The National tribune. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1877-1917, 1883-12-13
ENGLAND OF TO-DAY,
And Why it is More Like Than IN
like America.

AituONSl WTote laSt Week rom u IGIio
pension and although after so long series Of
English letters it may seem tedious to 90 back,
even once more to an English theme, should
leave my summer series OF letters incomplete
if failed to sum up those features which. in
half year spend in England, seemed to me most
striking and suggestive.
There is always temptation, in writing
from foreign country, to describe that which
is most unlike our own home traits; and, per-
haps. 1t is because so many writers have yielded
to this temptation and have described that
which was conspicuously different from Ameri-
ca without assuring themselves that it was
enthusiastically English, that the real Eng
land has always seemed to me to fall disap-
p0intingly short of my preconceiged ideas and
to be disappointingly ike America. However
this may be, on thinking over what / have seen
and heard and read in the newspaper discus
sions of current local affairs in England, it
seems to me wise for us ia America frankly to
accept the fact that England is much more ike
as than unlike that she meets essentially the
same social problems, and is in some cases IN
advance of US and able to teach US quite as
much as we are willing to learn. We are all
accustomed to reading that the English guest
who happens TO be in America was reminded
last night in an after-dinner speech that the
language and literature of England are the
common inheritance of the two Nations, and
that, down to date in the eighteenth century
WHICH VIC DOlltciS tttiFp unsitclHSO on THESE
occasions, our history is also a glorious joint
possession. But do we not unconsciously assume
that after England lost the American colonies
her later experience ceased TO have any value
for the former colOnists?
In fact, however, the change in government,
though more sudden and formal IN America,
is, perhaps no more vital than the gradual
growth of England towards becoming q re-
public under the form of monarchy. The
essential feature Of the English and American
governments Is tie wide distribution Of the
ballot and the principle of local self-govern-
ment. Now, under our SO-called universal
! suffrage, more men vote in America than IN
England but in England many women also
vote, SO that If we accuse the older government
of want of liberality in maintaining the prop
erty qualification enfranchisement, we are open
to Tetort by reason of our own policy which
disqualife5 half our citizens
Hand IN hand with the extension Of the
| franchise in England in the present century
has gone the Improvement of the internal laws
| for protecting the workingman and the franz
| ing OF new laws for conducting the work of ma
tional education. And in both directions Eng
land has something to teach Us. I have re-
ferred incidentally to the workings of both
| these groups of laws but ! wish that 1t were
! possible to transmit my own conviction of the
| great value TO US in America of the study Of
their administration.
! THEORY OF ENGLISH GOVERNMENT.
| In connection with both these groups Of laws
| there is one rather interesting anomaly. The
! whole theory of the English government Is the
"Laissez faire, laissez ailer" theory that
theory under which that is the best govern
| ment which governs least :" in which every
mans enlightened self interest may be trust
ed TO guide him. and the sum Of self-interest
may be trusted to maintain the equilibrium OF
1 the state. In the matter of foreign commerce
/ the English government follows its theory by
refusing to protect home manufacture, except
so far that it places import duties on some few
| articles III order 70 countervail excise duties.
| Bnt in the matter Of her home legislation, the
= Laissez faire, laissez aler" theory is forgot
| ten, and there is vast amount of legislation
Of the most minute, precise, and efiectual kind.
The mill hand must be paid In hard coin on a
certain day IN the week for specified number
of hours work done during which hours his
health must have been protected by the white
washing of walls and by the hedging Of al
| dangerous machinery Women must work only
during certain fixed hours and children still
! fewer, and then on condition of ample and
proper school attendance certified according to
law. But if the government hampers trade II
this direction. it lends aid IN another by carry
| ing on the parcels post so that the work of re-
tail distribution receives direct governmental
assistance, and the noteworthy fact is that
these laws are equally general. In America
Congress enaets postal laws, and the State gov
eminent frames factory acts Not so in Eng
land. This government, which rests upon
the theory of non-interfeFence, maintains
local government board, whose inspectors are
the dread Of tyrannical employers shroughoGi
the length and breadth of the land and al
oyerworked little girl in Yorkshire mill j:
as directly under the care Of the central gov
eminent as the postal department or the stand
Tn, lori
ing manufacture there is complete eontradic
ton to the principle Of local self government
which, in some respects, seems to be falling
into disuse. In this we have a vast advantage
AMERICANS ORDERLY, But NOT LAw-ABIDISG
Our State Legislatures are amply able t,
frame factory acts as wise and thorough
as the English legislation without yiolat
ing any principle OF oar Government, with
out hindering the legislation needed b.
| the whole country, and without contradictinl
the national theory of protecting the American
workingman. But quite as important as tn
work of framing such legislation is the worl
of administering it, and In this also Englan'
can teach us far more than we have been viii
ing thus far to learn. English internal law
framed for use, and it is enforced. A thought
full EngIishman living in America and address
} ing a body of young people, once said: !" hav
, heard two words often cGafounded IN Amerlcs
and law abiding the American people are.
do observe, and / do find them orderly. Prob
; ably no such vast number OF people III the civ
iIized world go about their business and tax
t care of themselves with so little outside CON
pulsion. But iaw-abiding you are rot II any
thing like the same degree. You've not tn
respect for law as law. You've not the sam
horror of a breach of the law that the Englis
| people have and that every self-gOyerne
. nation must have if its self-government IS t
i last" The obedience to law and the severe Ell
forcement of the compulsory education act an
3 the factory act in England | have already rt
q ferred to in several letters. ! wish l could sc
the same strong administration of correspond
: | ing laws In my own Pennsylvania and th
same reverence for the law as law.
One element in the English national III
/ which doubtless facilitates the admirable &C
!; that the Englishman and his constitution hay
\ been growing up together for thousand year
: Our forefathers, sturdy men of strong conselenC
: and character, framed a government whie
they and such as they were fitted to maintain
But the hundreds of thousands of immlgran
q whom we yearly absorb-the M0rmons, the Oh
4 nese the uneducated portion of the negro POI
u ulation, the voters who cannot real their ba
5 lots-these are elements of orr pop1latio
|: | whose whole moral effect is contrary to til
Englishman's tendency to stand by the const
s tuition that his fathers have stood by and
Q obey the laws that his fathers obcyed.
: EDUCATIONAL LAW.
d In the direction Of education the experien'