[TO THE EDITOR 07 TER " SPECTATOR."] Sin,--Will you please
permit an Englishman who has lived in Scotland for a good many years to give tho results of his observation upon the sentiments of Scotsmen ? There are two very distinct classes of Scotsmen : the ono small, tho other large ; the one educated and broad- minded in outlook, the other limited in education and intensely local in sentiment. Broadly Breaking, educated Scotsmen prefer that " British " should be used to describe the collective institutions of the United Kingdom—such as the Army, the Navy, the Government, and so on—but they are not rabid. They recognize that the common language is English, the literature English, that " England " and " English " are always used in their various forms in Continental countries to describe the United Kingdom and its institutions. They recognize, too, that " Britain " and " British " are artificial words, with no sentiment of long usage attached to them, that they have no universal accer tame such as is accorded by Frenchmen and Germans ever; w hero to " Francais " or " Doutschor," and that Englishmen do not care for them. I have again and again beard this subject discussed at Seottish dinner tables and in clubs ; while the general oentiment has always been in favour of " British " and "Britain," like use of " English " and " England " by Englishmen has always
been understood and excused. Every one agrees that " England" and " English " are far and away the more beautiful words, and mean to those of us of the South what the harsh words " Britain " and " British " can never moan. If we had, therefore, to do only with the comparatively small educated, travelled class of Scotsmen, the class of men and women who read and enjoy the Spectator, there would be no difficulty. We could go on using " England " and " English "— words which we love intensely and with which we would not readily part—without causing any serious offence to our junior partners of tho North. But the great majority of Scots men and women are a quite remarkably stay-at-home people. They have been educated in the narrowest fashion ; the history which they learn at school in their early years is local Scottish history ; when they go on holiday they rarely leave their own country ; when their work carries them to England or to the Dominions they seek out and associate with other Scots men or women. They religiously keep up anniversaries—those deadly institutions which, happily, we scarcely know in England— Burns' days, St. Andrew's days, Bannockburn days, New Year's days. All this tends to make Scotsmen members of a National Mutual Admire. tion Society. But though one may smile at the intense clannishness and provincialism of the average stay-at-home Scot, one cannot with wisdom ignore his local patriotism or his long historical memories. The local Scot is not hostile to England, as a great many Irishmen are hostile, but he is actually now in this twentieth century jealous of England, jealous of its overwhelming population and wealth, and bitterly opposed to any suggestion that the identity of Scotland and Scotsmen shculd ' e merged in the larger identity of England and Englishmen. To men and women of this class—which includes the great majority of Sects men and women resident in Scotland and else- where—the words " England " and " English " used to describe the United Kingdom and its collective institutions cause acute resentment. The war, instead of lessening the localism of tl e Scots, has greatly increased it, since, to the majority of the people, the war is quite literally one between Scotland and Germany. Those who think that I exaggerate should spend a week or two reading the widely circulated evening newspapers of the large Scottish cities, the true local papers, very few of which have over been read or even heard of by Englishmen. Those is no hostility expressed towards England or the English, but everything which is nct Scottish is either ignored or smothered up by employing the word "British."
Let me make my meaning clear, and incidentally reveal to Scots- men, who read this letter, how completely in gratifying their own sentiments their countrymen ignore the national patriotism of Englishmen, Irishmen, and Welshmen. To the stty-at-home Scot, and to the newspapers which cater for him, everything which is not Scottish is" British." But everything Scottish is emphatically Scottish, not British. Thus Sir Douglas Haig is always a distinguished Scottish soldier, but the late Lord Kitchener was a great British soldier and administrator. Miss Edith Cavell was never written of as a noble Englishwoman, but as a noble British woman. The brave lady doctors who went to help the Serbians were, however, always Scotswomen, never British women. These instances may seem small—so they are taken as instances—but when the practice which they indicate is of universal usage in the local Scottish Press—I do not refer to the big morning papers, though none of them is quite free from my criticism— the stay-at-home Scots, who rarely become intimate with those of other parts of the kingdom, often come to believe as a fundamental article of faith that no man or woman is of the smallest consequence in the kingdom or in the Empire unless he or she be Scotch. Many do actually believe this ; they say it too quite simply as if there were no doubt about it, and then naively add : "But Scotsmen, whatever they may do, never blow their own trumpets." The dear things are entirely unconscious that when it comes to trumpet-blowing and persistent advertisement, there is not a race in the world which can approach Scotsmen. I have perhaps wandered a little from my point, which is this : that when one has to do with a people who are so intensely local in education and in sentiment it is a mistake to judge them by the men and women whom Englishmen usually meet—the educated, travelled few—and to be guided by the easy rational views of these few. The Scotsman in Scotland does, in actual fact, bate to be lumped in with the English, and since a big people should show a kindly, if slightly smiling, courtesy towards a small prickly one, it were well for us of England to humour the poor dears and employ the words " Britain " and " British " whenever we can properly do so.—I am,
[There is no valid answer to Mr. Copplestone's appeal to logio and expediency, hut it is curious that words which did not hurt so ardent and sincere a Scottish patriot as the poot Campbell now give such bitter offence. Campbell sang of how "the might of England flushed to anticipate the scene" at the battle of the Baltic, and how the "mariners of England" (even then twenty per cent. Scotsmen) guarded our native shores, and no one abused him. Nowadays he could not have used such phrases without running the risk of being stoned as a traitor.—En. Spectator.]
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