New-York tribune., 1915-03-06
TNPTRIALISNS.

THE ORIGINS AND DESTINY or IN;
FERIAL RRITAIN And NINETEEN IN
CENTURY TUR0FE. by me "a, Is'e poItra,t =,
% the Author. Syo., ~ s'6. r. !. button
& Co
GERMAN WORLD roIIclBs DER
DEUTsCHT GEDANtB IN DEB VEL,
~ PAU Rohrbach. Translated by D. ia .
mund Won Mach. limo. pp H. HS me
Macmillan Company
Professor Crsmb's Origins and
Destiny of Imperial Britain" proves as
erinently we'll worth our while as was
and will he hereafter, his more recent
Germany and England" The book was
originally written as a defence OF Eng
lands war Of conquest upon the boeF
Republics the only one worth preserv-
Eng out OF q mass Of printed matter
almost as voluminous and fullN as
preiudieed. misinfoTmed and mlsh-
forming as that which the present war
tas called forth from pens no better
pouipped for their task. II is not. now
ever. as defence of Englsnd's course
a. that time that The Origins and
DESTINY OF Imperial Britain is OF vaIue
10 US TO dav. hut as an analysis and IN
{errretation or the spirit Of British I'M
perialism. Of the genius OF thc race
which has given II birth, and wnich II
INSPIRES Of an ideal which Professor
Craub considered mission 70 the
vorld-the spread Of justice and !ln-
erty among all peoples under Brtsn
pwsy. For the Pnr Romano o. a van
ished empire. Greater Britain offers the
LibertGS britannica. THIS, tnen, -
book OF idealism whose practical pom
tics is found in Germany and Eng
land"
w may pass by without comment
the authors statement that the South
African war "os not one ior gold ana
diamond mines. hat for the spread OF
thu british ideal Of liberty. whether
trc rare 90 while. vas ofefed al lhe
-oi.. cf the nor..r' wanted II or not.
We may forge. g., did Professor
t-amh. the cNp.auotion given by Mr..
chamberlain until its unconscious
humor was pointed out 10 him, that It
ves war 20 enable British subject
to abiIre their King more expedltlously
thar me naturalization laws OF the
Transvaal allowed; we shall not even
question whether the struggle was
quite 30 heroic on the British side as
The author made 10 out TO be. nor re
mcmte: that iu the eyes OF great Eng
lshmcu Ike James Bryce. John Nor.
lev and Frederic Harrison this war OF
1IF f..Nlf't vas q h'i~'s 'iN - N'N''
the ideal spirit Of its imperialism We
will acccD, Professor tramb's conclu-
sion chat. once begun. it had 10 he
fought on. 10 victory. whatever the
cost lie made his own Joseph Cham
berlain's dictum that "the day OF small
nations had passed awav; the day of
empires had come" And in this ne was
consistent TO the last. for in Germany
and England" that Anglo-SaXOn mill
taristic companion piece to Bernhardi :
famous book, he repeated the same
theory. Zeal for the independence OF
small nations was q much later step
upward OF the idealistic British impe-
rial spirit.
In fact. Belgium and Holland were
not in favor in England when Profes-
\ cor Cramb wrote this book; they sym
pathizcd 100 heartily with their South
| African cousins. Hence, no doubt, his
sneer tand here. for once, the partisan
| got for the moment the better Of the
historian a. the spiritless decline OF
Holland during the seventeenth cen
tury. which, he must have known, was
due in no small measure TO the coun-
trv's utter exhaustion in the wars for
the preservation Of the British policy
Of the balance of power under William
III Even the best equipped Of his
torians may lose their historical per
spective in hours of patriotic fervor.