THE "MECHANICAL" ENGLISH.

Auckland Star, Volume LIX, Issue 227, 25 September 1928, Page 6

THE "MECHANICAL" ENGLISH.

A keen sense of the snper-eensitirenew of the Irish—your correspondent being Irak —was my sole reason for quoting Irish critlet. Listen to John Bull himself. Marquis of Salisbury: This war (the Boer) must Iμ finished. If we were an exotic race like am friends on the other side of the Irish Sea, our Empire— granting we could have built o» —would hare gone to pieces long ago. Fortunately, we are not a race of poets and dreamers. We tower among the nations, because we are practical, determined, and metallic. And we must continue so, if we do not wish to find ourselves a minor race, towed in tho wake of some first-class foreiga power." Thomas Hardy: "Both our lower and our higher orders speak without thinking. Wo are so practical, so devoid of imagination, that the sweetest of our poets and writers, even in their highest flights, often fail in hiding their real characters, and so everywhere we see this material 'skeleton' peeping out." Shelley's schoolmates found him one day reading poetry. (An English schoolboy reading poetry!) * And they fell on him, and smote him hip and thijrh.* (These boy« were of the better class—not of -The People of the Abyss.") I regret your correspondent has read Shaw to so little purpose. Thus the London "Anthenaeum": "Shaw is brutally frank and candid. He throws the searchlight of his genius on our shortcomings, our shams, our sniujj complacency, and our most repulsive v »ce—hypocrisy. The great Irishman makes us squirm, but he proves—conclusively proves —with the truth of a sunbeam, that we are a nation of veiled Mokannas." Foster Fraser: "The Englishman is sc<-n at his best as a conservative. TTk- core of our character is conservatism. We will never develop into a race of sloppy sentimentalists. We were never emotional at any stagv of our oxir-tenoe. Emotional races do not excel in constructive attributes." Rudyard Kipling: "It i* our duty to strive. We have always striven. "Trust in God. but mind and keep your powder dry. . This really means 'Trust yourselves." We do not believe in emotion. Emotion is a poor stepping-stone, and has never assisted us over any crisis." Russell's "History of the Crimean War" tells us before the first battle the French Commander-in-Cliief read a most prolix proclamation, recalling the chivalrous history of France, the traditions of the French flag, the valour and courage of the French soldier. The English C.I.C. issued a two-line proclamation as follows: "The reveille will sound at 5 a.m. E%ery soldier has b?en ordered an additional ration of rum.* , (The English commander apparently understood the "spiritual d~pths* of the Englishman referred to by your eaf respondent.) HERBERT MULVIHILL.