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FIRST VIEW 0F THE ENGLISH.

VAGABOND IMPRESSIONS. Mr Frank Fox, an Australian journalist, who is visiting England, is giving his impressions in the Daily Mail. Mr Fox, as editor of the Australian Workman, and later as editor of the National Advocate amd founder of the Lone Hand, has been closely connected with the Australian Labour party. His views on come subjects are therefore of some interest. Here are some of his impressions : — I confess to having arrived in England ready to cry "Woe!" at the street corners. For I had read much of .the •' Decay of England," and yet more of a kind of patriotic invective which, while not making any verj direct statement, took the tone of presuming England to be in the last stage of sloth and' indifference. ' Now, after about two months of very close study, I admit to a much-corrected im- j pression. • London, in this beautiful July sunshine, is a most marvellous city — much the most marvellous I have ever seen. Apart froan iJhe uinpleasajnt amount of distress, which is quite new to me as an Australian, and whicb I did noi see on my way here via Canada and the United, States, there is a ohann in the life ana movement in the world'-s monster capital which enthralls the visitor who, like most Australians, has read of it and hungered! to see it all his life. Englishmen have their well-known faults — self-complacency, ignorance of what is happening in other parts of the world and. the progress being made by other nations. But British faults are very much on the surface : your newspapers are not afraid to speak of them. Now that I am here and- beginning to understand the national habit of selfanalysis, I think 1 understand better the Englishman as he really is, and how the J rest of the world, taking him at his own i self-deprecatory valuation, regards him. — Impressions of National Vigour. — What are uppermost now in my mind when considering ansy aspect of British life are ideas of vigour, not of sloth ; of stability, not of crumbling ; of awakening vespoxk^ibility, xxo-t, o£ sleeping t?ickuiess. ! Indeed, it is difficult now to imagine how • the earlier mood was ever nourished to such strength, even on its diet of that [ pessimism which* England manufactures — ' as she imagines — purely for home con- ' sumption, but which gets abroad, andi also, unfortunately, into the British colo- ! nies. The love of a civil growl which is said to be inherent in the English ter- J perament, and is illustrated by Pimaro's definition of the ideal *lub secretary as i " one who gives members every -excuse but no reason to grumble," can, when applied | to national politics, lead to serious mis- j conceptions. I A conr-i deration of its social spirit is ! of the fir.-t importance in the judgment ! of the state of a nation. It is of far more ! moment than trade figures or armaments. It i? the toul ; they are but the banking account mA the weapons. On that point j I did not actually expect, on coming, to j .•vee London streets paraded by insolent noblet> chanting Down, down, you low and middle classes, ac they publicly oppressed' the poor and ; the humble. But I did seriously think that, coming from a country where social conditions are generally very even, my sympathies would have to be braced to withstand the shock of a bitter class divi- ( sion between selfish rich on the one hand' • and wolfaVh poor on the other. That was ar error. There seems now to me to be a singular social amenity in England. There are obviously some serious disci apanoi-es between merit and reward ; there are some great gaps to be bridged between the very rich and. the very poor. But on both sides of the dividing line there seems to be a general desire for betterment — the one class honestly anxious for any ameliorative action of which the wisdom can be shown, the other patiently confident of an ultimate social adjustment. The rich, as 9. class, | seem to have a sense of duty ; the poor, [ a3 a class, have a sense of confidence in j the leaders of the community. There 1 are — of course there must be — some selfigh and repressive plutocrats ; but _ dearly, ; they are exceptional to, not representa- j

tive of, the spirit of the wealthy in England. There are also w»reajsonable ,'poor who think* of a class war and not of a' 6oeial reconstniction. But they too eeem to be an insignificant minority. — A G-rumbler. — I have met so far only one of this type, though I have talked with some hundreds of workers in all callings. He was a labourer in a faT north manufacturing town, and had> been educated, I gathered from his statements, on -she literature of th© International School of Revolutionary Socialism and of a crude class of "free thought" philosophy. His pessimism would have gratified the most extreme members of one school of patriots. " The country is rotten ! " he told me decisively, and had that one answer to all urging on the question of the duty of national defence. "The country is 4 rotten. It is run for the capitalists." Questioned, he said that he had no vote, but be had the right to a vote, and " didoi't trouble to get it, for the oouoitry was rotten." I was tempted to tell him that as between t>he country; and himself the rottenness was not difficult to place, and did so. He had nofc even the grace to get angry. " The couiv try was rotten-," be said to close the dis-i cueeion. The offensive plwtocrat glorying in. his wealth and his povgajs of oppression. I have mot met at all ; {>ut still presume his existence, though he cannot be a oommsftn type. The " dude " or over-dressed yopng man' class is another I have failed as yet to locate, and have almost come to the elusion that the " dude " is raised in England mainly for the export market. Certainly specimens find their way to Australia, aaid give rise to an impression there in some flraarters that tihe rich young man of England is an, exquisitely accoutred ass, who, separated from his Bond street clothes, would loss all claim to consideration. I find the average young man of England a very earnest and serious worker. If anything, he takes himself too seriously a 6 he "digs"- in Oxford rooms, " goes into the City," "nurses a constituency," or prepares to do his duty in army or navy. I have come to terms of acquaintanceship, I might almost say friendship, with several young men of the well-to-do clase who are making very real sacrifices of personal comfort to serve the public interest, in come direction—sacrifices that certainly would not be madle by the average young Australian in the same circumstances— and these seem typical of their class. — General Urbanity. — A very general iirbamtj is characteristic of London and of England. There is not the delightfully fTee-and-easy spirit of Australia, but no class is haughty and no class is rude. Some sections of tba rich acd of the poor -are, to a very distiilguiehed degree, polite and oonisi'd'oi'wte. The public servants.- ar» particularfy courteous and obliging*. This is a; good sign alike of national good temper and of national nerve. If England-* had "the junrps " it could not be so urbane. Urbanity is one of the sure signs of selfreliance. There are naturally several point of criticism which suggest themselves to a visitor from vivid Australia.: these wall be referred to later. What I wish to record fu-st of all was the glad surprise with which I found a number of gloomy judgments shattered. A nation in which all classes, in the main, have a common sease of patriotism and a mutual confix d&nce ; in which the averaze man is a practical optimist ; in which the young man hats a keen sense of duty — such a nation is sound at heart. —The Traditions of Sport.— Extraordinarily fair-mmded i s the British spirit. The tradition of sport seems to be carried into all sorbs oi social ajid business relations, ajxl wJla.t " isn't cricket" k generally reprobated. Th© passion indeed foi' fair "play is carried almost to excess. To give a man a chance, and a second chance, and even a third chance, is the general feeling. This interferes a little, I should say, with national efficiency in come of the sterner tasks of life ; but it is very admirable and suggestive of a good reserve of strength. It is the feeling of the man who considers that he can give away a point or two and 1 still win. A bj'-produot of British fair play is a curious sort of generosity towards old! favourites. I was much struck by a conversation on Trumper at a well-known club luncheon table in the early days of the cricket season. I had hazarded the opinion that Australia should not play Trumper, " who had seen his best days." " Mr Trumper, sir," said an old army man> at the table, " is a great cricketer, though he is in bad luck now. I should play Mr Trumper if I knew he would not make a run." The table cenerally noddedi approval. I can understand amd admire the psychology of this ; but it is a feeling which can bs carried too far. At an important meeting 1 noticed 1 aa.

on " a man who bad intervened, with 1 the best of intentions and some good cause. It was curious to note how in the audience a ripple of sympathy went round lor the victim. Nothing evidently could have been more useful to him than to evoke on his side British fair play. I In the English character, so far as I have been able to judge it in the mass, the point for criticism I have edcoumtered is a certain lack of what one might oail elan. It i* evidently an excellent character to sit down in a trench or doggedlyi to fight for a position inch by inch ; but a little infusion of the Celtic spirit of " rash " would seem, to my Australian mind, improving. The times move very . quiefcly nowadays, and sometimes things have to be done in a hurry, decided in a hurry. But, after all, one cannot have the ideal. Perhaps with more elan there would be less doggedness — and co a balance of loss.

Permanent link to this item
Hononga pūmau ki tēnei tūemi

https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/OW19090908.2.397

Bibliographic details
Ngā taipitopito pukapuka

Otago Witness, Issue 2895, 8 September 1909, Page 76

Word count
Tapeke kupu
1,745

FIRST VIEW 0F THE ENGLISH. Otago Witness, Issue 2895, 8 September 1909, Page 76

FIRST VIEW 0F THE ENGLISH. Otago Witness, Issue 2895, 8 September 1909, Page 76

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