OUR NATIONAL CHARACTERISTICS. [To THE EDITOR OP THE "SPECTATOR. "] SIIC,—The
following extract from the late Mr. Charles H. Pearson's writings may interest your readers at the present time:— "The instinctive feeling in England is that if an invention is valuable it would have been hit upon before; the feeling in America, that whatever is new ought simply because it is new to have a trial. Naturally, perhaps, the conservative impulse is strongest in our military administration. In 1848 the Prussian needle-gun attracted so much attention in the campaign against Denmark, that a committee of officers was appointed to report upon it. They agreed that it was quite unnecessary to give up ' Brown Bess,' and the change to a long-range rifle had accord- ingly to be made during the Crimean War. We hold our Empire and preserve national existence on the condition of being stronger at sea than any other Power, and yet France—a formidable rival and possible enemy—was allowed to outstrip us for a time in the construction of ironclads."—(" National Life and Character," p. 103, Second Edition, 1894.)
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