Lord Rosebery on Monday made a capital speech on the
value of manners to the boys of the Royal Grammar School at Guildford. He pointed out how much the men of the seventeenth century insisted on good manners. In his opinion the seventeenth century had produced the greatest breed of Englishmen. Now he feared that manners were decaying all over the world. Good manners were a sign of charity towards our fellow men, but they were also a sign of self-respect. A man who respected himself was always well-mannered to others. In public life and also in commerce good manners were an enormous advantage to their possessor. We welcome Lord Rosebery's remarks. It is a strange thing how frequently politeness is confused with servility. Really the polite man is the most independent of agents. Certainly a rude man in a humble position is much more likely to be treated as a despicable serf by his employer than is the man who imports courtesy into all human relations. The dignity of the latter keeps the most insolent and bullying employer at arm's length. It is difficult to get uneducated people to understand this. It is a common mistake to think that rudeness—which in some fearfully muddle-headed way is sometimes thought to be " democratic "—is a sign of independence.
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