24 JULY 1909, Page 3

Under the heading of "Vagabond Impressions" the Daily Mail has

been during the past week publishing some very interesting criticisms of English life by Mr. Frank Fox, an Australian journalist. Mr. Fox, very rightly, does not spare our faults, but on the whole he is favourably impressed by our social spirit. He thought to find a bitter class division between the selfish rich on the one hand and the "wolfish poor" on the other. Happily that was an error. He found instead a singular social amenity in England, in spite of some serious discrepancies between merit and reward, and some great gaps to be bridged between the very rich and the very poor. "On both sides of the dividing line there seems to be a general desire for better- ment, the one class honestly anxious for any ameliorative action of which the wisdom can be shown, the other patiently confident of an ultimate social adjustment. The rich, as a class, seem to have a sense of duty; the poor, as a els gq, have

a sense of confidence in the leaders of the community. The offensive plutocrat glorying in his wealth and his powers of oppression I have not met at all; but still presume his existence, though he cannot be a common type."