WHAT SCOTLAND WANTS
SIR,—Will you be so good as to allow me a little space in which to make a brief reply to Mr. Steel Maitland's letter of May 18th?
(1) My communication of May 4th was not " very English," for the good reason that I am not half English in blood, and that some of it is Scotch. (2) As to my letter " engendering " the spirit I deplored, I must remind Mr. Maitland that it was a moral challenge, and that such a challenge always rouses resentment in some of the persons criticized. The fact is inevitable and must be endured by the critic. (3) As to my words ... " took Scotland into partnership," the expression was borrowed from a keen patriot, Sir William Darling of Edinburgh, who used it, during a recent B.B.C. Brains' Trust discussion, in a manner that induced a wholesome human glow in the hearts of all who heard him. As to my added words, ". . . in her growing Empire," they are literally true as I have used them. The Empire was well founded and growing on October 23, 1707, when the United Parliament met for the first time. I Prefer G. M. Trevelyan's way of putting things to that of Mr. Maitland. He has written! "This new English world, so full of vigour, freedom and initiative, laid the foundation of the British Empire and the United S ates." (Italics mine.) Up till the time of the Union, the English would not allow the Scotch to trade with the Colonies, but, as soon as it was effected, everything was thrown open. (4) Mr. Maitland's reference to the Smarts is not happy. Macaulay, himself half Scotch, wrote: " On the day of the accession of James I, England descended from the rank the had hitherto held, and began to be regarded as a Power hardly of "�e second order." (5) Since the Union, Captain James Cook, Wolfe, Clive, A'arren Hastings, the Younger Pitt, Nelson and Cecil Rhodes were nong the Englishmen who helped to make Britain great. A nation that ye such sons to the Empire is nulli secundus. Mr. Maitland rightly gays • at Scotland has no need to be jealous. Of course she has not! But ts! How this world is darkened by- emotions that are not necessary!—
Oaktree House, West End, March, Cambs. ROWLAND D. LLOYD.
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