America and Britain.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume XLVII, Issue 793, 8 April 1905, Page 2

America and Britain.

_<J THE BOND OF LANGUAGE. Mr Voultney liigelow, who recently visited Australia, gave the first of a bourse of 25 lectures on " National Expansion "■ in the lecture hall of tho Boston University Law School on February 3, and we quote the concluding paragraphs of the report in tho Boston Morning Herald of the oliowing day I don't wish to flatter the British unduly, but rs we go on we find thftt a great par), of our success wilt be due to woj'King hand in hand with England as a great exIpansion trust. The thing that 'holds us together, aside from common pecuniary interest, is, in fact, the language. We are the only people who 1 understand each other when we call each other names. It is refreshing I olso to find in London just as vigor'pus slang ns you find here. Jt ' jsftows that there is an undercurrent pf understanding which for our colonial purpose is of great impoitauce, | " For our purposes, Napoleon is Mi» starting-point of nalionul ex-pans-ion in the colonial sense. After ho was sent to St. Helena four kings formed the first great trust, *vhich had for its object the secur- i ing of absolute peace, and a reaction ■ pt in a.gajns(, the bfutal rule of j orce. And from that time dates tho jjuiet movement of population to i Australia. New Zealand, and the i papp of Good Hope. Then began al- i <> thp agitation for the aifooltion of ( hp sjavp trade. " The period of expansion in Eng- i jand that followed I_hu Napoleonic ivi.c Ik <• , I

•" wars is ono o| tho most niagnilicent ■e repopdst of what human knowledge, P nterprise, und liberty can do. And what m»ikots history interesting ia not the groat' buttles which are fought; these are but. j indicating what is going on underneath. 'Jilie loss to llussia in the 'J present conflict of 130,000 men is nothing compared to the fuel that ® Jjphind that army stand a people I [.who u)'C thoroughly discontented and " praying Ujgjit ant} day for the dis■v pomfitujfe of their own aj'ms." I Mr Kjgelow coniliatpd the popular ' Idea that England is, and always has been, a •" land grabber," cono lending that she was solicited to go ,1® South Africa and Australia and ! ' establish Governments, and that ' British sentiment was against it. 'j Thig. he said, was also the cuuse . . pf pijs Counjcy whenever the Govern- . .'"ft 11 'cafhed out after new territory. j . I , the parly days," he said, . i l ' English afwl Americans wept out foil trade. Thfiy didn't, care who ' owned the colonies. In those days j free trado was the cry of American | _ politics— - free trade and sailors' . {rights.' That was the American I , |PO c tr! n P- To-day we talk about , I CApiorjcnn protection,' as though it jwas not the shame of (J|vipai and Spain, as though we had invented |thut barbarous institution." (Laugh- ! tei'.) , | Mr Higelow closed by calling at- ' fontion to the fact that the English ' langujigis {s being carried to every,' part of the glol t a. In the German 1 ■ colonics, he said, it is spoken by I ithe servants and coolies, who can- ' not be induced' to learn German. .' ,And in other parts of the world a similar condition is found. This is' l believed to be Vi signilicant fact in I' Connection with national expansion If | " Of all ihe bonds which hold poo-! 1 pie together, l ' ha snld, "„f all the I ibonds that assist in national ex-|l pansion, there is none to-day whirh j 6 is so important lo us as the bond c or language. And than bond is to-'« day spreading throughout Lhe world s in a liiystei-ioue way, owing lo that r silent little expaas(on that took f place in the years following tlio Koh e jpolßOJJic mftj,' l i