the con- 
 ditions were then to what they are now. 
 In the emancipation of the South Ameri- 
 
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 English-Speaking Brotherhood 
 
 can States from the oppressive Spanish 
 yoke, imposed with the stupid brutality 
 of the mediaeval conqueror of lands, not 
 the modern coloniser, Cuba was the burn- 
 ing question. Then as now England, 
 the self-governing country, stood by the 
 United States against the Continental 
 Powers forming the Holy Alliance; and, 
 but for England, the united action of 
 these Powers would have crushed, not 
 only the independence of the South 
 American States, but would have jeopard- 
 ised the development of American free- 
 dom. The Monroe Doctrine was, in one 
 sense, as much the outcome of Canning's 
 policy, as it emanated from the combined 
 genius and statesmanship of Adams and 
 Monroe. Nay, the Continental diplo- 
 macy of the day attributed the author- 
 ship of the President's famous message to 
 Canning, and it required his direct denial 
 to discredit the report. 
 
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 English-Speaking Brotherhood 
 
 It has been, is, and will be, the policy 
 of Great Britain to recognise and to safe- 
 guard the main principles of the Monroe 
 Doctrine as much as it will be in the 
 interest of the United States itself. 
 
 But the social and economical condi- 
 tions in the national life of every people 
 have altered since 1823. The greater the 
 need and desire for independence, the less 
 the possibility of isolation. The increase 
 and facility of intercommunication have 
 made the international organism more 
 sensitive, and with it the commercial 
 interdependence, as affecting, not only 
 manufacture, but even agriculture, has 
 made it impossible for a nation to remain 
 absolutely self-contained, and will in the 
 future, if disregarded in its vital claims, 
 lead to the desiccation and ultimate anni- 
 hilation of its national prosperity and 
 life. 
 
 All great nations have now (some of 
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 English-Speaking Brotherhood 
 
 them tardily) awakened to this fact. 
 Hence the energetic activity displayed 
 on all sides, and the constant rivalry lead- 
 inc: to the growth of Chauvinism. Great 
 Britain, by centuries of continuous activ- 
 ity, probably by a natural aptitude of its 
 people for colonisation, and certainly by 
 long national training of the government 
 and the people, has stood powerfully in 
 the forefront of the colonial and commer- 
 cial expansion, and has therefore readily 
 evoked the combined opposition of its 
 several European rivals. But, as the late 
 Austrian Premier, Goluchowski, wisely 
 saw and expressed more than a year ago, 
 the Continental Powers in this commer- 
 cial struggle have' to count, not only with 
 Great Britain, but with the United States. 
 These two go together as the most for- 
 midable rivals of the Continental Powers. 
 The United States can co-operate only 
 with Great Britain in its material intcr- 
 
 185
 
 English-Speaking Brotherhood 
 
 ests beyond its border. For England is 
 the great Free Trader, the champion of 
 Open Ports. As a matter of fact, in 
 South Africa and in all British Colonies, 
 the proportion of citizens of the United 
 States who have introduced American 
 industries and have themselves accumu- 
 lated great wealth, is much larger than 
 people are wont to imagine. The expan- 
 sion of England and its opening out of 
 the world's ports to commerce, is ipso 
 facto the expansion of American com- 
 merce without the cost of blood and sub- 
 stance to the United States. 
 
 But these interests have to be main- 
 tained and safeguarded against foreign 
 prohibitive encroachment, and herein 
 forces may have to be joined by those 
 who have common interests. What would 
 happen to the China trade of the United 
 States, with its prospective growth in 
 future years, from the mere position of 
 
 i86
 
 English-Speaking Brotherhood 
 
 its Pacific coast, if Russia, Germany, and 
 France were to seize the ports and close 
 them practically to all competing trade 
 but their own ? All American statesmen 
 have realised the gravity of the present 
 situation, and have been led forcibly to 
 recognise the interests which bind them 
 to Great Britain. But looking beyond 
 the United States, and further ahead ^ to 
 future years, the question of the material 
 interests of the British Colonies, Aus- 
 tralasia as well as Canada, in the expan- 
 sion of their trade in Asia must forcibly 
 turn them to look to their uniting mother- 
 country for encouragement and actual 
 support. 
 
 And if the unjust exclusion of the 
 
 1 Nay, it is conceivable that many of the smaller 
 Powers of Europe, of industrial and commercial impor- 
 tance, yet of defensive weakness, may be forced to join 
 the English-Speaking Federation to guard their in- 
 terests against the exclusive dominance of the great 
 Continental Powers. 
 
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 English-Speaking Brotherhood 
 
 expanding United States and the British 
 Colonies is carried on in the future, and 
 right demands the support of might to 
 enforce its claims, where is the might to 
 be found with the peculiar development 
 of modern, especially maritime, warfare? 
 Where will the United States or Canada 
 or Australasia or the Cape Colony find 
 their coaling-stations, not to mention the 
 Navy ? 
 
 Let us but hope that the United States, 
 now recognising the need of strengthen- 
 ing its forces, will solve the most diffi- 
 cult problem which history presents: to 
 create a powerful army always ready to 
 serve, yet never to rule the nation. 
 
 The present Spanish-American war is 
 giving the United States a most instruc- 
 tive illustration of these needs; while at 
 the same time it brings clearly before our 
 eyes, as well as those of the Continental 
 Powers, the strength of an English-Speak- 
 
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 English-Speaking Brotherhood 
 
 ing Federation to protect the common 
 interests of each one of us. 
 
 It does not take much foresight for any 
 statesman to see that the trend of national 
 and international life for the last hun- 
 dred years has been towards the expan- 
 sion of international trade into regions 
 that formerly did not come actively into 
 the cognisance of the European diplomat ; 
 and that each State individually, or those 
 with common interests collectively, must 
 be prepared to guard, and enforce this 
 free expansion. If the United States and 
 any one of the British Colonies disregard 
 this paramount interest of their future, 
 and do not strengthen themselves by firm 
 amity or alliance where such alliance is 
 on every ground natural and imperative, 
 they will some day find their national de- 
 velopment and expansion checked. They 
 will then come under the domination or 
 tutelage of one of these great Powers, or 
 
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 English-Speaking Brotherhood 
 
 a grouping of several of them, and the 
 interests of such leading States will be 
 paramount and will dictate the course 
 of national life to the one held in tute- 
 lage. 
 
 All this, however, is impossible in view 
 of a great English-Speaking Brotherhood. 
 The Continental Powers know this, and 
 the plan of their diplomacy must be to 
 keep us asunder, by playing us off one 
 against the other. And for this the term 
 Anglo-Saxon must yield them an accepta- 
 ble opportunity. 
 
 If I have succeeded in showing that the 
 element of common interest also exists 
 in bringing Great Britain and the United 
 States together, I fear that, in dwelling 
 upon these common interests as they 
 might be opposed to the interests of other 
 great European Powers, I may have given 
 food to a Chauvinistic attitude of mind 
 or passion, similar in kind, though on 
 
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 English-Speaking Brotherhood 
 
 a wider basis, to the purely national 
 Chauvinism. 
 
 But, in dealing with the one point of 
 interest, I have merely considered the 
 question of trade and commerce. We 
 must not forget, however, that, after all, 
 commerce is not everything. It is but 
 the forerunner of civilisation and receives 
 its moral justification in being this. So 
 soon as the spread of commerce is not 
 pari passu with, does not mean, the spread 
 of civilisation, it has no right to exist, no 
 claims to the full and enthusiastic sup- 
 port of even those who do not immedi- 
 ately profit by it materially. 
 
 But there is one undoubted and unde- 
 niable cause for joy in being a Briton or 
 an American, namely, that the nations to 
 which we belong stand in the fore-front 
 of civilisation and all that this means; 
 that in political, social and economical 
 education we stand as high as any nation, 
 
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 English-Speaking Brotherhood 
 
 and higher than any group of nations 
 we can imagine massed against us. In 
 furthering our sphere of influence we are 
 necessarily spreading the most advanced 
 and highest results of man's collective 
 efforts in the history of his civilisation. 
 An English-Speaking Brotherhood will, 
 after all, only be a step towards and link in 
 the general alliance of civilised peoples. 
 Its main principles and final objects will 
 be those to which the highest and most 
 cultured members of the French, German, 
 and even Russian nation would sub- 
 scribe; and in so far, they would morally 
 be members of this alliance. Ask the 
 most cultured and enlightened Russian, 
 though he be a patriot, to speak the truth 
 before God: whether he would think it 
 for the good of humanity, including the 
 future Russians themselves, that Russia 
 as it is now, or that England should 
 dominate the world.'' If he is really 
 
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 English-Speaking Brotherhood 
 
 true to himself, I think he would like 
 
 to be a member of the English-Speaking 
 
 Brotherhood. 
 
 If Tennyson has sung — 
 
 " That man's the best cosmopolite 
 Who loves his native country best," 
 
 I should like to supplement these verses 
 
 by adding — 
 
 He loves his native country best 
 Who loves mankind the more. 
 
 Ideals are the lasting generalisations 
 of past experiences and future aspirations. 
 These will ever govern the world and 
 stimulate men to action in one direction 
 instead of another. These ideals are the 
 same to the people of Great Britain and 
 of the United States, and that is at once 
 the highest and the most lasting bond of 
 union. Here thoughts and feelings and 
 faith of a religious order force themselves 
 upon us. We feel that we are justified 
 in pushing on, and there is no need of 
 13 193
 
 English-Speaking Brotherhood 
 
 casuistry in our patriotism. For we 
 know that what we ultimately desire is 
 right, not only in the eyes of the present 
 English or Americans, or a class of them, 
 nor even for present man and mankind, — 
 but in the eyes of the lasting embodiment 
 of all highest good as man can think it 
 and feel it and love it, — that is, God. 
 
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