"Ella EDITOR or TIM 'NORTII ANERICAN REnzw.9 Sias,—It was with
surprise, horror, and disgust that I read in your esteemed magazine the article called England' by the Germanized Englishman Houston Stewart Chamberlain in the July number. Were I an Englishman, I should not take the trouble to notice such an abominable misrepresentation of the English people by one born of English stock, any more than an American would be influenced by the arguments of Benedict Arnold; but, being an American, I cannot stand quietly by and see people for whom I have the highest respect and a most intimate knowledge represented to the American public as 'A nation of dissemblers, forgers, liars, and cheats.' Not only is such a state- ment an absolute insult to the sacred memory of the founders of New England, and the leaders in Colonial and Revolutionary days of our great country, but it is as false as it is disgusting. Having spent five years among the English, having been an undergraduate of Oxford, a Deacon and Priest of the Church of England, working in an English parish, and knowing both rural work and the settle- ment work of the East End of London, as an American born and bred, I say without hesitation that the article England' in the July number of the North American Review gives a false im- pression of the English nation, and is true neither to history nor to the present time, but is an atrocious libel on an honest and God-fearing people whose chief fault has been a too great indulgence in the past to foreign spies, agitators, and preachers of sedition and treason in their midst, because of the English love of liberty and fair play.
I can pardon a German who sincerely believes what he is told about the English enemy, I can respect a brave German soldier laying down his life for the Fatherland,' I can sympathize with the GermansAmericans in this country who fear a war between their own people; but an Englishman, born of an English mother, raising his voice against his own native land at this crisis in his country's existence, is something so contemptible, so unnatural, so loathsome, that words fail to express one's feelings adequately about it. What further shall be said of the writer who excuses himself on the ground of honest criticism, when his whole argu- ment rests on a perverted point of view P When any student of history knows the groat and wonderful career of the English nation and her position of moral leadership in the world! Facts are stronger than theories, and to-day the great fact of the British Empire is its united effort to save the *world from Prussian militarism and its devotion to a sacred cause. Strange that a State which is rotten to its very marrow' should produce such devotion to its interests on the part of distant Canadians, Australians, New Zealanders, South Africans, and oven alien East Indians ! Strange irony of fate that a nation of dissemblers, forgers, liars, and cheats, rotten to its very marrow,' should inspire so much enthusiasm and devotion in its defence, and that in the Vnited States tho general feeling is predominant that if England Balls, then fall our liberty and happiness. But let us dissect Mr. Chamberlain's argument and see what an extraordinary point of view the German mind produces on alien subjects.
First of all wo are met by the assumption of caste in England. Evidently the writer is unacquainted with caste systems, such as prevail in India, or he would realize that there is no snoh thing as caste in England, as the very essence of caste system is that of ritual defilement in coming in contact with a member of a lower caste. Now there is in England a well-marked class system whioh, objectionable as it is when brought into politics, yet as a part of the social fabric is essential and useful, and is common to all countries. Every one must have their sphere of activity in the life of the community. Wo need our hewers of wood and drawers of water, and the more we recognize the different stations of life the more we realize how they all fit into each other, not as inferior and superior, but as parts of a great whole. The business of true government is to see that her citizens have a chance to develop their talents either as Prime Ministers or as nursery maids. The door to civil distinction is oloeod to nobody in England who has ability to open it. The present condition of Parliament is a good indication of the power of the people. Marked as the differences in class may be, there is nothing to compare with the aristocratic spirit of the Prussian officers ; the English people would not put up with the arrogance of the officials of the German military party, English officers, unlike their Teutonic cousins, do not push ladies off the sidewalk. That Mr. Chamber- lain knew no more about his servant's condition and interests than about the sou/ of his walking-stielc ' was probably Mr. Chamberlain's fault ; certainly the servant is to be congratulated on a lucky escape. I know of no place where servants are bettor treated than in England, and where there is a better mutual understanding between master and servant, the latter taking a real pride in his employer's family and a real appreciation of his position. Tho contrast is so marked between our foreign-born and indifferent servants and the spirit of mutual understanding and goodwill that is so charaoteristio of English households. Of course there are many exceptions, but the rule still holds good that the English servant is essentially a faithful and useful retainer and the master a wise and appreciative friend to his servants.
When we come to history, Mr. Chamberlain is n more fortu- nate in his attacks on his kith and kin. He tells ns that only the upper classes have done groat deeds for England, that the lower classes, the peasants of other lands, have boon conspicuous by their absence. Who but the bowmen of Old England won the battles of Crecy and Poitiers, thus establishing the yeomen of England as the world's foremost fighting men? Who defeated the Spanish Armada but the seamen of England P Who won the battles of Naseby and Marston Moor but the yeomanry of England, under the generalship of Oliver Cromwell, one of their own P Hired foreign mercenaries there were later, thanks to the Hano- verian dynasty, but what soldiers and sailors have ever surpassed the Virginians and Now Englanders under Washington and the British under Wellington and Nelson P When Lord Nelson at Trafalgar hoisted his signal 'England expects every man to do his duty,' he knew the appeal would go to the hearts of every English sailor, and it did. The conquest of India with such names as Clive and Lawrence attached to it is a record that no nation on earth can show to-day, when the descendants of 'con- quered India' are now pouring out their life blood to save the British Empire to which they are proud to belong. Mr. Chamberlain seems to consider the Elizabethan Age as the greatest in English history, yet he inveighs against the War, Trade, and Piracy' methods which he considers have degraded England. Now it was the Elizabethan Age when this policy was so openly advocated and carried out, both to the ultimate good of England and the world. A little study of Froude's Rnglieh Seamen in the Sixteenth Century might be helpful in showing what English sailors had to put up with in those days from the tyranny of Spain. Englishmen being regarded as heretics by the Spaniards they were considered lawful prey, and turned over to the tender mercies of the Inquisition. Queen Elizabeth refused to declare war on Spain, her subjects had no redress, and so were forced to defend themselves. The accoisition of the West Indies and the abominable slave trade while judged by our lights was disgraceful, almost as bad as the violation of Belgium by Germany in 1914, yet was characteristio of tho spirit of the age. The 'West Indian slaves were freed without a shot being fired, and some time before the Civil War which liberated ours and fixed a greater gulf between whites and blacks than exists in the West Indies to-day.
In speaking of English history and quoting the acquittal oP Warren Hastings as a sign of proverbial dishonesty, why not instance St. Bartholomew's massacre as a proof of the cruelty of the French to-day P Everybody knows that the Georgian ago, with its suppression of the Church by forbidding Convocation and its 'rotten boroughs,' was a corrupt time. Thank God England is not like that to-day. I shall never forget an incident that happened to sae three years ago in Weymouth. I had taken the 'bus from the station to the Channel Islands boat, had paid the fare of sixpence, as I thought, and was already on the steamer, when a voice from the shore said, "Alf a moment, Sir ; 'ore's your ton bob.' I had given the man a ten shilling piece, two and a half dollars, instead of sixpence, twelve cents, it being dark and easy to confuse the two coins, which are about the same size. I have never been robbed or cheated in England of a penny, and I know that among business men the standard of financial honour is well known. Gambling and vice are very common there as elsewhere, but I know from my own personal experience there is not a sot of men anywhere more honest and more fair than the English sports- man. The spirit of fair play and good sport permeates the groat 'schools and -Universities of England. I speak as an Oxford man who has played football and rowed among them. Having confused history and presented it in a light that is so evidently 'made in Germany' and for German consumption, Mr. Chamberlain regales us with the customary tales of English hypocrisy. I have noticed that whenever any one wants to throw dirt at England he attacks the outward observance of religion by Englishmen as ' hypocrisy.' This is an easy thing to do, and is sure to find a responsive echo in the hearts of the many Atheists and Freethinkers, to whom all religion is hypocrisy, being an experience of which they know nothing. I do not mean to do Mr. Chamberlain an injustice, for in his article he brings in very little about the Church of England, but I noticed that reference is made to hypocrisy of Englishmen, and of course wo all know what that means. People who talk this way don't know what they're talking about. Not only has the Church of England got such a reputation for saintliness and knowledge as to have given her the title Stupor Mundi,' but to-day in the slums of the great cities, college students, priests, sisters, settlement workers carry on a work that is unexcelled anywhere, while wherever the British flag flows follow missionaries, clerical and medical, Bibles and Prayer Books. Take, for example, the Zenanas of India, where English women missionaries penetrate with the greatest difficulty and danger, or the wilds of Africa, where, by the shores of the Victoria. Nyanza, a great cathedral has been built by the natives and a weak people saved from exploitation by other nations, through the power of Groat Britain, Colonial settlers in the busk of Australia and the mountains of Canada worship and bring their children up to worship according to the old Church 'at home.' But of course the self-sacrifice of the English clergy is just another sign to the German mind of the hypocrisy of the English—as Mr. Chamberlain so comprehensively puts it, A. nation of dissemblers, forgers, liars, and cheats, which is rotten to the marrow.'
The English 'Tommy' who is doing such a fine work to-day for the freedom of the world, whether he comes from England, Canada, or, Australia, will not be influenced by egotistical and disloyal countrymen in England or America ; he is too busy doing his bit' to care, and he doesn't waste his time in idle words when he knows that he is there in the trenches to do or die. The American reader of popular magazines, however, is in a very different position. Being American, be is anxious to know the truth and nothing else, and when he reads an article by an Englishman attacking his own country he is naturally curious to understand what is meant. I am curious too, Mr. Editor, to know why such an article should be published in your paper. Were it by a German, I could understand it and hold my peace, but being so unlike the American view of respect and loyalty to one's country, putting both sides of the question before the public when presented by their proper and natural advocates, I cannot help but feel pessimistic at the departure of the recognition of the virtue of 'loyalty,' and exclaim with Cicero, 0 Tempora 0 Mores.' Bar Harbour, Maine, July 29th, 1915. A. C. Lkanan."
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