A COMPARISON OF BRITISH AND AMERICAN LIFE [To the Editor
of the SPECTATOR.] SER,—I do not think there is really very much difference between Mr. William Braid White and myself about the very great improvement in what may be called the mechanical conveniences of life in America these last thirty years.
All generalisations concerning a continent of over a hundred million people are of course inaccurate, and if space had not compelled me to confine myself to pushing home one important point, I would have made certain reservations ; as that in the small towns of the South, the hotels are as bad or worse than the hotels of Great Britain. But that does not alter the fact that over large parts of America the revolution of which I have spoken has taken place, as indeed Mr. White himself seems. to admit. England, as a whole, has not moved with anything like corresponding speed, and it is surely useful to bring this home to English people. We shall not maintain our national position by a complacency which overlooks inertia and a certain lazy-mindedness.
I do not doubt that 'Mr. White has gone through an experience similar to mine, as he finds himself sometimes in America, sometimes in England. When in America I find myself preaching mainly the virtues of the English, and pro- testing against a sometimes ignorant disparagement of those virtues. But in England, it seems more useful to point out the best qualities and achievements of America, to make an attempt to explain them in order that we may not miss their lesson. I happened to be writing for an English audience.—
I am, Sir, &c., NORMAN ANGELL. Northey Island, off Essex Coast.
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