ENGLISH TRADITIONS
LORD BIRKENHEAD ON INNATE
CONSERVATISM,
Lord Birkenhead, in a recent address to the Stationers’ Company, said that almost alone in Europe the English people had adhered to the fundamental conceptions of the national traditions and life. In seeking the reason something must ho attributed to England s insular position, hut that was not snflicient in itself. There had always been j among the people an innate conserva*; tism. caution, and prudence which had | separated ns most conspicuously from the Latin races. W e had always been a people very slow to reach a conclusion, very difficult to move to groat, anger, very difficult to embark in a great quarrel; hut whenever wo had become convinced that a set of circumstances had arisen which wore likely to bo destructive of us as a nation wc had never hesitated. Wo had never hesitated in the days of Philip of Spain, of Louis XIV., of tho great Napoleon, or of the Kaiser. If one read what had been the most striking characteristics of those who went before us in those other crises one would be astonished to find how little they differed in their qualities, in their initial prudence, their ultimate anger, and resolute, even fierce determination, from those which were shown by tho nation in the unhappy but glorious days from which we had recently emerged. It was true that men had now arisen in our midst preaching new and strange doctrines, which, if adopted, would be completely subversive of tho system that had lasted so long; but he was unalarmed, for he did not believe the spirit of a people would alter very suddenly. He was certain that if menaces from within our own body were to become seriously subversive of that order which Englishmen of all people must value it would he proved that the resources of the English people were still unexhausted, their common sense still available to solve these problems, and, in tho last resort, the majority would not hesitate to impose their will—whatever means might be necessary—on what, after all, would always remain a small minority.
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Evening Star, Issue 19797, 22 February 1928, Page 2
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351ENGLISH TRADITIONS Evening Star, Issue 19797, 22 February 1928, Page 2
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