THE "TONE OF EMPIRE."
[To TOE EDITOR OF THE "SPECTATOR."] Stu„—May I mention several points which seem very much to counteract the symptoms of nervousness which you notice in the British Empire? Lord Rosebery is our Liberal Foreign Minister ; we do very well without employing Mr. Labouchere as a Minister at all. That funniest of men seems to succeed much better in amusing the upper classes than in leading Radicals.
Mr. Rhodes is Prime Minister, and a good deal more, at the Cape, and neither he nor our representative at Uganda seem at all afraid of responsibility. Mr. Gladstone asked us years ago to lay a very firm hold on Egypt, as the key to our road to India; nor do I think many Liberals, at any rate, are now much afraid of the young Khedive, or even of his Suzerain.. Our action of to-day in India on the Silver question is bold even to rashness, as some think. But there is no sign what- ever that Lord Herachell is losing the sympathy of the Liberal Party, or of any other. I believe that the real strengh of the growing feeling for Home-rule in Ireland comes from- the great hope that generous treatment of Ireland will heal, or tend to heal, the cleavage between Irishmen and English- men in every one of our colonies, and in America, thus tending to make the world—to use one of your expressive phrases—a sort of drawing-room for the Anglo-Saxon race.
Is it not a sign of calm strength that we are waiting with so little excitement for the award of the Behring Sea arbitration It is stronger than mobilising fleets and sending ultimatums. Bluster and battle-ships express strength, no doubt, and give tone to an Empire ; but we who are still con- tent to be led by Mr. Gladstone have a great hope that better days are coming. Christian thinkers for eighteen centuries have been astonished at the truth of their Master's great ethical dis- covery that the meek do, in the long-run, "inherit the earth." No nation, no Empire, that is not very strong, can expect to have faith enough to apply that principle to politics. We who speak English shall give the world a lift indeed if we aim at such a noble standard as that. Are you sure, Sir, that we as a nation are not trying P Are you sure, if we try, we shall
Addington Vicarage, Croydon, July 17th.
[We believe that we are trying to defeat, and also that we shall succeed in defeating, Mr. Gladstone's retrograde and unjust policy.—En. Spectator.]
Previous page
