Macon beacon. [volume] (Macon, Miss.) 1859-1995, 1897-01-02
ENGLISH ~PRovlNCIALs.
Contrasted Traits in the North and the
South of England.

Oontrasteu IRA Is IN the NOftu anu tuo
South of England.
The series of papers which the Times
recently began TO publish upon the
characteristics that distinguish the
north and south of England is so inter-
esting, as well as amusing, that we hope
when it is completed we shall have an
other describing the specialties of the
East Anglican, the western man, and,
above all, the man of the Midlands and
the Londoner, in some ways, the most
separate of them all. Owing, partly, we
/ fancy. to accident, and partly TO the
marked opposition between their poll
/ Tics. the contrast between the northern
man, and especially the Yorkshire man,
with his self-assertion, his indepen-
dence and his republicanism, and the
man of the south, with his comparative
smoothness, his readiness to obey when
he is led and his tendency to untruth,
has struck the general imagination.
The intense self-csteem of the north
ern, especially as to his wv virtues, his
consciousness of his ego and his raci-
ness of speech, arising from his care
l~essness of giving o~tfeuse, his general
masterfulness, in fact, have increased
his perception until it has gradually
pervaded all literature, and men who
never consciously spoke to a northern
accept John Browdic as typical, which
be is, though only of the good side of
his countrymen. The real John Browdie
has a grand difficulty in forgiving, is
apt when he encounters a stranger
mentally TO smell him as a dog does be-
fore he viii accord him amity, and, like
the Scotchman. whom he is in some
ways so unlike, never quite forgives
him for not having been born north of
the Trent, The best description Of him
in literature is perhaps Currer Bells
Mr.. Iorke.
The southerner is far less dominant,
though he has a tenacity of his own;
his hatred is perhaps meaner, but less
yindictiye, as if his memory were not
quite so perfect, and he has much less
felicity in expressing himself, being &C.
sentially, we fancy-though, ~curiously
enough, this is not apparent in litera-
ture-a less humorous man. Charles
Dickens, the greatest of modern Eng
llsh humorists, was essentially, by
birth and mental habitude, of the south. |
Even in his religion there is a differ
encc, the northerner inclining TO q We.
hement Professionalism, the southerner
when not partly Celtic, being either a
strongly convinced but not vehement
professor or deeply tinctured with
sccularist Indifference. In intellectual
ability there is little TO choose between
them. nor, c%uriously enough, in the bad
pccullarity of cunning or the good Pc
culiarity of adroitness. But the north
erncr is, if we omit the Tondoner for Il
moment from the calculation, decided
~ the more efficient man, partly, no
doubt, because of his dominance. eff
depending mainly on the power
of securing obedience, but partly also
because he cannot bear the sense, even
TO himself, of not doing his work well.
The southerner is more content TO be
Just as efficient as circumstances re-
quire, being in disposition. though not
in fact, comparatively a lazy
y world of Iorkshireinen would
not be a pleasant world, or of Wiltshire
men a stirring one.
DE-. .Jessopp, who knows them well.
implies n all his writings that the ma
tives of East Anglia are on the whole
the worst product among the men of
and in some respects his iudg-
ment cannot be honestly gainsaid.
Without the hurly independence of the
northerner or the smoothness of the
southern man, the typical East Anglican
tends to be, like his Saxon and Danish
ancestor, a boor, with a vein in him of
lcridity, often improving into a keen
ness rather too self-regardant-thouph
seltishness, in sooth. is of no county,
md as often degenerating into habitual
ipitefulness. lie would not %"'eave 'arf
brick" at the stranger for the world.
nor walk ten yards to put him in his
way He dislikes humor, particularly
'arcical humor, which he characterizes
rs ",leerin'" and "fieerin'," and has i,
nlm a vein of querulousness. which in
is so strong as to impart a spe-
tone TO his voice, which in the real
people tends to be the shrill voice of the
natural virago.-London Spectator.