The Pan-Angles; a consideration of the federation of the seven English-speaking nations

Prefatory Note

The Author is indebted to the following publishers and authors for kind permission to make quotations from copyright matter : to Mr. Edward Arnold for Colonial Nationalism, by Richard Jebb ; to Mr. B. H. Blackwell for Imperial Architects, by A. L. Burt ; to the Delegates of the Clarendon Press for Federations and Unions, by H. E. Egerton ; to Messrs. Constable & Co. for Alexander Hamilton, by F. S. Oliver, and The Nation and the Empire, edited by Lord Milner ; to the publishers of the Encyclopaedia Britannica ; to Messrs. Macmillan & Co. for Seeley's Expansion of England, and G. L. Parkin's Imperial Federation ; to Admiral Mahan ; to Mr. John Murray for English Colonization and Empire, by A. Caldecott ; to Sir Isaac Pitman & Sons Ltd. for The Union of South Africa, by W. B. Worsfold ; to the Executors of the late W. T. Stead for the Last Will and Testament of C. J. Rhodes ; to Messrs. H. Stevens, Son & Stiles for Thomas Pownall, by C. A. W. Pownall ; to The Times ; The Round Table ; The Outlook ; and The Springfield Weekly Republican ; and also for the kind permission to make use of extracts from Popular Government, by W. H. Taft ; John Marshall, by J. B. Thayer ; Mere Literature and The State, by Woodrow Wilson.

Foreword

The English-speaking, self-governing white people of the world in 1914 number upwards of one hundred and forty-one millions. Since December 24, 1814, there has been unbroken peace between the two independent groups of this race — a fact that contravenes the usual historical experiences of peoples between whom there has been uninterrupted communication during so long an epoch. The last few decades have seen increasingly close understandings between both the governments and the peoples of this civilization.

In 1900 the British navy controlled the seas — all seas. From 1910 to 1914 the British navy has controlled the North Sea only. 1 Some doubt whether this control can long be maintained. If it is lost, the British Empire is finished. 2 The adhesion of the dependencies to their various governments and also the voluntary cohesion of the self-governing units would be at an end. " The disorders which followed the fall of Rome would be insignificant compared with those which would

1 Cf. Round Table, London, May 1911, p. 247.

2 Round Table, London, November 1910, p. 27 : " Directly the British Empire is doubtful of its supremacy by sea its full liberty will disappear, even if there has been no war."

viii THE PAN-ANGLES

ensue were the British Empire to break in pieces." 1 Such a splitting up would place each English-speaking nation in an exposed position, and would strengthen its rivals, Germany, Japan, Russia, and China. It would compel America to protect with arms, or to abandon to its enemies, not only the countries to which the Monroe Doctrine has been considered as applicable, but those lands still more important to the future of our race, New Zealand and Australia. If this catastrophe is to be averted, the English-speaking peoples must regain control of the seas.

These pages are concerned with the English-speaking people of 1914. Here will be found no jingoism, if this be denned as a desire to flaunt power for its own sake ; no altruism, if this means placing the welfare of others before one's own ; and no sentiment except that which leads to self-preservation. No technical discussion of military or naval power is here attempted. The purpose of these pages is to indicate some of the common heritages of these English-speaking peoples, their need of land and their desire for the sole privilege of taxing themselves for their own purposes and in their own way.

Federation is here recognized as the method by which English-speaking people ensure the freedom of the individual. It utilizes ideals and methods common to them all. Where it has been applied, it fulfils its dual purpose of protecting the group and leaving the individual unhampered.

This consideration may appear to the political

1 United Empire, London, January 1914, J. G. Lockhart, "The Meaning of British Imperialism," p. 53.

FOREWORD ix

economist to be merely a few comments on one instance of the relationship of the food supply to the excess of births over deaths ; to the international politician, as notes on the struggles of the English-speaking race ; and to the business man, as hints on present and future markets and the maintenance of routes thereto. Books could be written on each of these and kindred topics. This is not any one of such treatises, but a statement of only a few aspects of a huge question.

To Benjamin Franklin may be given the credit of initiating the thesis of these pages, for he foresaw in 1754 the need of a single government based on the representation of both the American and British groups of self-governing English-speaking people. Possibly there were others before him. Certainly there have been many since. Some have been obscured by time. Others, like Cecil John Rhodes, stand out brilliantly. These men visioned the whole race without losing sight of their own local fragment. They saw the need of blocking intra-race frictions in order to maintain our inter-race supremacy. They spoke the English language, and held by the ideals of English-speaking men — proud of their race.

To such as these, wherever they are found, owing affection to the British and American flags which they protect, and which protect them from others, this discussion is addressed. It is a family appeal in terms familiar to the family here called — the Pan-Angles.

SINCLAIR KENNEDY.

Boston, Massachusetts, January 17, 1914.

Contents

PAGE

FOREWORD .....

vii

II

If an intelligent traveller from Mars were to tour the earth to-day he would jot down in his note-book that New Zealand, Australia, South Africa, Newfoundland, Canada, the British Isles, and the United States were all inhabited by the same sort of people. Their language, their forms of government, their ways of thinking and of conducting the various departments of life would lead him to think so. And he would be right. The English-speaking traveller, denied the point of view of an outsider, is prone to take the likenesses for granted and to dwell on the differences, using his own local group as a yard-stick to measure the rest. Beneath his criticism, however, he is conscious that in these countries he is at home in the same sense that he is an alien in all others. Whichever of the seven he may be from, he finds in each of the other six, men he can hardly tell from himself, and realizes that in his own political unit, whose oneness he never questions, there are communities with natures more dissimilar than are the natures of these seven nations. No knowledge of history is needed for either him or the Martian to conclude that while they use different names to designate this part or that, they are speaking always of one people and one civilization.

Of what stuffs the English-speaking people were fashioned has already been explained. England, when colonization began, held the germ of the future Pan- Angles. Within two centuries Scotland and Ireland were united with England and Wales under one government, and the English language and English ideals penetrated further and further into those once Celtic strongholds. Welsh, Scots, and Irish brought their contributions to our development. They wrote English poems and English books. They officered the army and built battleships. They made and administered laws, and furnished prime ministers for the British Isles. Like the Englanders they too migrated to the new Pan- Angle lands, seeking religious or political liberty in some cases, but oftenest seeking the means of a more satisfactory life. These they have found. By this blending of all British Isles stocks came new vitality to the Pan-Angles.

Three centuries ago this diffusion of Britishers began, and it continues to-day in far greater numbers than then. 1 Nor have they come less to the United States since it became independent of Great Britain. 2

1 Whitaker's Almanack, London, 1913, p. 484 : 454,527 British and Irish emigrants left the British Isles in 1911. Of these 80,770 went to Australasia; 30,767 to South Africa; 184,860 to Britannic North America; and 121,814 to the United States.

2 A. L. Burt, Imperial Architects, Oxford, 1913, pp. 123-124: "In sixty years (1815-1876) eight and a half million people had emigrated from Great Britain. Of these only three million settled in the Colonies. The rest went to the United States. . . ."

THE PEOPLE T 23

A French student divides the American people into two groups : those whose ancestors were in the United States previous to 1830, and hence almost totally British, and those descended from persons immigrating since that time. The former, according to his computation, comprises more than one-half of the present population of the United States. And of the latter, one-third at least are likewise of British stock. A total of two-thirds, or perhaps even of three-fourths, of the American people to-day are, he concludes, the descendants of Britishers. 1 The Irish he considers an important element. Of the result of the mingled immigrations of the Irish and other Celts with the Scandinavians and Germans, an American student says : " When we remember that it was the crossing of the Germanic and the Celtic stocks that produced the English race itself, we are obliged to assume that the future American people will be substantially the same human stuff that created the English common law, founded parliamentary institutions, established American self-government, and framed the Constitution of the United States." 2 Of all Pan- Angles a tremendous majority are of British descent. Of all Pan- Angles outside the British Isles a majority are still of British descent ; and theirs has been the influence that has made six new nations vastly alike, and like, also, to the Mother Country. In some instances, notably in Canada and in South Africa, the Pan -Angles found on their

1 Pierre Leroy-Beaulieu, Les Etats-Unis au Vingtieme Siecle, Paris, 1904, pp. 25-26.

2 F. H. Giddings, Democracy and Empire, New York, 1 900, pp. 296-297.

arrival other peoples, sprung from European stocks, firmly rooted to the land. Descendants of these first settlers still form communities apart, in which one hears English less often than French or Taal, as the case may be ; much as one finds communities in the British Isles where only a form of Celtic is spoken. In other places, too, as in New York and London, are little foreign nuclei engaged in some particular trade, where a man can live and earn his wage and know no English. These are, however, the remarked exceptions.

British blood, moreover, has not in the meantime been stagnant. Through these centuries, as from earliest history, it has been constantly enriched and invigorated by admixtures from the continent of Europe. To the British Isles, South Africa, Newfoundland, Canada, and the United States, non - British peoples have come. Even New Zealand and Australia, almost purely British as they are, have their French and German settlements respectively. In the British Isles the reception and absorption of foreign stocks has been unspectacular. Individuals, or from time to time groups, seeking the larger tolerance of England, have taken up an abode there. One has but to observe and listen in the streets to be convinced that foreign invaders, though with no hostile intent, still land on British soil. Outside the British Isles, this replenishing of the British stock by " foreign " immigrants often presents features that are spectacular — especially where the bulk of the foreigners now arrive — in the United States and Canada. 1

1 Round Table, London, September 1913, p. 723: "Last year the United States received immigrants from other countries

The immigrant often comes with no ability to speak English or to understand the habits of mind and forms of government of those who do. He may never have been proudly conscious of any nationality. But in an amazingly brief length of time, we find him taking his place among his Pan- Angle fellows and conducting himself as one of them. In one generation he is transformed into a Pan- Angle.

This process of assimilation was formerly unconscious on the part of the receiving nations. Now, as the task has grown more stupendous, special machineries in the way of day and night schools and settlement clubs and classes have been devised in the larger centres, and are maintained at the expense of the public. The immigrant, safely arrived, finds himself still outside the unyielding wall of the English language. He cannot ask for food or work. Even those from his former country talk English together, and jeer at his ignorance. By hard experience and whatever help is offered, he qualifies himself in this first requisite. With his English he acquires much else. He learns words which express ideas peculiar to Pan- Angle psychology. From the words he progresses to the ideas themselves. Thus he learns somewhat of the theory of law and government, and of the aspirations and ideals, and of the expected privileges that have evolved with this language. The pride of the Pan- Angle comes over him, and a faith in those precepts of individual freedom of which he

equal to three-quarters of one per cent, of the total population. The influx to Canada was between six and seven per cent, of the total population."

had never dreamed, it may be, until he learned to read and talk of them in English. " An Englishman's house is his castle." Here is a promise of privacy perhaps unknown in the land he has quitted. " Government derives its just powers from the consent of the governed." This is a long step from the doctrine of the Divine Right of kings. Thus with the language goes an atmosphere of many things that are not to be translated, historical heritages which the immigrant must substitute for those of his birth. As he practises the new tongue amid increased material and spiritual comforts, his perception quickens and he is already fairly started to become one of us. " I am an American," he cries ; or " I am a Canadian " : more noisily, perhaps, because his liberties are newer, but speaking none the less from the same fountains of pride that inspire — " I am an Englishman."

On the second generation the same force operates ; the stubbornness of the English-speaking people for their language acts firmly as the Inquisition and gently as a blessing. They attend free schools, read only books written in English from the point of view of English-speaking people and on subjects interesting to such people, Non- Pan- Angle theories of government are non-existent ; alien moral standards unheard of. The wall that once hedged the father out, hedges the children in. More often than not they cannot speak the tongue their parents were born to. With Ivanhoe and King Lear they are familiar ; they quote Burns and Wordsworth and Longfellow ; after local history they study that of England. The history and poets of their fathers' native lands are foreign and unknown. If oratory be demanded, it is Burke or Lincoln who furnish the words and sentiments to young Hans and Pietro. 1

This is a consideration of English-speaking whites, and as such is not concerned with the non-whites of various races and various and inconsistent degrees of subjection or citizenship, who dwell in Pan- Angle countries. The aborigines of the United States and Canada, of New Zealand and Australia, are now problems of the past, solved according to nature's rule of the survival of the fittest. They could not live and increase in the environment the white man was strong enough to throw about them. The negro, numbering almost four times the whites in South Africa 2 and one- eighth of the whites in America, 3 is a problem yet unsolved, for nature has not yet made it clear which, all things considered, is the most fit. He not only thrives in contact with whites, but with his low standard of living multiplies more rapidly. The Asiatic races are the problem of the future. In every quarter we see a determination that it shall not grow beyond its present incipient stage. All Pan- Angle nations may not be able to obtain, as Australia wishes to, an exclusively white popu-

1 Boston (Massachusetts) Transcript, November 19, 1913: "Chicago, Nov. 19 — Abraham Lincoln's Gettysburg address, which was delivered fifty years ago to-day, was read to-day to the one million pupils in the public schools of Illinois. Pupils above the sixth grade had memorized the address and recited it at the hour at which President Lincoln began his speech. To-night the speech will be repeated in nearly every night school and social centre in the State."

2 Britannica Year Book, London, 1913, p. 703.

3 Cf. post, p. 8 1 , note 1 .

lation. But each nation, whenever non-whites appear to endanger the success of white local self-government, are able to exclude from the privilege of the franchise any non-assimilable inhabitants. In each of these seven nations white local autonomy is recognized as necessary. The existence of these problems in no way modifies the definition of Pan- Angles as English-speaking whites who are the self-governing forces in the seven above-named nations.

The language Pan- Angles speak grew out of the Germanic tongues of the Saxons, Angles, Danes, and Jutes. Our most common and familiar words have been in uninterrupted use since the days of those invaders. 1 To this Teutonic basis was added the French of the Northmen called Normans. A proclamation of 1258 is sometimes called the first specimen of English, 2 but its resemblance to modern speech is not for the uninstructed to discern. Through the thirteen, fourteen, and fifteen hundreds English took on a form more intelligible to us of to-day. In the latter part of the fifteen hundreds a great poet and playwright employed it so effectively that his diction and style became a standard. 3 From the same epoch dates the translation of the Bible and its popular use. " The English version of the Bible remains the noblest example of the English tongue, while its perpetual use made it from the

1 Ency. Brit., vol. ix. p. 597.

2 Ibid., vol. ix. p. 594.

3 Ibid., vol. ix. p. 596.

instant of its appearance the standard of our language." 1

Thus it came about that in the Mayjlotver and other early emigrant ships was carried to the new countries an English of authenticated stamp. The standards then recognized are still recognized. This was, however, the English of books and education. Each shire of England in its own speech bore witness to its past. Kent and Yorkshire often could not understand each other, and words used in one were unknown to the other. The emigrating Englander carried with him accordingly, besides the English as established for educated men, the common dialect of his neighbourhood. In the colonies these differences tended to vanish under the influence of the press, free schools, and easy methods of travel ; though occasionally in a word, or here and there a pronunciation, the delighted etymologist sees the ghost of some local English usage, as in the old Devon still spoken in Newfoundland. 2 In England these local variations of speech have persisted longer, and still puzzle the unaccustomed ear. In America there still exist words and expressions which when they left England were in good usage, but which have there since been dropped. Though the dictionaries of to-day call it an Americanism, Shakespeare wrote : " Better far, I guess, That we do make our entrance several ways." 3

1 J. R. Green, A Short History of the English People, London, 1898, vol. ii. p. 934.

2 J. G. Millais, Newfoundland and its Untrodden Ways, London, 1907, p. 339.

3 Henry VI., Pt. I., Act n., Scene i., line 29. Cf John Bartlett, Concordance of Shakespeare, London, 1894 — "Guess."

The variety and interest of the English language does not lie alone in these historical survivals. It has been, and still is, constantly enriched from outside itself. In the colonies and dependencies, and in foreign lands as well, the English language has come in contact with practically all the tongues of the earth. From these it has helped itself according to need or fancy. The result gives locally a strong dash of colour which inevitably tends to tinge the whole. Ranch, trek, amok, portage, taboo, tomahawk, coolie, — have long since ceased to serve limited communities, and stand acknowledged in our dictionaries besides words of Saxon and Norman pedigrees. Spruit, kai, bilabong, — if not lost altogether will come to the same dignity. Whether the new word is taken from another language or coined from English roots as local slang, the story of a growth in usage is the same. The " tramp " and " sun-downer " may consort together in any library with a " creeper," a "tenderfoot," and a "new chum." In language usages we have no authority but our own desires.

Such is our language, a living thing growing in parts, dying in parts, and ever ready to adapt itself to local needs. It is, moreover, uniform, as nearly as any living tongue can be uniform. The peculiarities of speech observed in different localities are enough to furnish picturesque touches for a novel and humour to the stage, but never

Also Geoffrey Chaucer, " The Canterbury Tales, (A) The Prologue," in The Complete Works of Geoffrey Chaucer, W. W. Skeat ed., Oxford, 1894, vol. iv., line 82 : "Of twenty yeer of age he was, I gesse." Ibid., line 117: "A forster was he, soothly, as I gesse."

enough to make even the slightest barrier between any two regions. Even so it is a matter largely of pronunciation and inflection. The writer who would suggest the twangs and drawls, and indicate the r's that are rolled or ignored, and the h's insecure in position, has hard work with tortured spelling to accomplish his end. To the art of printing and all the publishing, useful and otherwise, it has made possible ; to popular education and the reading it stimulates, we owe a uniform written language. Had the colonists gone forth and builded their nations prior to the days of type and presses and cheap books, the Kansan and Tasmanian might have been to-day as linguistically remote from each other as both are now from the Anglo-Saxons of Bede's days. Instead, though they may " labor " or " labour " according to fancy, and each have his preference about going to "jail" or to "gaol," they are able to pool their literatures and draw from a common fund. To increasingly comfortable and rapid means of transportation, whether of the tourist, the British bagman or American drummer or the job hunter, we are indebted for our homogeneous speech. And in that common speech lies possibly the strongest tie between Pan- Angles and the one that makes all others potent.

Every Pan- Angle is in instant communication with every other Pan- Angle wherever he may meet him. Through books, newspapers, and magazines written in his mother tongue, he may be in constant touch with the doings of the whole Pan- Angle world. American youths study Geikie's Geology in their schools ; New Zealanders buy and read the Atlantic Monthly ; and the Century Dictionary is in use at Oxford. Men like Lord Bryce and Admiral Mahan write on matters vital to the existence of Pan- Angle civilization ; and attention and esteem are theirs from every thoughtful English-speaking man. Through the pulpit, the lecture platform, and the stage, the people of each nation daily form first-hand acquaintance with the representatives of each of the other six — no bar of translation or interpretation standing between. Of the popular authors and novelists, one-half of their readers probably hardly know which are American, which Britannic. Thus our common language produces a continuous interchange of thought which makes for mental unity and keeps us one people.

Through this world-wide interchange of thought we see not only each other, but ourselves, from the point of view of each other. Family criticism is often harsh when most friendly ; and among ourselves we speak our minds freely, whether it be tolls, boundaries, or table manners under discussion. Frank opinions are sometimes resented. "I do not talk through my nose," says the American. " Nor do I use my a's like a cockney," retorts the Australian. " I have no accent," rejoins the Englander with an unmistakable drawl. " Look at your police and your yellow press," say six of us, and the American stands ashamed. " Look at the abject misery of your poor and the waste of your fertile lands," and the Englander winces. " Look at your defenceless condition," and Newfoundlanders, Canadians, New Zealanders, Australians, and South Africans all admit the indictment. Mutual criticism is accordingly not without profit. In each other's virtues and failings we find models and warnings, for our ideals are in the main the same, and to no foreign opinion are we so sensitive as to the opinion of other members of our own family.

In Pan- Angle nations there are to-day more people speaking English than have ever before in the world's history spoken one tongue. 1 But even outside of those seven nations, English ranks as the world language, the one most useful for commerce, travel, or education. Some maintain that it is the richest language known. On a computation of words that may perhaps be so. 2 Others claim it is easy to learn. No one calls it easy to spell. Some say English - speaking people cannot learn other languages ; others say they will not. The story is

1 The world contains one hundred and sixty million English- ~] speaking people, according to Whitakers Almanack, London, 1913, p. 99- Of the one hundred and twenty millions computed to have been under the control of the Roman Empire only a portion spoke Latin.

2 The Outlook, New York, August 9, 1913: "Four new words are added to the English language every day, if we may accept the dictionaries as a standard of measurement. During the last three centuries the rate of growth of the dictionaries has been 1500 words a year. In l6l6 John Bullokar . . . published his Compleat English Dictionary, with 5080 words. . . . There are now in fact 600,000 English words, but about onequarter of this number are rare scientific terms or words that are obsolete or obsolescent." Cf. Boston (Massachusetts) Transcript, May 28, 1913, Franklin Clarklin, "A Supreme Court of the Language " : " This year will see the issue of an English language dictionary containing 450,000 words. It is said that the largest German dictionary including personal words has 300,000 words, a French one 210,000 words, a Russian and an Italian 140,000 words each, and a Spanish 120,000 words." _l

"6 told of a man for many years the only British resident on 1500 miles of Arabian coast. He knew less than a dozen words of Arabic. " How do you carry on your trade ? " someone asked. " Oh," he replied, " the beggars have got to learn English." 1 Similar is Mr. Dooley's promise to the Filipinos: " An' we'll larn ye our language, because 'tis aisier to larn ye ours than to larn oursilves yours."

That the wide knowledge of its language is a source of advantage to a nation, Benjamin Franklin pointed out in a letter to Noah Webster in 1789 : " The Latin language, long the vehicle used in distributing knowledge among the different nations of Europe, is daily more and more neglected ; and one of the modern tongues, viz. the French, seems in point of universality to have supplied its place. It is spoken in all the courts of Europe ; and most of the literati, those even who do not speak it, have acquired knowledge enough of it to enable them easily to read the books that are written in it. This gives a considerable advantage to that nation ; it enables its authors to inculcate and spread throughout other nations such sentiments and opinions on important points as are most conducive to its interests, or which may contribute to its reputation by promoting the common interests of mankind. It is perhaps owing to its being written in French, that Voltaire's treatise on ' Toleration ' has had so sudden and so great an effect on the bigotry of Europe, as almost entirely to disarm it. The general use of the French language has likewise a very advantageous effect on the profits of

1 Manchester (England) Guardian, March 24, 1913.

the bookselling branch of commerce, . . . And at present there is no capital town in Europe without a French bookseller's shop corresponding with Paris.

" Our English bids fair to obtain the second place. The great body of excellent printed sermons in our language, and the freedom of our writings on political subjects, have induced a number of divines of differents sects and nations, as well as gentlemen concerned in public affairs, to study it ; so far at least as to read it. And if we were to endeavor the facilitating its progress, the study of our tongue might become much more general." l

By 1856 the use of our language had progressed so that Emerson thought it " destined to be the universal language of men." 2

That we who talk English go about with an assumption of superiority, there is abundant testimony. In 1676 an English ship visited Mauritius, then a possession of Holland. A modern historian quotes from the records of the Dutch Governor : " This breed imagine the Hollanders are of a lower stock, naturally inferior, who ought always to be humbly and servilely at their disposal." 3 A Bostonian, who sailed from his home port for Liverpool on news of the ratification of the treaty of Ghent, mentions a British army officer with whom he chatted in London in 1815 : " The colonel complimented the American troops in a curious manner by observing that they were brave