THE CLASS WITH CHARACTER.
[To ME Ear-OR Or THE "SPECTATOR.") do not wish to take up the valuable space of your paper unnecessarily, but I cannot refrain from expressing my delight at reading two letters in your issue of June 21st. The first is that by " Theist " under the heading "The British Character "; the other by Mr. Baldwin, "The Class with Character."
I am one of those who believe in the goodness of the British race, whose fatal fault is that it is too confiding and unsus- picious. The rank-and-file under the stress of a great menace which threatened the existence of the race and of civilization showed on the fields of Flanders their real character. Those left at home, easily led, minus the backbone of the best, became a prey to intrigue and false prophets, whose democracy insists openly in political elections for the secrecy of the ballot, but who take the most assiduous pains that it shall not obtain in their Trade Unions. These leaders cannot see that they are heading for exactly the same thing that it has taken seven million lives and thousands- of millions of the world's capital to put down. So far are they from being convinced, by the stern logic of facts, that force breeds and always will breed opposition, that they themselves threaten their own country- men with its employment. The poison of lawlessness is inhibit- ing the natural feelings of our people- from emerging in that benevolence which I believe inheres in our race. Ships arriving at Liverpool with cargoes of food and other necessaries are compelled to sail with much of their precious merchandise unloaded through some freak of the dockers. In this and other ways the poison works. I agree with " Theist " that until we recognize our. interdependence with each other, and rely on the operation of a spirit of sweet reasonableness, no new era can dawn. For the clergy as a whole, and much more for our doctors, I have not merely a high regard, but an estimation of their unselfishness amounting almost to veneration.
When shall we find men with the courage to tell our workers the truth, for our politicians of all parties are hopeless ? They have raised unveracity to a scientific art, which they practise with cunning unashamed.—I am, Sir, &cs
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