THE FIGHTING BLOOD OF ENGLISHMEN.

Waikato Times, Volume XXXII, Issue 2581, 26 January 1889, Page 2 (Supplement)

THE FIGHTING BLOOD OF ENGLISHMEN.

Di.sctTssiNf: in St James Gazette the qiic. 4 - tion whether we are or are not still the people we were in the days ot "that glorious, pious, and immortal memory,' and in the ages which went before, Mrs Lynn Linton makes the following brilliant remarks : —

Restricting our area and looking at certain of our gilded youth, things do seem shaky, to say the least of it. Our young men about town are not exactly after the pattern of our IVroys and Dacres, our (Irabams and Featherstonhaughs, " all stark moss-tropper.s and arrant thieves" though they were, still bravo men and gallant, \varrio;s, whose courage somewhat redeemed their lawlessness. Of our gilded youth, the robuster kind—those who have a dash of the old moss-trooping spirit, turned to baser u--es—gn to bed at dawn and get up in the afternoon ; drinking, smoking, gambling 1 , and vagabondising meanwhile. The more sedentary kind, who would have fished for carp ami illuminated missals -100 years ago, spend their strength on a little music and a great deal of upholstery with here and there an outflow of oratic; piii'try or form of ,"e-l heticism which ranks colour with morality anil certain llowrrs with spiritual aspirations. And both kinds pay much attention to tie cuisine of their friends, and pronounce t.hcs>! worthy of association or unworMiy according to the skill of their cook and tho date of the vintages laid down in their cellars. These young 1 men abound ; so do Bohemians, who will not submit themselves to any kind of restraint and who carry out the law of individual freedom lo the ultimate. Whatever theii social status, they are our 'Arrys ; scorning all idea of discipline from without oi within, and setting good manners at defiance as so much antiquated formality they disdain to ndoi-t. Then, again, wf

have our luxurious parvenus, whose ostentation and magnificence are making the blue-blooded take to simplicity as a kind c.f protest—thee, too, are not of th® same race as those wh'.-> vanquished the Spanish Armada and stormed tlie heights of Ijadajoz. All this and more does the ]ipssimi>t point but as so many signs of tho time", and mile-stones on tho way to national destruction ; and bis holloweved, open-mouthed audience believes him, and holds that " Mono, mono, tckel, up'narsin " has been written on the wall against us as it was against Be'shazzar. We have been weighed, and found wanting in tho manly qualities which make a great nation, and our glory is departing from us. We 11, all this may bo true, and in part if not in totality. We have too much softness arid ell'eininaucy and hnmanitarianism and luxury ; and wo are given up more to persons than to principles, and to party feeling rather than patriotic. And yet, when wanted and called on, wo are there; and the fighting power of tho brave old race does not seem to have diminished, nor has its courage uor its energy. We hold our own against such enemies wo have to meet; we lose our lives in the deserts, oil exploring expeditions, on tho Alps, or on any kind of manly exploit; and wo have not yet discarded tho lion for the domestic tabby. Some of our philanthropists would like that we should, and some of our women— those who want to see men reduced to tho standard of women, combed and , curled and dainty-handed, and abhorrent '■ of all rude sports, and as nicely behaved as so many good little maidens fresh from school ; but the sense of the nation . repudiates the tabby, just yet at least, and holds to tho need of the lion hearted ; manliness for men. Until tho long- | looked-for and often talked of millent nium sets in real earnest there will be no good in showing' tho pattern of the ' ploughshare into which wo are to beat . our sword", or in extolling the virtues of ' a pruuiiig-hook over those of a spear. I Life has its vouu'h places and its rough work ; and embroidered slippers and , white kid irloves do not always suit either ways or things. It is a pity truly that so ' much of the animal and so much of the j baibariau remain in tho midst of our civilisation ; but there Ihey are, and j! both animal and barbarian have to be ( recognised and provided for—.and against —if wo would keep our place among the nations, and not become as soft as a cargo ' of sea cucumbers. How else, but by the power of tiue manliness, can we stem tho torrent, of rullianism ready at any moment to overflow and swamp us all in one black j flood of lawlessness and disorder; If our , philanthropist and lion-fighting' men — ' our tenderhearted women who think pain j the greatest, evil of life, and those ot such ethereal purity as to to hold smoking for sin—if these had their own way, every drop of fighting blood would be drained out of our men, and we should be left a

prev to all cur foes of every kind. Just as their fafal decision of " unarmed neutrality" ruined Wnico and gave her into (he hands of the armed stranger, so would our superrofiueu'.eiit of gentleness, and even of morality, ruin us ; aud the pessimists and the dogs would have the best of it. i'int every now and thou, when hope Hags and belief grows weak, some splendid sacrifice, some magnificent achievement, lifts up the fame and brightens again the splendour of the bravo old name of Englishmen. The great good I'au is not dead. He is only asleep at tho hour of the fervid noon when he always slept, and though L'tilinnrus has move than once "nodded at his helm," he too will awake when he is wail ted. But the women and their hackers must not have their will, and tho fighting blood of Englishmen must Dot be watered down to the soft milk of weakness. It we have to sin at all, wo must rather sin on tho other side ; and perhaps the pessimists are right so far—the excess wo have to guard against at tho present time is that of sentimentality rather than of rude roughness.