Mr. Wyndham, as Lord Rector of the University of Glasgow,
delivered on Tuesday an address to the students, of which he is evidently proud, for he has circulated it in a pamphlet, but which we have found a little confusing. Its subject is " The Development of the State," and there runs all through it a wish to define patriotism ; but it is not defined. It is not pride of race, for many States which possess it are made up of many races—e.g., the Swiss—and it is not love of country, for the tendency of great States is to expand beyond the limits comprehended in that word. It is something else, compounded, apparently, of race-pride and respect for a great body of tradition, which, we may remark, the mass of any population rarely knows, and yet is patriotic• Reverence for tradition, however, is essential, in Mr. Wynd- ham's judgment, to the formation of the Empire-State of the future, for without it the facilities of transit, which are essen- tial to such a State, will ultimately produce cosmopolitanism, which is an enervating force, and caused the ruin of old Rome. It is, in fact, by a just balance between " transit and tradi- tion" that the State of the future must be guarded from decay. There is truth in the statement, and there are many happy phrases in the address ; but we cannot say that it is a convincing one. Patriotism is a far stronger cement than cosmopolitanism can be ; but few thinkers will deny that Christianity is intended to be cosmopolitan, or will assert that it has weakened the nations which have embraced it.
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