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Britishers in Britain : being the record of the official visit of teachers from Manitoba to the Old Country, summer, 1910

F. J. Ney · 1911 · Scanned text · Free in the US

89,310 words · about 6 h 15 min to read

Period artwork: Interior of the Bodleian Library, 1845
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About this book

Author
F. J. Ney
Language
English
Published
1911
Length
89,310 words · about 6 h 15 min
Sections
49 reader sections
Text
Scanned text, read from page scans by OCR; may contain errors
Rights
Public domain in the United States · PD-US by publication date

 

Contents (49)
  1. Front matter about 1 min
  2. Foreword about 4 min
  3. Part I.— PRELUDE. Chapter under 1 min
  4. Part II.— THE PROGRAMME under 1 min
  5. Part III.— COMMENT AND IMPRESSION about 5 min
  6. CHAPTER I. A Retrospect about 16 min
  7. CHAPTER II. Appeal and Response about 7 min
  8. CHAPTER III. Societies Interested about 7 min
  9. CHAPTER IV. In Canada. — The Composition of the Party about 10 min
  10. CHAPTER V.— Name (full) about 11 min
  11. CHAPTER VI. Winnipeg to Montreal about 9 min
  12. CHAPTER VII. Montreal to Liverpool about 8 min
  13. CHAPTER VIII. Liverpool to London about 9 min
  14. Chapter I. The London Teachers’ Day about 6 min
  15. CHAPTER II. Receptions about 7 min
  16. CHAPTER III. Visits and Entertainments about 8 min
  17. CHAPTER IV. At Homes about 3 min
  18. Chapter V about 4 min
  19. CHAPTER VI. Kew and Richmond about 16 min
  20. CHAPTER VII. Windsor and Eton about 8 min
  21. CHAPTER VIII. Margate about 9 min
  22. Chapter IX about 5 min
  23. CHAPTER X. Oxford about 2 min
  24. CHAPTER XI. The Vacation Week about 9 min
  25. CHAPTER XII. Portsmouth and Cowes about 6 min
  26. CHAPTER XIV. At the Royal Caledonian Asylum about 4 min
  27. CHAPTER XV. At Stratford-on-Avon and Warwick Castle about 6 min
  28. CHAPTER XVI. Dublin about 4 min
  29. CHAPTER XVII. Killarney about 7 min
  30. CHAPTER XVIII. Ayr and Edinburgh about 6 min
  31. CHAPTER XIX. Dunfermline and Stirling about 5 min
  32. CHAPTER XX. Loch Lomond about 3 min
  33. CHAPTER XXI. Carlisle about 36 min
  34. CHAPTER XXII. The Lake District about 7 min
  35. CHAPTER XXIII. Preliminary Arrangements about 25 min
  36. CHAPTER XXIV. The Homeward Voyage about 6 min
  37. CHAPTER I. A Review about 11 min
  38. CHAPTER II. Some Impressions of Our Visit about 12 min
  39. CHAPTER IV. Continental Tour about 3 min
  40. CHAPTER V. English Hospitality about 5 min
  41. CHAPTER VI. Vacation Week at Bournemouth about 3 min
  42. CHAPTER VII. With Miss Tullis at Leatherhead Court about 4 min
  43. CHAPTER VIII. Hospitality in Carlisle about 5 min
  44. CHAPTER IX. An Impression and a Plea about 10 min
  45. CHAPTER X. Hospitality in Barrow about 5 min
  46. CHAPTER XI. A Letter from Barrow about 5 min
  47. CHAPTER XII. Impressions of the Party about 11 min
  48. CHAPTER XIII. Paragraphs about 9 min
  49. CHAPTER XIV. Miscellanea about 15 min

Continue:

Front matter

Gbis Dolunie,

HOMELAND.

“Shall not we, through good and ill.

Foreword

It is with mixed feelings that this volume on the Visit of the Manitoba Teachers to the Old Country during the Summer of 1910, is placed before the public. I am conscious that much has been omitted which should have found a prominent place herein, while, possibly, much has been included which might with advantage have been left out. For this, for the unavoidable repetition of words and phrases, and for any other discrepancies, I ask the reader’s kind in¬ dulgence.

My objects in preparing this present work are manifold, and can be explained as follows : —

(a) To place on record the first organised visit of Teachers

from any one part of His Majesty’s Over-sea Dominions, and the many kindnesses received throughout the Tour.

( b ) To endeavour to show what a little co-operation can

do in bringing the distant parts of the Empire into more direct communion with the Motherland.

(c) To plead for further interest in subsequent visits of

other parties of teachers from Over-sea to the Old Country.

(d) To provide a souvenir of the Tour for the Members of the Party and for all those directly interested.

(e) To earnestly plead for the Equality of Certificates in

all parts of the British Dominions, whereby a con¬ tinual interchange of Teachers may be possible. Interchanges are now made between foreign coun¬ tries, but under the present conditions no such opportunities are given to Teachers within the bounds of our common Empire.

VI

It may be of general interest to readers to know that one result of the Visit is the formation of an “ Old Country League ” by the Members of the Party.

Other teachers who may subsequently visit the Homeland under similar conditions will also be invited to join. It is impossible to give a comprehensive description of the League in this short preface, but among its many objects the follow¬ ing stand out with praiseworthy prominence : —

(1) To arrange for Re-unions of the Party, or any of its

several sub-parties.

(2) To provide means for the continuance of friendships

formed in the Old Country during the Tour.

(3) To assist newcomers from the Old Country, when¬

ever opportunity arises, or when requested to do so by those in England who were interested in the Visit.

The League is yet in its infancy, but it has already accomplished much, and it is the hearty wish of all its mem¬ bers that it may grow to form a Chain of Fellowship from point to point throughout the Empire. It has for its motto —

Imperfectly and inconsistently as the Tour may have been described, I sincerely hope that Britishers in Britain will prove of some little interest to those who seek to weld more closely the Dominions and Dependencies of our grand old Empire.

FRED. ]. NEY.

Bridge House,

Rye, England.

VI 1

EDITOR’S NOTES.

THE portraits used throughout this volume are reproduced by kind permission of the owner in each case. The snap¬ shots are by members of the party.

This work, the cost of production of which is borne entirely by the Organising Secretary, is not designed for presentation as a mark of appreciation for kindnesses received ; it is written merely to place these kindnesses on record. The Editor trusts, therefore, that the announcement which he made to the effect that there would be no complimentary copies will be rightly understood.

* * * *

The actual cost of the Tour, to each teacher, from Winni¬ peg to Winnipeg, exclusive of the visit to the Continent, which was not a part of the official programme, was 2i4-83 dollars. This does not include organisation expenses, these being almost entirely borne by the Organising Secretary.

* * * *

Almost throughout the volume capitals have been given to the words “ Party ” and “ Teachers ” when referring entirely to the tourists, while both the singular and the plural are used in connection with the former word. The reasons for these apparent superfluities or grammatical idiosyncrasies will readily be seen.

VIII

The following parts of the Programme were arranged by the VICTORIA LEAGUE:—

Visits to Eton College, Hatfield, Apsley House, Vacation School, Houses of Parliament, Oxford, Canterbury, Warwick Castle, Zoological Gardens, St. Paul’s Cathedral and Westminster Abbey.

Reception by the Earl and Countess of Aberdeen.

“ At Homes” as mentioned in Chapter IV of Part I.

Unfortunately, photographs of Miss Talbot and Miss Percy Taylor, the Secretaries of the Victoria League, were lost in the post, and owing to the impossibility of securing others in time, are not inserted in this volume.

A photograph of the Lord Provost of Edinburgh was also received too late for reproduction herein.

At the time of going to press, news has come to hand of the sudden death of Mr. W. Phillips, the ex-Mayor of Carlisle. The Members of the Party have lost one of their kindest friends, and England one of her best patriots.

Erratum. — On page 74, it is incorrectly stated that the remains of Archbishop Laud are interred beneath the chancel of the Palace Chapel : it is here that Archbishop Parker is buried. The reference to the Lollards’ Tower on the same page is also somewhat erroneous ; the real Lollards’ Tower was a part of old St. Paul’s Cathedral.

Part I.— PRELUDE. Chapter

I. A Retrospect .

II. Appeal and Response .

III. Societies Interested

IV. In Canada— The Composition of the Party ...

V. The Party

VI. Winnipeg to Montreal .

VII. Montreal to Liverpool .

VIII. Liverpool to London .

Page, i

Part II.— THE PROGRAMME

I. The London Teachers’ Day ...

II. Receptions

III. Visits and Entertainments .

IV. At Homes .

V. Publishers’ Receptions .

VI. Kew and Richmond .

VII. Windsor and Eton .

VIII. Margate .

IX. St. Albans and Hatfield House

X. Oxford .

XI. The Vacation Week .

XII. Portsmouth and Cowes .

XIII. Canterbury .

XIV. At the Royal Caledonian Asylum

XV. At Stratford-on-Avon and Warwick Castle

XVI. Dublin .

XVII. Killarney .

XVIII. Ayr and Edinburgh XIX. Dunfermline and Stirling

XX. Loch Lomond .

XXL Carlisle .

XXII. The Lake District XXIII. Barrow-in-Furness XXIV. The Homeward Voyage (H41)

no a 2

X

Part III.— COMMENT AND IMPRESSION

Chapter. Page.

I. A Review . 218

II. Some Impressions of Our Visit . 226

III. Lessons by the Way . 230

IV. Continental Tour . 237

V. English Hospitality . 240

VI. Vacation Week at Bournemouth ... ... ... ... 244

VII. With Miss Tullis at Leatherhead Court ... ... ... 247

VIII. Hospitality in Carlisle . 251

IX. An Impression and a Plea . 255

XII. Impressions of the Party . 27 x

XIV. Miscellanea . 287

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.

His Excellency the High Commissioner for Canada (Baron Strathcona and Mount Royal, G.C.M.G., G.C.V.O.,

Page.

Strathcona School Football Team, Winnipeg' ... ... ^

Address of Thanks to those who assisted in the Entertainment

of the Teachers ... ... ... . __

The Minister of Education for Manitoba

The Deputy Minister of Education for Manitoba

Badges used during the Tour .

Canadian Pacific “ Special” and Mr. C. E. McPherson . 44

The Greenway School, Winnipeg ... ... ... ... _

Menu of Dinner R.M.S. “ Virginian,” July 10th, 1910 ... ... 56

Officers of the London Teachers’ Association —

Mr. E. P. Mortimer, President— Mr. Clifford Smith, Vice-president— Mr. J. Litt, B.A., Treasurer—

Mr. T. Gautrey, L.C.C., Secretary . 64

Sketch plan of drive round London . 66

Officers of the National Union of Teachers —

Mr. Marshall Jackman, President— Miss J. Cleghorn,

LL.A., Vice-president— Mr. G. M. E. Hamilton, F.E.I.S., Treasurer— Sir J. H. Yoxall, M.A., M.P.,

Secretary 66

The President of the English Board of Education

(The Right Honourable Walter Runciman, M.P.) 70

His Grace the Archbishop of Canterbury and Mrs. Davidson ... 72

Mr. G. L. Courthope, M.P . 74

Mr. H. J. Mackinder, M.P . 74

The Ven. Archdeacon Sinclair, D.D. . 76

Mrs. Murray Smith . 78

The Lady St. Helier . 84

The Lady Clementine Waring . . . 85

Xll

Mrs. Austen Chamberlain .

The Lady Midleton .

Copies of the Menpes Series of Great Masters .

Old La Belle Sauvage .

At Kew and Richmond —

Mr. H. G. Edney, Local Hon. Secretary — His Worship the Mayor, Alderman R. W. Simpson — Alderman Sir James Szlumper, J.P., D.L., Chairman of

Education Committee .

His Worship the Mayor of Margate

At Margate : Official Luncheon in the Pavilion .

At St. Albans —

Mr. J. T. Baily, Local Hon. Secretary — His Worship the Mayor, Dr. E. H. Lipscombe — Mr. C. H. Ashdown, F.S.A., F.R.H.S. — The Dean of St. Albans

The Marchioness of Salisbury .

At St. Albans : A Group at the Cathedral Entrance .

At Brussels and Waterloo — •

The Memorial Mound of the Battle — En Route to Waterloo — Descending the Mound — The Mayor of Rye — The Field of Waterloo — Lecture on the Battle : Party Seated on Steps of Monument at Top of the Mound — The Canadian Building at the Brussels Exhibition

The Countess of Warwick . .

Warwick Castle...

Upper Lake, Killarney — Holyhead Station : L. & N.W.R.

“Special” — Doric Arch, Euston Station .

His Excellency the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland

(The Earl of Aberdeen, G.C.M.G.)

Her Excellency the Countess of Aberdeen .

Scenes in Edinburgh .

Map of District between Edinburgh and Stirling .

In Scotland —

Dr. J. Ross, Chairman of the Carnegie Trust, Dunferm¬ line— Mr. James L. Ewing, Master of the Merchant Company, Edinburgh— Mr. James Clark, K.C., Chairman, Edinburgh School Board — Dr. J. Gunn, Editor-in-Chief, Messrs. Thos. Nelson and Sons, Edinburgh .

Page.

88 90

X1U

Map of Loch Lomond and District ...

His Worship the Mayor of Carlisle (Councillor W. Phillips)

An Ode of Welcome. From the Border City of Carlisle to the Teachers of Manitoba

Town Hall and Old Market Place, Carlisle...

At Carlisle : The Guests of Mr. and Mrs. F The Castle, Carlisle .

W. Chance.

Carlisle Cathedral

Rev. A. J. W. Crosse, B.A., Vicar of St. Cuthbert’s, Carlisle Coniston : From Beacon Crags — S.Y. “Lady of the Lake”—

The Island, Grasmere — Furness Abbey Hotel .

S.Y. “Swift” — The Pavilion, Lakeside-— Special Train used to convey Party from Coniston to Barrow (Furness Railway) ... His Worship the Mayor of Barrow-in-Furness (Councillor

T. F. Butler, J.P., D.L.) .

The Town Hall, Barrow-in-Furness — Devonshire Dock, Barrow-in-Furness .

Grasmere, from Dale End — Furness Abbey, from the South Mr. A. Hawcridge, Director of Education, Barrow-in-Furness — Mr. W. W. Waite, Borough Treasurer, Barrow-in-Furness... The Honorary Organising Secretary Miscellaneous Snapshots —

Home : 15a, Pembridge Square — Girls of the Royal Caledonian Schools — The March Past : Royal Cale¬ donian Asylum — Anne Hathaway’s Cottage— Guests of Canon Mason at Canterbury — In the Grounds of Magdalen College, Oxford — Decorations at Mar¬ gate— Japan-British Exhibition, the Flip-Flap — At Oxford— Group at Margate .

Page.

In Paris —

The Louvre — In the Latin Quarter — Drive in Paris —

The Eiffel Tower— The “Special” from Calais to Paris — At Versailles — Tomb of Napoleon . 238

At Warwick Castle —

The Avon — Castle Entrance — Party being introduced to the Countess of Warwick — In the Grounds — The Countess and Mr. Ney going to Lunch— The Castle — Scenes in the Grounds . 242 a 3

XIV

Miscellaneous Snapshots — Page.

Embarking at Windermere — Barton Manor — Mr.

Heath and his Guests ready to start, Barrow —

Furness Abbey — Mr. A. Aslett — The Kilties Band, Barrow — Leatherhead Court — Hatfield House ... ... ... ... ... ... ... 246

At Carlisle —

At Morton — The Station, Naworth — Mr., Mrs. and Miss Chance — The Stepping Stones, Lanercost —

Mr. and Mrs. Chance receiving their Guests — Naworth Castle — Four Sisters: The Misses Howden — At Morton — Lanercost Abbey — Mr. T.

Elwen — Naworth Castle . 254

In Kew Gardens — On board R.M.S. “Virginian,”

Mr. Gautrey welcoming Party to England —

Group on the R.M.S. “Virginian” — En route, A stop at White River on the C.P.R. — Mr. W. J. Pincombe — “Ye Old Fighting Cocks Inn” at St. Albans — The “Nabob” — Another Group at White River — R.M.S. “Virginian” approaching stage, Liverpool — Scene on the R.M.S. “Virginian”

— R.M.S. “ Virginian ” in the St. Lawrence . 270

Loch Lomond — Ross Castle — Edinburgh Castle — At Barton Manor — Near Stranraer — One of Lady Aberdeen’s Skye Terriers — Burns’s Cottage — Dover Cliffs — At Portsmouth — Guard of Honour to Gen.

Sir John French, at Quebec . 278

Barton Manor — Windsor Castle — At St. George’s Chapel, Windsor— Windsor Castle— The Thames : at Eton The Round Tower, Windsor — His Worship the Mayor of Windsor, Councillor C. F. Dyson— Warwick Castle— Burns’s Cottage— At Killarney—

Eton : the Chapel . 288

On the “ Virginian ” —

Captain Gambell— Mr. W. J. Sisler— Mr. T. Laidlaw—

Rev. Dr. Crummy— Dr. Hicks— Mrs. Ireland—

Mrs. Hicks — Deck Scene — Members of Party D —

The Misses Henderson, Pilling, McKnight, and B. M. Clarke .

PRELUDE.

CHAPTER I. A Retrospect

In August of the year 1909, several members of the British Association for the Advancement of Science and Learning were being entertained at Deer Lodge, on the outskirts of Winnipeg, by Mr. R. Fletcher, the Deputy Minister of Education for Manitoba, and by myself, the writer of this article.

Many topics had been discussed, chief among them being the papers which had been read at that morning’s Session of the Educational Section, and during which the Lecturer referred to advertisements he had seen in Canadian papers in which Englishmen were told “ they need not apply.”

Much surprise was expressed by the visitors, as well there might be, and a very wrong impression would certainly have been created had they — the visitors — gone away without some explanation of this apparent injustice to the English section of the Canadian people.

It was quickly pointed out that such insertions in the Press were very rare and probably emanated from highly foreign sources. This did not satisfy all, and it had to be confessed that in some quarters there was a feeling, not of aversion but of mistrust of the Englishman.

And why this feeling at all ?

Was he incapable or unreliable ?

(1141) 1

A

BRITISHERS IN BRITAIN.

No ! He merely was not known ; and partly from this remark and partly from the desire which was expressed by several of the teachers through Mr. T. Laidlaw, Principal of the Alexandra School, Winnipeg, the visit of Manitoban Teachers to the Motherland during the summer of 1910 originated.

Knowledge is the source of all goodness : ignorance the root of all evil. This statement applies to all races and creeds ; hence my contention that the Englishman in the Dominion is not generally known as is the Englishman at Home.

Canada in the past has received chiefly two types of my countrymen : the ne’er-do-well of the worst kind, who emigrated to that country at the bidding of some short¬ sighted magistrate or judge, and the other the younger son of the well-to-do or of parents blessed with more olive branches than the Old Country had opportunities for. These latter, often a splendid type of manhood in themselves and in their own sphere, left home full of hope because of the newness of the life and the land before them, and often full of courage because of the knowledge that, come what may, the remittance from home would always be waiting for them at the post office at the end of every month. This knowledge was, and is, their undoing.

These men (some were only boys), found the land quite different from their anticipations, but they went on. Their Public School life had taught them that to turn back is a crime ; the city offered no immediate employment and to many the life in these centres was monotonous. They wished to breathe the real atmosphere of the West, the air of the forest and ranch ; so they struck out to smaller towns.

At first this life appealed to them, for here at the muddy street corners they found men who were willing to assist them in their search for fortune or the life ideal, or so it appeared

A RETROSPECT.

to their un-Western minds. Time passed and nothing but wild schemes, involving loss of everything they possessed, were thrust upon them, and nothing was left but to seek the roughest of work on a neighbouring farm, there, away from all the influences of home and friends, to toil side by side with the uncouth and uneducated alien from Southern or Central Europe.

What a life for the one-time highly cultured boy, who had received his education at Eton or Rugby, Oxford or Cam¬ bridge ! Can we blame him for sinking, as in so many instances he did ! The degradation of such men is always more noticeable and often more complete and hopeless than that of the habitual drunkard and the born ne’er-do-well.

These then are types of Englishmen who have been so conspicuous in Canada in the past. Can we then wonder that they have been subject to severe criticism and even manifest unfairness ? I think not. There is but one solution to this lamentable state of affairs ; we must seek to know one another, and in this mutual knowledge shall we find toleration and deeper love. In this desire, therefore, was my first and foremost reason for inaugurating visits of Canadian Teachers to the Motherland, and I trust a similar motive prompted Mr. T. Gautrey, the General Secretary of the London Teachers’ Association, to arrange for the party of British Teachers to visit Canada at the same time.

At this point it may be of general interest to our readers to know the views of one of Western Canada’s leading journals on the subject of the Englishman in Canada ; and therefore I append an editorial comment on such advertisements as I have just mentioned, and which is culled from the pages of the “Manitoba Free Press ” : —

The advertisement, “No Englishmen Need Apply,” is popularly supposed, in certain quarters, to be a standing feature in Western newspapers. In point of fact it appears so infrequently as to be a rarity. This is due mainly to the fact that there are very few

BRITISHERS IN BRITAIN.

advertisers who would think of putting their name to a silly, brutal announcement of this nature ; and in any case there is probably not a newspaper in the West which would insert such an advertise¬ ment if tendered, except by oversight or misadventure. It is therefore regrettable that an advertisement of this highly objection¬ able character, which reached the office from a Western point by the late night mail, should have found its way by inadvertance into yesterday’s “ Free Press.” The reflection upon an entire people made by advertisements of this character is wholly unwarranted. There are tens of thousands of capable, prosperous Englishmen in Western Canada who are a credit to the land from which they hail and are respected by their fellow-residents here ; and this country will welcome all the immigration from England to reach Canada under the existing regulations which bar out the ne’er-do-wells of the class known to the West, who are responsible for any anti-English feeling that may exist. But it is cruel and cowardly to make the deficiencies of the incompetents — a trifling proportion of the whole English im¬ migration — the occasion for insulting all our English settlers.

As an Empire, the greatest in the world’s history, we can only remain united by a keen and sympathetic know¬ ledge of one another.

How shall the daughter, separated by thousands of miles of sea, have that love of the Motherland if she know not the mother, or how shall the mother regard the daughter she has not seen ? A feeling of toleration and amity, once kindled, cannot be separated by either sea or land ; the kindling, and furtherance of this sentiment and feeling brings me to the objects of the visit, which, as briefly outlined in a booklet I issued in Winnipeg just prior to the departure of the Party, were as follows : —

1. To give an insight into the Educational System of Great Britain.

2. To strengthen the Bonds of Empire and Im¬ perial Fraternity.

3. To bring the people of Manitoba into closer touch and communion with the Motherland through the medium of the greatest factor of Empire — the Schoolroom.

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A RETROSPECT.

How presumptuous ! say the lords of Bureaucracy, “of a band of teachers designating themselves a ‘Bond of Empire’!” Yes, very presumptuous, for they are not Princes, or Politicians — merely Teachers of the young blood of che Great North-West, holding in their hands the destiny of the Mighty Dominion. Theirs is to make British the thousands of children of foreign birth (with their almost traditional dislike and jealousy of our race) who are peopling the Western prairies. Nobly and patriotically are they accomplishing their great National and Imperial task, and to them all praise is due. Americans in their thousands with their tens of thousand dollars ; the Dukhuboors and Galicians in their poverty and starved ideas of national duties and citizenship ; Germans and French, with their ardent love of their Fatherland ; Italians and Greeks, with their longing for the warmth and the blue skies of their native land ; Russians and Poles, fresh from the bitterness of political strife, and with an inborn fear and distrust in Governments; men of combatant blood and creed — all have to be welded into one race (a British race), and made law-abiding citizens of the vast Dominion, and faithful subjects of our Sovereign Lord, the King.

What a mission and what a responsibility ! The picture is not unreal and overdrawn. This is the great task which lies before the Canadian of the present day, and which is capable of fulfilment only with co-operation and sympathy between men of British birth on both sides of the Atlantic.

To further this great work of unification and nationalisa¬ tion, the 165 Manitobans came to the land of their fore¬ fathers, during the summer of 1910, for here they could for themselves solve a great problem, that of deciding whether the British nation was to still be their ideal and their first love.

BRITISHERS IN BRITAIN.

Politicians blunder, stumble and fall, but the Teacher remains to the end the greatest factor in the growth and upbuilding of any nation.

Who can say that the objects of the visit were not achieved ! The homes of the far-seeing and patriotic people of Carlisle and Barrow-in-Furness were thrown open to the visitors, and we in England were awakened to the fact that the people of Manitoba are very much like our¬ selves and that the product of the prairies could take its place in London drawing-rooms and London theatres with the greatest ease and as if to the manner born.

On the other hand, the visitors learned that the English¬ man at home is a very different person from that type which they had seen loitering at the street corners of the little Western townships. They came expecting to see a nation of decadent people (as misguided patriots, through the Press, would have us and the whole world believe), but found us virile and active, not even at the height of national greatness, much less tottering downward to decay. As in the words of Gerald Massey, they found that

The old nursing Mother’s not hoary yet,

There’s life in her ancient tree :

She lifteth a bosom of glory yet,

Through her mists, to the Sun and the Sea.

Fair as the Queen of Love, fresh from the foam,

Ora star in a dark cloud set ;

Ye may blazon her shame, — ye may leap at her name, —

But there’s life in the old AJand yet.

It may be virtuous to hold forth on our own weaknesses, though I cannot but feel that it is neither just nor patriotic to abuse the nation as a whole, for it is well to bear in mind that the title of Briton is not confined solely to the inhabi¬ tants of these little Isles ; it is one which thousands of our kin Overseas claim as theirs, and claim it with “ A -pride that dares and heeds not praise — a stern, a silent pride”

A RETROSPECT.

Much more might be said on this form of patriotic mania, but space here will not admit of further comment, and I will pass on to a very brief outline of the events which directly preceded the actual Tour.

Needless to say, the idea was warmly received by the Minister of Education of the Province, the Honourable G. R. Coldwell, K.C., who, to quote the “ Standard of Empire ” of November 25th, 1910, “ has a shrewd and fatherly eye for a good scheme and the welfare of young folk ” and who, throughout a period fraught with much unpleasantness and many difficulties, was my staunchest supporter.

Of the Honourable G. R. Coldwell and his able deputy, Mr. R. Fletcher, it is not too much to say that the Empire can boast of no two men more alive to the value of our great inheritance and more keenly concerned in its maintenance and unity. Keen patriots as they are, they are still keener Imperialists, and it is safe to add, that no two men have done more than they in the interests of Imperial Education and the amelioration and the continued unity of the Anglo- Saxon race.

To trace thoroughly the various stages in the arrange¬ ments made for the Tour, would be both uninteresting and contentious ; and I will therefore give but a few items which stand out as important : —

August 29 th, 1909. — Lord Strathcona and Mount Royal interviewed in Winnipeg, when his Lordship promised the Tour his support and assistance.

September 24 th. — A letter was received from Lord Strath¬ cona, signifying his Lordship’s interest in the Tour in the following words : —

Let me say that I cordially sympathise with your views in respect of a visit of Manitoba Teachers to Great Britain, and would gladly, as far as I properly could, favour such a movement. You may rest

BRITISHERS IN BRITAIN.

assured that anything I can do in England towards giving facilities to the Teachers in visiting all that may be of interest, will gladly be done.

November gth. — A letter was addressed to Dr. Heath, Director of Special Inquiries and Reports, at the Board of Educa¬ tion, London. A letter was also addressed on this date to the Right Honourable the Earl of Crewe, asking for his Lordship’s official assistance.

December 22nd. — The Board of Education replied saying that

If a formal application is made through the Education Depart¬ ment of the Province of Manitoba, they will be pleased to do what they can to make the visit of the Manitoba Teachers a success.

January 6th, 1910. — Formal application made to the Board of Education, London, by Mr. R. Fletcher, Deputy Minister of Education for Manitoba.

January 26th. — Dr. Heath, for the Board of Education, replied as follows : —

I have now heard from the Deputy Minister (Manitoba) and I am able to inform you that the Board will do all they can to assist you in making the visit of the Manitoba Teachers this summer a success.

The reply to the Deputy Minister for Manitoba follows : —

In reply to your letter of the 6th inst. I am directed to state that the Board will be pleased to do what they can to facilitate the arrangements for the visit of the Manitoba Teachers to this country in the coming summer. I am already in communication with Mr. Ney on the subject.

February 10th.— Dr. Heath, Board of Education, wrote as follows : —

I cannot help feeling that your estimate of the cost of the tour, including rail and steamer fares, viz., *$200, is inadequate.

I do not know what concessions you may have been able to obtain at your side on rail and steamer, but I assume that expenses, prior to landing in England, will represent about ^25 to ,£30.

A RETROSPECT.

I also think it would be most desirable, and even necessary, that you or some other accredited agent of the expedition should come over beforehand to discuss matters on this side.

* The amount stated here was misunderstood by Dr. Heath, for the $200 merely represented the deposit which had to be made by each member of the Party on or before June ist. The liability of the teacher did not cease here, as will be seen by the facsimile of the agreement form, signed by each member, reproduced in a subsequent chapter.

February 28th. — Deposit on 150 berths made with the Allan Steamship Company, at the Winnipeg office, through the Western agent, Mr. W. R. Allan.

March ist. — The Organising Secretary notified the Board of Education that he would leave for England early in April.

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