In Regard To This Aged England

New Zealand Listener, Volume 28, Issue 724, 29 May 1953, Page 8

In Regard To This Aged England

they even spoken by an Englishman. Ralph Waldo Emerson used them a hundred years ago. The full quotation is printed below, and is followed by others that have been selected for what they and the fundamental consistency of the English character. Of necessity, it can be only a brief glance at a theme which runs through Enflish literature and which may be found also in writings from other lands. For the Englishman has been studied for centuries in anger, admiration, amused exasperation and unwilling respect. In these last days before the Coronation it seems appropriate to bring together a few passages which may show why the subject remains endlessly interesting, not only to ourselves, but to the world. fg SHE words inscribed above are not our own. They were not spoken of our own time, nor were can tell us of the variety, the contradictions,

England, with the possessions, honours, and trophies, and also with the infirmities of 1000 years gathering around her, irretrievably committed as she now is to many old customs which cannot be suddenly changed; pressed upon by the transitions of trade, and new and all incalculable modes, fabrics, arts, machines, and competing populations-I see her not dispirited, not weak, but well remembering that she has s¢en dark days before; indeed, with a kind of instinct that she sees a little better in a cloudy day. and that in storm of battle and calamity she has a secret vigour and a pulse like a cannon. I see her in her old age, not decrepit, but young. and still dering to believe in her power of endurance and expansion. Seeing all this, I say. "All Hail, Mother of Nations, Mother of Heroes, with strength still equal to the time; still wise to entertain and swift to execute the policy which the mind and heart of mankind require at the present hour." Ea * a HOUGH the ship be out among the ‘" billows, yet it will remain sound and unbroken if the cable holdeth, Alfred the Great Ts England never did, nor never shall, Lie at the proud foot of a conqueror, But when it first did help to wound itselt Now these her princes are come home again, Come the three corners of the world in | FEEL in regard to this aged Emerson . arms, And we shall shock them; nought shall make us rue, It England to itself do rest but true, Shakespeare, "King John." HERE must be a beginning of any creat matter, but the continuing unto

the end until it be thoroughly finished yields the true glory. Sir Francis Drake, in a letter after Cadiz, May 17, 1587. x ] KNOW I have the body. of a weak and feeble woman, but I have the heart and stomach of a king, and of a kine of England, too; and think foul scorn that Parma or, Spain, or any prince of

Europe should dare to invade the borders of my realm. Queen Elizabeth 1, Speech to the troops at Tilbury on the Approach of the Armada, 1588. * * * OW does he appear to us? He comes tramping down to us through the ages in his great wide boots, a countenance swollen and reddish, a voice harsh, sharp, and untunable, with a countrv-made suit, a hat with no band,

doubtful linen with a speck of blood upon it. He tramps over England, he tramps over — Scotland, he tramps over Ireland, his sword in one hand, his Bible in the other. Then he tramps back to London, from whence he puts forth that heavy foot of his into Europe, and all Europe bows before him. When he is not scattering enemies and battering castles he is scattering Parliaments and batterine eeneral assem-

blies. He seems to be the very spirit of destruction, an angel of vengeance permitted to reign for a season and efface what he had to efface, and then to disappear, Lord Rosebery, "Cromwell," a speech delivered at the Cromwel; Tercentenary Celebration, 1899.

UR Trimmer is far from idolatry in other things, in one thing only he cometh near it, his country is in some degree his idol; he doth not worship the , sun, because ’tis not peculiar to us, it

TamDies about tne world, and is less kind to us than others; but for the earth of England, though perhaps inferior to many places abroad, to him there is a divinity in it, and he would rather. die than see a spire of English grass trampled down by a foreign trespasser: he: thinketh there are a great many of his mind, for all

plants are apt to taste of the soil in which they grow, and we that grow here, have a root that produceth in us a stalk of English juice, which is not to be changed by grafting or foreign infusion. George Savile, Marquess of Halifax, "The Character of a Trimmer," 1688. ‘THE royal navy of England hath ever been its greatest defence and ornament; it is its ancient and natural

strength; the fmoating bulwark of the island, William Blackstone, "Commentaries." HEY who consider the Freedom of -Britons to be only their own concern, discern not the political connexions between the different states of mankind. Every Nation, that desires to be free, is interested in the fate of Great Britain. There -is erected the Temple of Liberty,

where her yotaries are animated with the purest flame; there -is her Fortress to which they, whose freedom is in danger, resort for protection; if Liberty is once lost there, it must soon cease to exist upon the face of the earth. It is no wonder therefore that those Princes, who have fettered their own subjects and prepared chains for the rest of mankind, should express their resentment at the power of Great Britain. Pietas et Gratulatio collegii Cantabrigiehsis apud Novanglos, From pretace by the President and Fellows of Harvard College to the King, 1761. O, Sir, when a man is tired of London, he is tired of life; for there is in London all that life.can afford. Samuel Johnson (Quoted by Boswell in his ‘‘Life.’’)

REJOICE that America has resisted. 1766, H of C. F I were an American, as I am an Englishman, while a foreign troop was landed in my country, I never would lay down my arms — never — never — never! H of L, 1777. Earl of Chatham

Ba DENY them this participation of freedom, and you break that sole

bond, which originally meade, and must still preserve the unity of the empire. Edmund Burke Conciliation with America, 1775. . a power to which, for purposes of foreign conquest and subjugation, Rome, in the height of her glory, is not to be compared; a power which has dotted over the surface of the whole globe with her possessions and military posts, whose morning drum-beat, following the sun, and keeping company with the hours, circles the earth with one continuous and unbroken strain of the martial airs of England, : Daniel Webster, 1834 "HEY feel themselves," said Goethe, "by no means strange or embarrassed in this foreign atmosphere; on the contrary, their deportment in society is as full of confidence, and as easy, as if they were lords everywhere, and the whole world belonged to them. This it is which pleases our women, and by which they make such havoc in the hearts of our young ladies." "Still I would not assert," answered ' Eckermann, "that the young Englishmen in Weimar are more clever, more intelligent, better informed, ‘or more excellent at heart than other people," si "The ,secret does not lie in these things, my good friend," returned Goethe. "Neither does it lie in birth and riches; it lies in the courage they have to be that for which nature has made them. .,. Such as they are, they are thoroughly complete men. That they ere also sometimes complete fools, I allow with all my heart; but that is still something, and has still always some weight in the scale of. nature," Conversations of Goethe, 1828 SLAVES cannot breathe in England... William Cowper, "The Task."

HE Government was contemplating the dispatch of an expedition. to Burma, with a view to taking Rangoon, and a question arose as to who would be the fittest general to be sent in command of the expedition. The Cabinet sent for the Duke of Wellington, and asked his advice. He instantly replied,

"Send Lord Combermere." "But we have always understood that your Grace thought Lord Combermere a fool."

O thy ways, old Jack: die when thou wilt, If manhcod, good manhood, be not forgot upon the face of the earth. then I am a shotten herring. There live not three good men unhanged in England, and one of them is fat and grows old., Shakespeare, King Henry IV, Part lI. — OP Oe

No fruit ripens in England but a baked apple. Rivarol

"So he is a fool, and a d-d fool; but he can take Rangoon." G. W. E. Russell, "Collections and Recollections." F an earthquake were to engulf England tomorrow, the English would manage to meet and dine somewhere among the rubbish, just to celebrate the event. Douglas Jerrold : * */ * BELIEVE there is no permanent greatness to a nation except it be based on morality. I do not care for. military greatness or military renown. I care for the condition of the people among whom I live. There is no man in England who is less likely to speak irreverently of the Crown and monarchy of England than I am; but crowns, coronets, mitres, military display, the pomp of war, wide colonies, and a huge empire, are, in my view, all trifles light as air, and not worth considering, unless with them you can have a fair share of comfort, contentment, and happiness among the great body of the people. Palaces, baronial castles, great halls, stately mansions, do not make a nation. The nation in every country dwells’ in the cottage, and unless the light of our Constitution can shine there, unless the beauty of your legislation and the excellence of your statesmanship are impressed there-on the feelings and conditions of the people, rely upon it you have yet to learn the duties of government. John Bright HOLD it for indisputable, that the first duty of a State is to see ‘that every child born therein shal] be well housed, clothed, fed, and educated, till it attain years of discretion. But in order to the effecting this the Govern,ment must have an authority over the people of which we now do not so much as dream. John Ruskin, "Time and Tide."’ * : HOSE were the days when an Englishman’s home was still to’ some extent his castle, not as now when every spinster is wont to look ynder her bed for an Enforcement Officer. J. K. Stanford HEREVER we go, all over the ‘earth, it is the solitary Briton, the London agent, or the Milordos, who is walking restlessly about, abusing the natives, or raising a colossus, or setting the Thames on fire, in the East or the West. He is on top of the Andes,

or in ai diving-bell in the Pacific, or taking notes at Timbuctoo, or grubbing at the Pyramids, or scouring over the Pampas, or acting as Prime Minister to the King of Dahomey, or smoking the pipe of friendship with the Red Indians, or hutting at the Pole. John Henry Newman {Tt has been said that England invented the phrase, "Her Majesty’s Opposition"; that it was the first government which made a criticism of administration as much a part of the polity as administration itself. Walter Bagehot, "The English Constitution." abe

bl 4 E shall never sheathe the sword which we have not lightly drawn until Belgium réceives in full measure all and more than all that she has sacrificed, until France is adequately

secured against the menace of

aggression, until the _ rights of the smaller nationalities

of Europe are _ placed

upon an_ unassailable

foundation, and until the military domination of Prussia is wholly and finally destroyed. Herbert Henry Asquith, "Speech at the Guildhall," November 9, 1914.

[VERY position must be held to the last

man: there must be no retirement. With our backs

to the wall, and believing in the justice of our cause, each one of us must fight on to the end. Earl Haig, Order to the British troops April 12, 1918. * ‘THE only man who seriously tried to raise politicians to a higher level was Guy Fawkes. Anon. * HEN, after months of travel, one returns to England, he can taste, smell, and feel the difference in the atmosphere, physical and moral-the curious, damp, blunt, good-humoured, happy-go-lucky, old-established, slowseeming formlessness of everything, John Galsworthy-

T would hardly be too much to say that into this one word, duty, the English have distilled the whole body of ethics . . . summed up the principles of religion and supplied the rule of conduct. To this conception belongs one undeniable merit, simplicity. . . "To do one’s duty" suggests nothing exalted, magnificent, spectacular. You hear in these words no rallying cry, no prophet’s voice, no sound of trumpet call or rolling drums. They adjust themselves to the simplest intelligence and to the circumstances of every hour. . . And if you look for the core of English thought and English history, its inspiration, I do not know where else you will find it. The sense of duty shines through the actions of Beowulf, the first hero of the race. It echoes through all the genera-

tions since. It thrilled the heart of England in Nelson’s famous signal at Trafalgar. It summed up the philosophy of Wellington in words which might have come from the lips of Beowulf a thousand years before-"There is little or nothing in this life worth living for, but we can all of us go straight forward and do our duty." No more English a sentence was ever uttered. W. MacNeile Dixon, "The Englishman," 1931. ~~ ee es ee ee. PP age + eee ae

;-VEN though large tracts of Europe and many old and famous States have fallen or may fall into the grip of the Gestapo and all the odious apparatus of Nazi rule, we shall not flag or fail. We shall go on to the end, we shall fight in France, we shall fight on the seas and oceans, we shall fight with growing confidence and growing strength in the air, we shall defend our island whatever the cost may be, we shall fight on the beaches we shall ficht an

the landing grounds, we shall

fight in the fields and in the

streets, we shall fight in

the hills; we shall never surrender, and even if.

which I do not for a moment believe, this

island or a_ large part of it were subjugated and _ starving, then our Em-

pire beyond the seas, armed and guarded by the

‘british Fleet, would carry on the struggle,

until, 1n God’s good time,

the new world, with al] its power and might, steps forth to the rescue and the liberation of the old., Winston S$. Churchill, Speech after Dunkirk, 1940.

— \V HAT to do with the wounded? The problem we had all so long dreaded had at last arisen. Theré were five

of them unfit to move . . . The truck had got away, and there was no knowing when the Japs would come back on us. We hoisted three of them on to mules, and bore them down to the village a hundred yards away; and there we left them with their packs, and earthen jugs of water, in the shade under one of the houses. One of them said, "Thank God, no more walking for a bit"; one, Corporal Dale, said, "See and make a good job of that bridge"; and John Kerr said, "Don’t you worry about us, sir we'll be all right." Bernard Fergusson, "Beyond the Chindwin." HE essential and most influential initiative of British

statesmanship has proceeded not from genius of the first order, but from the splendid second rate, which can cooperate readily with its like. We have had indeed emergent and dominant per-sonalities-a Cromwell, a Chatham, and (posterity may yet say) a Churchill: men who have ‘been or been felt to be like a Colossus, bestriding the narrow world with great steps. But just as the English voice is low, and the English singer has not the great volume of the Continental-just as our. choirs are greater than our soloists-so it would also seem to beg in politics. Perhaps a general high level is the enemy of. the highest; and where so many can do so well, there is little room for a single person to do suprinely well, We have many leaders; but. not, as a rule, a leader. . .

Individuality is not extinguished-on the contrary, it may be said to be ex-tended-when it acts in and through a group. . . But we should be doing wrong to the national record, and ‘committing a treason against its majesty, if we failed to appreciate the influence of the creative individual personality in the roll of British statesmen. Such figures stand by themselves, in solitude; and by virtue of their very solitude they -have seldom left a line of successors. But their names are connected with great moments and great achievements; and when the great moment recurs, and the great achievement is again needed, their inspiration recurs. The war from which we have just emerged began on that day of September which was the great day of Cromwell’s life-the day of the battle of Dunbar, the day of the battle of Worcester. In the course of the war Mr. Churchill became Prime Minister in the spirit, and almost in the circumstances, in which the elder Pitt became virtual Prime Minister during the Seven Years War. In time of war it is Cromwell and Chatham who wake again. Sir Ernest Barker, "Essays on Government," 1945,

England is the paradise of individuality, eccentricity, heresy, anomalies. hobbies and humours. Santayana

The Englishman is an acquired taste. Price Collier

But "tis the talent of our English nation Still to be plotting some new reformation. John Dryden, "Sophonisba."

W HAT is cricket? Something the Eng-lish--not being a naturally religious people-have had fo invent to give them some idea of the eternal. Lord Mancroft