The times., 1898-06-04
GLADSTONE ON AMERICA.
from Kin Beyond Sea. J

or the Old world atlarge IN the thirteen
colonies. now grown into thirty-eight
States, besides aghf Territories. Is the
special interest 9 England in their con-
dition and PROSPECTS.
1t is America As1fa, who, at coming
time, can and probably Will wrest from
England her COMMERCIAL pre-eminence.
She viii probably become what we are
now, the head Servant in the great
household of the world the employer of
all employed; because her service will
be the most and ablest.
The students Of the future In the
tranquil domain of political philoso-
ply will have much to say in the way
| of comparison between American and
British institutions.
There is no parallel in all the rec
ords of the world to the case OF that
prolific British mother, who has sent
| forth her innumerable children over all
| the earth to be the founders of half a
dozen empires.
Among these children there is one
whose place in the worlds eye and in
history is superlatiye; it Is the Ameri-
can republic. She is the eldest born
| She has, taking the capacity Of her land
| ment, a natural base for the greatest
continuous empire ever established by
man. The development which the re-
public has effected has been uneX-
ampled for It's rapidity and force. While
other countries have doubled or at most
trebled their population, she has risen,
during the century of freedom, in round
numbers from two millions to forty-five
QS7S) AS to riches, it is reasonable to
ii 1.r.E. 81
| the PROGRESS thus far achieved a series
for the future; and, reckoning upon this
basis, suppose that the very next CEN
suS, in the year 1880, viii exhibit her 10
| the world as certainly the wealthieSt Of
all the nations. The huge figure of q
| thousand million sterling, which may
| be taken roundly as the annual income
of the United Kingdom, has been reach
| ed at surprising rate-a rate which
may perhaps be best expressed by say
| ing that, If we could have started forty
or fifty years ago from zero at the rate
| of our annual increment, We should
now have reached our present position.
| But while we have been advancing with
| this portentous rapidity, America is
| passing by us as If in a canter. Yet
| even now TIE work of searching the
soil and the bowels of the territory, and
| opening out her enterprise throughout
its vast e1panse, is DIN its infancy. The
| England and the America of the pres
ent are probably the two strongest ma
tions of the world.
In many and the most fundamental
respects the TWO still carry in undimin-
ished perhaps in increasing. clearness
| the notes of resemblance that be-
| seem a parent and child.
Both wish for elf-government; and,
| however grave the drawbacks under
which one or both it exists, the two
| have among the great nations Of the
world made the most efectual advanc-
| es toward the true aim of rational pol
| itIcs.
They are similarly associated IN their
| fixed idea that the force in which all
| government takes effect is to be con-
stantly basked and, as 1t were, illumin-
ated by thought in speech and writing.
| They are governments, not Of force
only, but Of persuasion.
! Many more are the concords, and not
! less vital than thes@, of the two nations,
as expressed in their institutions. They
| alike prefer the practical to the alb
stract. They tolerate opinion, with only
a reserve on behalf of decency; and
they desire to conhne coercion to the
! province of action and to leave thought,
| as such. entirely free. They set a high
value on liberty, for it's own sake. They
| desire TO give full scope TO the prin-
| ciples of seif-reliance in the people, and
| they deem self-help to be immeasurably
superior to help in any other form.
They mistrust and mislike the cen
| tralization Of power.
They regard publicity as the vital air
Of politics
There were, however, the strongest
reasons why America could not grow
tn tt II
land
In England inequality lies imbedded
in the very base of the social structure;
| In America II is late, incidental un-
recognized product not of tradition. but
| of industry and wealth, as the advance
| with various and of necessity, unequal
steps. Heredity, seated as an idea in
the hearts core Of Englishmen and sus-
| tanning far more than 1t Is sustained
by those of our institutions which ex-
| press II, was as truly absent from the
intellectual and moral store with which
the colonists traversed the Atlantic as
IL it had been some forgotten article in
the bills of lading that made up their
cargoes. Equality combined with lib
| erty, and renewable at each descent
| from one generation to another. was
the groundwork of their social creed.
The infancy of the States had been
/ upon the whole what their manhood
was to be, self-goyerned and republi-
can. Their revolution, as we call it,
was like ours (16S8) in the main, a vim
| dication Of liberties inherited and pos
sessed-a conservative revolution
The two constitutions of the countries
express, indeed, rather the differences
than the resemblance of the nations.
The one Is a. thing grown, the other q
| thing Is made; one a praxis, the other
a poiesis; the one the offspring of ten
dency and indeterminate time. the
other of choice and of epoch But as the
| British constitution is the most subtle
organism which has proceeded from the
womb and the long CESSATION of pro-
gresslve history. so the American Con-
stitution Is, so far as 1 can see, the
most wonderful workever struck off al
a given time by the brain and purpose
Of man.
1 should fail, in looking at the insti.
tutions of America, like one who at,
tempts to scan the stars with the naked