ENGLAND AND AMERICA.
(To THE EDITOR OF THE "SPECTATOR."] StR,—Your article upon England and America in the Spectator of April 14th is both true and timely. With refer- ence to the criticism which will probably be showered upon England during the coming Presidential campaign in America, it is well to remember that the entire South African problem contains within itself a nest of paradoxes ; that it is the oligarchical Republics which are in reality standing in.the way of a truly representative government; that England to- day is in the exact position of the American Colonies in the war of the Revolution with their demand for representatien, and that it is President Kruger who takes the position of the Lord North Ministry of one hundred and twenty-five years ago. But the foreign-born adopted American citizen (of which the Democratic party in the West is principally corn. posed), seeing in the present struggle in South Africa a con- test between an Empire and two small Republics, naturally favours the struggling Republics. In the light of this average opinion, it must be conceded that both in the Spanish War, with its entailed policy of Imperialism, and in the entente cordiale between England and Ameriva to-day, President McKinley has exhibited the unmistakable qualities of leadership of a very high order, and has success- fully and with great dignity stood the strain of Criticism in- herent in such a position as that which he has assumed. The real problem at present before England and America is this, —viz., to reconcile the lesser conception of national obligation to the higher law of racial oneness. 4 racial unity in England and America is contending with a national divergence. The Anglo-Saxon race is one (that is the larger category). The Empire of Great Britain and the Republic of the -United States are oppoSite forms of government (this is the lesser category). And it is this spirit of racial unity to-day in the Empire of Great Britain and the American Republic, as well as in the Dominion of Canada and the Australian Common- wealth, which is seeking to reconcile all lesser divergencies of creed, colour, caste, and climate into the central dominating wedge of Anglo-Saxon enlightenment and moral sway.—I am, Sir, &c., WM. WILBERFORCE NEWTON.
La Brancherie, Dinan, France.
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