Morning journal and courier., 1883-01-10
English Reserve.

Johnson gave as reason for the reserve haaStual among Englishmen that i've do not as ct understand the common rights of hu- manity;'' inferring thereby that time would come when by the better understanding of those rights this characteristic would be effaced. This spoken 99 years ago, but it cannot be conceded that the wished for consummation has been attained. In fact it may be said that with our moro frequent and intimate acquaintance with foreigners our suspicion of them has been intensified. But our insular reserve is quite as remarkable among ourselves as in our intercourse with strangers. AS French writer remarked, we surround ourselves with seemingly impen- etrabls wall of ice but that the wall being once penetrated absolute equalization follows; and even Goldsmith's Citizen of the World, in summing up the national character, de- clared that he would have men of any other nation as acquantainces, but Englishmen as friends. We carry this love of privacy into every walk of life, and under all circum- stances. An Englishman entering train at terminus may be observed invariably to choose an unoccupied compartment, and by his looks almost resents as intrusion the en- trance of anyone else. Two Englishmen may be the sole guests at 8 foreign table dhote, may be seated within few inches of one another, yet the meal will progress from soup to dessert without the exchange of @ word between them. It has, in fact, become almost standard rule of propriety among us that strangers should not address one another without having undergone the formal process of introduction, and we are all familiar with the story of Frenchman whom an Englishman had saved from drowning, and who embraced his benefactor with all the etfusion of his race, but was met with the remark, almost as chilly as had been his bath, ''Sir, I haze not the honor of your acquaintance"
 Hence the almost unbroken silence which prevails whenever Q party of Englishmen strange to each other are gathered together. In the crowded trains which go in and out of our capital every morning and evening, it is quite unusual to hear remark made, not so much because the occupants are engaged with their newspapers as because there is nothing in common between them and if by chance a word should be spoken, it is al- most ludicrous to notice the absorbing inter- est which it creates in the hearts of the ot her passengers. That the characteristic of re- serve is deeply implanted in the English nB- ture is sufficiently proved by the familiar :act that, however thoroughly at home and free and easy people may become in the course of an evening, repentance comes in the morning, and the meeting in the streets during the day
 is marked by all the old stand offishness and
 formality. Every Englishman's house is his castle, and in nothing is the English love of privacy better exemplified than in the change which comes over man when once he has crossed his own threshold. He breathes freely, and the outer man by which he IS known to the world is cast off as an actor doffs his stage costume.
 And yet not even the privacy of home is always able to banish the Englishman's re serve. The habit begot of constant assump- tion in the outer world too often becomes second nature, and is carried into the family circle; hence the awe with which Paterfamil- jas is often regarded by his olive branches. No man is 8 hero to his own valet, but tie English father is very often being of anoth- CT world in the eyes of his offspring, and al- though we may ridicule the way in which
 hirsute foreign gentlemen of mature age en- brace and cuddle one another after an ab- sence of few hours, it is, perhaps, regretta- ble that we do not see little more of the English father leaning on his sons arm, while as to such 8 childish freak as an exchange of kisses. Young Hopeful after his first term at a pubic school feels himself very much above that Much of our character abroad for absurdly pompous pride is traceable to
 our habitual reserve, and the foreigner can not be taught to believe that in cases out of 10 this is simply the result of shyness.
 Many an Englishman will, rather than ask 8 stranger for light for his cigar, deprive himself of a smoke. He may be longing to scan the contents of 8 newspaper lying idle railway carriage seat, but because it is the property of stranger he will continue his journey unsatisfed. Even Scotchmen are more sociable and communicative than Eng1ishmen Scotchmen are brothers all the world over, as any resident in the East, or Australia, or Canada, can testify. But Eng lishmen are strangers to one another. At 8 pinch they will put their shoulders as firmly and solidly together as any men; but the pinch over and the crisis past, they are once again strangers, and cease to have the smallest
 interest in one another's affairs.