Anglo-Saxon superiority: to what it is due. ("A quoi tient la supériorité des Anglo-Saxons.")

Front matter

TRANSUTED FROM THE TENTH FRENCH EDITION.

Anglo-Saxon Superiority:

to what it is due,

Book I, The Frenchman And The Anglo-saxon At School

CHAPTER

I. Does the French School System form Men? 3

II. Does the German School System form Men? 15

III. Does the English School System form Men? 49

IV. How are we to bring up our Children? ... 81

Book II. The Frenchman And The Anglo-saxon In Private Life

I. Our Mode of Education reduces the Birth-rate in France ... ... ... ... 106

II. Our Mode of Education compromises the

Financial Situation of France ... ... 126

Vlll CONTENTS.

CHAPTER PAGE

III. How Anglo-Saxon Education prepares Chil-

dren for the Struggle for Existence. Types and Characters ... ... ... 140

IV. How his Mode of Home-Life contributes to

the Anglo-Saxon's Success ... ... 170

Book III. The Frenchman And The Anglo-saxon In Public Life

I. The Political Personnel in France and in

II. Why the Anglo-Saxons are more hostile to

Socialism than the Germans and the French 236

III. The Frenchman and the Anglo-Saxon conceive

IV. The Frenchman's and the Anglo-Saxon's re-

spective notions of Solidarity are Different 304 V. What Social State is most conducive to

VI. Insufficiency of Moral Action and Symptoms

of Social Regeneration ... ... ... 356

AUTHOR'S INTRODUCTION TO THE ENGLISH EDITION.

THE THREE ELEMENTS OF ENGLISH SOCIETY.

I TRUST the English public will not misunderstand the meaning and import of this book, nor take my opinions as applying to all the inhabitants and all the institutions of Great Britain.

In this work, by the application of the methods of social analysis devised by F. Le Play and completed by H. de Tourville, I seek to carefully isolate and exclusively consider the phenomena which appear to be derived from Anglo-Saxon influence, because these phenomena alone ensure for England and the United States their social originality and superiority. Above all, I endeavour to make a clear distinction between these phenomena and the customs and institutions peculiar to the Celts and Normans.

The Celtic element, which predominates especially in Ireland, in the Scotch Highlands, in Wales, in the towns of Australia, in New Zealand,

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etc., contributes — and its tendency is to maintain — in a certain measure, the traditions peculiar to that social type.

Owing to their original mode of life, more pastoral than agricultural, the Celts have no liking for the absorbing pursuits of agriculture ; they have more inclination for the liberal professions than for the commoner callings, and achieve more success in the former.

Owing to their traditional clan organization, they show more taste for public than for private life, for political than for agricultural, industrial, or commercial struggles. In the Anglo-Saxon world, the Celtic populations mostly fill the ranks of the lower proletariat, or higher in the social scale — the liberal and political professions.

The Celtic race belongs to the "Communistic Clan formation," which never attains social superiority : pure Celts ever were vanquished socially, and always will be, as long as they are not transformed by contact with a superior race.

The Norman element, more, mixed and diluted in the social body, has yet left in England profound traces, which rigorous analysis could determine exactly. From this element (now expropriated to a large extent from the soil) has arisen, as part of its results, the enormous domains, and from it have also arisen the law of primogeniture, the hereditary nobility, and House of Lords. Norman tradition appears to me to be found again in the organization of the English Universities and the spirit of

THE ENGLISH EDITION. xi

caste which animates them (the American Universities seem free from this influence). Moreover, the spirit of snobbery is another result of Norman influence.

Whilst the Celtic element weakens especially the lower classes, by dragging them into labouring pauperism, the Norman element weakens especially the upper classes by promoting Lordolatry, Patronage, and Snobbery.

Even as the Celts belong to the " Communistic Clan formation," so did the Normans belong to the " Communistic State formation."

In accordance with the qualities inherent in their origin, the Normans undertook to establish in England that type of great centralized and authoritative State which Spain was to know with Philip II., France with Louis XIV. and Napoleon, and Germany with Wilhelm. We all know that those vast political machines, smothering as they do all individual initiative, never produced other than an apparent, factitious, and ephemeral prosperity ; they are but the royal road to decadence.

It is precisely among these two elements — Celtic and Norman — that the socialistic doctrines have found any echo in the Anglo-Saxon world.*

* As M. Mltin ascertained, the leaders of English Socialism " are, according to their own confessions, guided by the love of the Beautiful, and also by some impulse inherited from Celtic ancestors. Indeed, nearly all of them boast Irish, Scotch, or Welsh origins, and declare that they owe it to xii author's introduction to

Socialism indeed is but a manifestation of the Communistic formation which leads men to seek redress of social evils by the help of the group, the community, rather than by the activity of the individual.

If the Governments of Australia and New Zealand have attempted to mingle socialistic institutions with reforms that have nothing social about them but their outward appearance, that is because the Scotch or Irish element abounds among their politicians, owing to the tendency which I have shown to exist in men of the Celtic race, and which is thus verified. But these socialistic experiments will be brought to an end for the simple reason that they are signally unsuccessful, whereas private Anglo-Saxon enterprise obtains increasing success. It is but a matter of time.

Indeed, that which distinguishes England and sets her apart from Continental nations, and decidedly accounts for her social superiority at the present time, is the fact that she has gradually succeeded in freeing herself from the Celtic and Norman influences. She has been able to accomplish this enfranchisement thanks to the preponderance which the Anglo-Saxon element

their Celtic forbears to be keener-witted and more freeminded than their Anglo-Saxon rivals. . . . The idea of Land Nationalisation was brought to England by Irish agitators returned from America."—" Le Socialisme en Angleterre," by Albert Me*tin, p. 34.

THE ENGLISH EDITION. xm

has gradually assumed over the other two — a preponderance whose progress no human force can now stop.

It is precisely and solely this Anglo-Saxon element which I have in view ; this will explain the title of this book, and should be kept in mind.

The Anglo-Saxon no longer belongs to the Communistic formation, but to the Particularistic formation, thus named because instead of causing the community to predominate over the individual, the individual is made to prevail over the community, private life over public life, and in consequence the useful professions over the liberal and administrative professions.

Such is indeed the real foundation of Anglo- Saxon superiority.

The whole of the history of England is affected and explained by the slow but constant evolution of the Saxon through the dense Celtic and Norman shell.

I will only sketch out the principal scenes in this great stirring drama, and for the details of demonstration refer the public to the Essays which M. de Tourville is shortly to publish in La Science Sociale on the subject of the " History of the Particularistic Formation " (Histoire de la formation par Ocularis te) ; he is the first exponent of the curious evolution of this group of populations, and it will be seen that he has done the work in a masterly and definitive style.

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First Scene. — Predominance of the Saxons over the Celts.

The Saxons settle in Great Britain in the fifth century, principally south of the Thames, where they spread their own name : Wessex, Sussex, Essex. They drive away from these parts the British Celts, whom a half-pastoral life attached but imperfectly to the soil. The Celt — more of a dreamer than a worker — consoles himself by singing his defeat, which he deems glorious. Such is the epic legend of King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table.

The Saxon, unlike the Celt, is a born farmer, thanks to the geographical conditions of his previous abode. He settles firmly on the soil, which he proceeds to clear and till, and fixes his dwelling in the midst thereof. His ideal is the foundation of a rural estate on which the individual is perfectly independent of his neighbours and of the political chiefs. Alfred the Great himself cannot enrol in his army any but the Saxons who are willing, and who have an interest to serve, or who consider that the cause of war is worth fighting for. Besides, the authority of the Saxon chiefs is purely temporary and elective. Here we have the first and distant manifestation of self-government, and even an embryo Parliament in the reunions of the people (Folkmot), and gatherings of the wise men (Witenagemot), where every one had a right to be present.

THE ENGLISH EDITION. XV

Such a society presents no military aristocracy, no aristocracy of birth ; but only land-owners, all equal in rights, of independent estates, none of which is subordinate to the other — contrarily to the feudal practice.

The administration of the law, also, is quite independent of the public powers : it is organized spontaneously between neighbouring land-owners. This is the beginning of the essentially Saxon institution of the jury.

All this is very different from the system which the Frankish chiefs established on the Continent in collaboration with the Gallo-Romans.

Second Scene. — Predominance of the Saxons over the Angles.

In the sixth century the Angles started from the eastern slope of Schleswig and landed in Northern Britain. They drove away the Britons in different directions and founded the large kingdom of Northumbria. They afterwards spread southwards as far as the Thames and formed another large state, Mercia.

Although they were better husbandmen than the Celts, the Angles were inferior to the Saxons in this respect. While the latter only invaded small territories, that is, only as much as they could well cultivate, the Angles spread over large areas, because they were more anxious to extend their dominion than to exercise agriculture.

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This was one of the first causes of weakness. There was another : an hereditary nobility — Jarls, Ethels, and Ethelings. Social science explains nowadays this difference between the Angles and Saxons ; I only note it down.

Round these nobles flocked a numerous suite of companions, comites and militesy a kind of patriarchal clan. This clan was a means of strength, but also a cause of weakness for the chiefs, as, in order to maintain obedience, they were compelled to extend unceasingly their conquests and dominion.

Finally, another cause of weakness was that implied by the vast area covered by the estates which this hereditary nobility was obliged to possess in order to maintain its adherents. So these men did not attach themselves to the soil, did not firmly establish their race in it in the fashion of the Saxon husbandman. The land was only valued in so far as it served to reward personal services and to keep their retainers in idleness.

There lies the explanation of the rapid decline of Northumbria : this kingdom lasted barely a century and a half.

We know how, under Egbert, the Heptarchy fell under the domination of the Saxons. But the latter did not give the Angles a Saxon government, nor did they foist Saxon officials upon them, for the good reason that their political development was most limited, their strength lying

THE ENGLISH EDITION. xvii

more in private than in public life. They never dreamt of administering conquered peoples in the fashion adopted by the Romans, and later by the Spaniards and the French. Their ideal was rather — and has remained — a Federation.

Thus were started by the Saxons those former United States of England. So little did they aim at constituting the model of a large empire, that their king continued to call himself simply " King of the Saxons of the West." And yet he was sovereign of the whole island.

However, if the Saxons did not impose their political sway upon the Angles, they exercised over them a profound social influence, by the very fact of the superiority of private life among them, and by their greater capacity for work and colonization. They gradually spread over the large tracts of land which the Angles had annexed without occupying them. They thus thoroughly Saxonized the Angles, as in our days their descendants in the United States are gradually assimilating and bringing to their own language and social organization the immigrants from old Continental Europe. The present explains the past.

The above process and its results are expressed by the word " Anglo-Saxon."

Third SCENE.— Predominance of the Saxons over the Danes.

The Saxons were not left long in peace: about 867 the first batch of Danes appeared on the xviii author's introduction to

scene. They occupied the territory of the Angles as far south as the Thames, and the Saxons kept them there for seven years.

It is not my task to explain the social genesis of these Danes. M. de Tourville shall do this in La Science Sociale. Let it be stated only that they were above all pirates, Vikings, little prepared or disposed to fix themselves firmly on the soil by agriculture. They organized a system of military occupation, and were content with assuring their subsistence by raising regular and arbitrary levies.

The Saxons were obliged to submit, like the rest of England, to the Danish armies, because no peasants can well resist warriors with the might of arms. But at any rate they did not do as the Britons had done, and never let go their hold of the land — which they held firmly indeed by the means of agriculture.

Thus they were able to await a favourable opportunity. It presented itself under Alfred. Then did the Saxons take the offensive ; they first liberated their own territory, and then that of the Angles. The Danish pirates were turned out of England. Once more the Saxon race triumphed throughout the island. So great is the superiority which his hold of the land invariably gives the husbandman over the warrior's military or political domination.

But the Saxons were not at the end of their troubles. Fifty years later, in 994, another Danish

THE ENGLISH EDITION. xix

host arrived. These were not mere pirates ; they were better organized politically ; they were the Regular Danes, whose origin and formation M. de Tourville will explain.

These Danes, however, had no other social idea than to constitute themselves into a governing class and to live regularly at the expense and by the work of the conquered ones, somewhat in the fashion adopted by the Turks with the Christian populations.

This was therefore another political conquest in which no real possession of the land was taken, in which there was no implantation of the race into the soil.

As practical business men, which they already were, the Saxons immediately formed a simple treaty with the Danes. They offered to pay as a tribute the sum of money which they would have spent had they waged war : that is the well-known Danegelt tax. Quite a Saxon process : never to fight unless there is something well worth fighting for. Since they were in possession of the land, they preferred to pay. Moreover, the Saxon does not care to exercise political power.

They went on cultivating their estates, awaiting another favourable opportunity. It came so naturally, so fatally, it was so unavoidable, that history is silent as to the details of the event, and only records the issue. It is stated that the Saxons gathered round an obscure personage, named

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Howne, and rose in arms, " Speedily driven northwards and turned out from town after town, the Danes took to the sea and reached their native land in diminished numbers."* And the historian adds : " Unfortunately the patriotic exploits of this Saxon army are nowadays as unknown as the name of its leader is obscure." This was exactly the character of obscurity which a revolt of peasants was bound to assume. Their rapid success clearly shows that their adversaries had no real hold of the country. To hold the soil by the means of agriculture, that is everything.

Once more England remained to the Saxons, from North to South. Those small peasants had been doing good work.

And what did they proceed to do when they found themselves masters of the situation ?

They immediately and solemnly reasserted their favourite form of self-government, and defined it by drawing up the Saxon customs in all their purity: this was the famous Common Law. It affirmed the narrow limitation of the public powers by ensuring individual liberty and by the institution of the jury.

But the Saxons had not done yet with adversity : another squall was rising on the horizon. The Normans were coming !

* Augustin Thierry, " Histoire de la Conque'te de l'Angleterre," tome i, p. 163.

THE ENGLISH EDITION. xxi

FOURTH SCENE. — Predominance of the Saxons over the Normans.

The Normans were but improved Danes ; they had been perfected by the feudal rigime, whose military hierarchy they had adopted in Normandy.

They took advantage of the Danes' departure to invade England with William the Conqueror.

After a short resistance, the Saxons accepted the Norman monarchy, as they had accepted the Danish monarchy, asking but to be left to work in peace. They therefore went on acting as practical men of business. They were ever willing to renounce the exercise of power, provided they were guaranteed what they considered the greatest boon obtainable — independence in private life ; provided, also, they had assurance of the public peace.

Thus in our own time, in the United States, the Anglo-Saxon is disposed to leave to the Irish and Germans the political offices and civic functions ; * they themselves prefer the commoner callings.

. Unfortunately, the Normans did not long respect the independence of the Saxons. The bands of adventurers recruited by William in different parts of France, most of them disreputable men (the composition of this army is sufficiently known

* It is known that in New York the famous Tammany Hall is mostly in Irish hands. In Australia the political leaders are nearly all Irish or Scotchmen.

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to-day), had but one end in view: to have fiefs granted them, not in order to cultivate the land, but to exploit the populations. Domesday Book tells us with what care they surveyed and registered all landed property in England, shared it amongst themselves, and generally left the Saxofis on the soil to pay them taxes and tithes.

Then began, between Normans and Saxons, a struggle which lasted several centuries ; the former striving to obtain complete domination and a thorough command of Saxon resources, the latter endeavouring to secure independence in their private lives.

The Saxons claimed five fundamental rights : (i) that of bequeathing their property to their descendants without control ; (2) to be taxed within the limit of their ability to pay ; (3) to receive payment for any compulsory work they were made to do ; (4) to be left to transact business amongst themselves according to their old Saxon customs ; (5) that they should be left the exercise of justice even towards any of their fellows against whom a Norman preferred any complaint.

Far from recognizing these rights, the Norman kings aimed to establish in England an autocratic monarchy whose powerful authority should be obeyed by all in the land — Norman nobles as well as Saxon peasants.

This nobility was indeed very different from that of France. In France, the king had come out of the nobility ; in England, the nobility had

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been made by the king. A French seigneur asked the founder of the Capetian Dynasty, " Who made you king ? " whereas the king of England could well have asked one of his lords, "Who made an earl of you ? " The latter — an upstart ennobled yesterday — could have found no answer.

At this period of history, England seemed therefore condemned, before Spain and before France, to a rigime a la Philip II., a la Louis XIV.

Once more England was saved by the Saxon farmer standing immovable over his furrows, and determined to preserve his Common Law. Then took place an extraordinary phenomenon. Seeing their privileges threatened, the Norman nobles found it necessary to ally themselves to the contemned and exploited Saxons.

From this alliance was evolved a hybrid, namely, Magna Charta.

Magna Charta recognized both the Saxon Common Law and the independence of the Norman nobles. This took place in 121 5, and was signed by John Lackland.

The Saxons were at least thus rid of one danger: autocracy.

Magna Charta established a whole system of legal guarantees against the king. The nobility brought together its Council of twenty-five lords ; Saxon tradition had its Parliament, and — what was more to the Saxons — the rural estates were made undistrainable, individuals were declared inviolable, justice was ordained to be rendered by xxiv AUTHOR'S INTRODUCTION TO

peers, even in capital cases, which is the idea of the Saxon jury.

Such was the perseverance and tenacity with which these indomitable peasants remained faithful to their social principles and brought on their triumph.

They triumphed so well that the Norman lords were compelled to look to the Saxons for strength to act. The power of private life alone had made them once more conquer. The Saxon people had resumed their rank, and re-established self-government.

Moreover, they gradually absorbed the Norman nobility. The Normans, impoverished by continual civil wars, were but too happy to marry the daughters of Saxons made rich by agriculture.

Saxon predominance became so complete that there was soon but one language — the Saxon language, and one law — the Saxon Common Law.

The Saxon was triumphing all along the line, demonstrating, even at that epoch, the undeniable superiority of social over political power.

Since then, the Celtic and Norman elements are gradually being absorbed by the Anglo-Saxon element. Nowadays, owing to the same causes, the Anglo-Saxon not only predominates in England, but throughout the whole world.

This book has for its aim to explain this phenomenon, and to draw from it a great lesson.

EDMOND DEMOLINS.

THE ENGLISH EDITION. XXV

P.S. — A difficulty has arisen as to the translation into English of certain terms of Social Classification, chiefly of the words formation communautaire and formation particular iste.

It was important to preserve unity in the scientific terminology employed by giving these words the same consonance in English as in French.

Formation communautaire has therefore been translated by " communistic formation," and formation particulariste by " particularistic formation.'*

These two fundamental terms, to which a special sense is here assigned, are explained in the footnote on p. 50. The reader is requested to refer to that note, so that there may be no confusion in his mind, and that these words may be understood in the sense there defined. — E. D.

Author's Preface To The French Edition

/INGLO-SAXON superiority! Although we

do not all acknowledge it, we all have to

bear it, and we all dread it ; the apprehension,

the suspicion, and sometimes the hatred provoked

by & Anglais proclaim the fact loudly enough.

We cannot go one step in the world without coming across & Anglais. We cannot glance at any of our late possessions without seeing there the Union Jack.

The Anglo-Saxon has supplanted us in North America (which we occupied from Canada to Louisiana), in India, at Mauritius (the old He de France), in Egypt.

He rules America, by Canada and the United States ; Africa, by Egypt and the Cape ; Asia, by India and Burmah ; Austral Asia, by Aus- . tralia and New Zealand ; Europe — and the whole world, by his trade and industries and by his policy.

xxviii author's preface to

The map printed with this book* illustrates sufficiently the extraordinary power of expansion of that race which seems destined to succeed the Roman Empire in the government of the world.

Other nations, such as France, Germany, Italy, Spain, also have colonies ; but these are mostly colonies of officials ; they exercise a military dominion over some territories, but they do not populate them, they do not transform them, they do not take root in them like the Anglo-Saxon colonists.

Two other Empires, Russia and China, occupy vast areas ; but their territories are to a large extent deserted, and closed to civilization for a long time to come.

On the contrary, the Anglo-Saxon world is now at the head of the most active, the most progressive, the most overflowing civilization. Men of this race have no sooner established themselves on any spot in the world than they transform it by introducing, with marvellous rapidity, the latest progressive innovations of our European communities. And often these younger societies succeed in outstripping us. They already call us, with a certain disdain, the Old World. And indeed we must acknowledge that we do look somewhat old by the side of these our juniors.

* In this map, the parts occupied by the Anglo-Saxon race are shaded and the islands are underlined ; the parts that are only threatened, as Egypt and the Argentine Republic, are dotted.

THE FRENCH EDITION. XXIX

See what we have made of New Caledonia and our other possessions of Austral Asia, and see what they have made of Australia and New Zealand.*

See what has become of Southern America under Spanish and Portuguese rule, and behold the transformation of Northern America in the hands of the Anglo-Saxon. It is like night and day.

The following simple figures may form another illustration of that undeniable superiority.

From official statistics, we find that the following ships have passed through the Suez Canal in the course of one year : —

French ships 160

German ships 260

British ships 2262 I

But it is not sufficient to point out this superiority, to " denounce'* it in Parliament or in the press, or to shake our fists at U Anglais, like angry old women.

We should examine the situation as men who will be equal to it, as scientists who will analyze it with exactness and most coolly, so as to become acquainted with its real properties.

The question indeed is to find out the secret

* Even in Algeria, which, however, is quite close to us, and which we have occupied for the last sixty years, there are as yet but 300,000 French people — as against 250,000 Europeans of different nationalities, who threaten to submerge us.

XXX PREFACE TO THE FRENCH EDITION.

of that prodigious power of expansion, of that extraordinary aptitude to civilize — and the means of doing it.

Such an investigation is the object of this series of Studies — for our sons and for ourselves, a question of life or death.*

* These Essays were first published separately in La Science Sociale Review. The reader will see that they form a closely connected whole.

Author's Preface To The Second French Edition

ON THE ALLEGED SUPERIORITY OF THE GERMANS.

I THANK the public and the press for the welcome extended to this book, of which the first edition was exhausted within a few days.

In this new edition I wish to anticipate some objections which might be made later on.

It is known that for the last fifteen years the exportation of German manufactured goods has shown such increase that French commerce has had to retreat almost generally, losing one after the other of its acquired positions.*

In presence of such commercial development, any one may well wonder whether the position conquered in the world by the Anglo-Saxons is not itself more or less threatened.

It is important to let no confusion arise as to

* On this subject, read two works full of facts : Mr. Williams' "Made in Germany," and "Le Danger Allemand," by Mr. Maurice Schwob.

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the causes and nature of Anglo-Saxon social power on the one hand, and that of the Germans on the other.

I will limit myself here to expounding the premises of that interesting problem, or, more exactly, to presenting a framework of the demonstration.*

Covered with mountainous groups in the south, with sandy downs, moorlands, and marshes in its northern parts, Germany has ever been peopled by poor populations, accustomed to restricting their needs, leading simple lives, and being satisfied with small salaries. The far-famed German frugality is a virtue made necessary by nature — which perhaps somewhat detracts from its merit.

Owing to the low wages accepted by the workers and to the lack of fastidiousness of the clients, German industry was necessarily and at all times limited to the manufacture of common and cheap articles.

Now this is what is happening at the present time.

These conditions of labour, which really constituted an inferiority, have become — at least for the moment, and in consequence of exterior circumstances—an advantage.

The contemporary development of means of

* Some young people, after attending our Social Science classes, are to go to Germany next summer, in order to observe methodically, on the spot, the actual state of that country.

THE SECOND FRENCH EDITION. xxxiii

transport, by permitting easier access to new or backward countries, with their simple, half-civilized, or even half-savage consumers, has speedily increased the number of purchasers of common and cheap articles. Here was a fresh opening for German trade and industry, for the most part in articles of this class.

They took advantage of it in the way habitual nowadays to tradesmen and manufacturers who command but limited capital and equally limited resources of action or initiative : by appealing to the principle of association for means of commercial expansion and propagation.