BRITISH STURDINESS.
MR. RUSKIN, in an interesting letter to the Daily Telegraph of Tuesday, complains almost piteously of the vanishing landmarks in the British character, the elements of which he defines thus :—" Trustworthiness of word and work independence of other people's opinions in not living for display but for comfort, as, for example, Sydney Smith at Poston ;" "respect for old rather than flexibility by new fashions ;" and (chief of all), "such honour for women as would prevent them being driven from their home to get their living how they could, or provoked to insist upon rights of which that home had bereaved them." That means, we conclude, that the masculine British character, at all events, has lost sturdiness in many respects,—moral sturdiness in fidelity to word and work ; social sturdiness in maintaining the right to please oneself rather than other people in those comparatively insignificant matters in which concession to other people's taste makes men miserable, without conferring any real benefit on those to whom concession is made ; sturdiness of habit which resists frequent changes of fashion ; and, lastly, sturdiness in maintaining that manly tender- ness for women which is disposed to make any sacrifice rather than throw women on their own resources and drive them into independent life. We do not doubt that in all these respects there is less of the outward appearance of sturdiness now in Englishmen than there was some fifty years ago. But surely the measure of sturdiness is not the absence of external change, but the relative minuteness of that change in proportion to the amount of new force disposing to change. You would not measure the sturdiness of an oak by its absolute uprightness, for an oak that was in a sheltered spot, and very little exposed to the wind, might be absolutely unchanged in outline, while a much sturdier oak that grew on the mountain-top would show in every twisted limb the power of the hurricanes with which it had had to battle. We must measure sturdiness by the relation between the resistance opposed and the magnitude of the forces put forth to over- come that resistance. Now, if we take this truer measure of sturdiness, we doubt very much whether Mr. Ruskin could establish his assertion that the British character has lost in sturdiness, for the last fifty years have exposed it to hurri- canes of change to which hardly any fifty years of our history could show anything comparable. In the first place, the whole moulding influence of other nations upon us has been, we suppose, quadrupled, or more than quadrupled, during the last half. century. In the next place, the influence of town upon country has been multiplied in a much greater ratio than the influence of the Continent upon our island. In the third place, not only has the exposure of our various creeds and faiths to the influence of the creeds and faiths of those who differ from us been greatly increased, but especially the habit of regarding all the creeds and faiths with which we cannot agree as honourable and worthy of respect, has so grown upon us as almost to transform the in- ward ideal of man's life, and that in points on which every national character exhibits the greatest possible susceptibility to change. Fourthly, what has not democracy done in putting men out of conceit with their own opinions, and convincing them that it is of little use to hold an opinion which they cannot maintain against a greater and stronger class? Last, not least, the attitude of women towards men as regards their yearning to try a life of independence has altered very much more, and very much more rapidly, than the attitude of men towards women.
Now, when we consider the vastness of the change in external influences which all these transformations involve, and their extraordinary concentration into the life of a single half-century, we are rather struck by the sturdiness with which the influence of these external changes has, on the whole, been resisted, than by the pliancy which the British character,—as tested, at least, by its masculine type,—has exhibited in relation to these various gusts and even storms of change. Look at the soldiers' sturdiness exhibited in the Crimean War, in the Indian Mutiny, in the Nile Expedition, to take three specimens of our military history, and is it too much to say that the sturdiness of the British officer,—i.e., the kind of soldier most freely exposed to the influence of the changes which the age has wrought,— has shown itself even more remarkable in the last than in the first of these great trials F Probably the British manufacturer and artisan have been exposed to even a severer trial under the fierce competition of the new Free-trade, than the British soldier himself has had to bear from other causes. And yet may it not be fairly said that the British manufacturer has exhibited greater sturdiness and nerve during the prolonged depression of the last twelve or thirteen years, and has betrayed fewer signs of speculative rashness and derangement of judgment, less self-will and intoxication in his assertion of capitalist rights, than in any trying period of the same length during the whole half-century ? Has he not been temperate in his contests with his workpeople, more just, more reasonable, and less dictatorial than in any previous time ? And has not the artisan, who in 1g61-64 exhibited such marvellous constancy in a period of great adversity, shown lately, again, in the various co-operative movements in which he has been engaged, and in the control of the great Trade-Unions created for his benefit, a sturdiness and tem- perateness of character which has far exceeded anything which be had displayed before ? Compare the artisan of Mr. Disraeli's " Sybil " with the artisan of whom our modern working-class Members are the mouthpiece, and we can hardly deny, we think that the sturdiness of the latter is far greater than the sturdiness of the former. We should be inclined to deny absolutely that "trustworthiness of word and work" has diminished in this island in the course of the last fifty years. Doubtless the whole volume of words and works has increased so enormously that it is very difficult to compare the new with the old ; it is like com- paring the character of the Rhine at Basle with the character of the Rhine at Coire. But the mere fact that in the smaller volume of words and works there was much more violence and much more mutual recrimination than in the larger volume of words and works with which we have now to deal, speaks plainly for the contention that at least the change has not been one of deterioration, but rather one of improvement. And improve- ment in this respect there could not be without greater trust- worthiness, greater equanimity, greater calmness, greater fidelity on the whole, than there was in the more vexed and violent period of less energy. Again, compare the sturdiness of the various ecclesiastical agencies of fifty years ago with their sturdi- ness now. There, again, the increase of scepticism and the increase of mutual toleration have led to great openings for abuse and hypocrisy. Yet we should say that in all Churches there is more and better work done, and sturdier, more upright and faithful work, than there was in a period of greatly less urgent and difficult problems and much less anxious intellectual conditions. Mr. Gurney, the clever author of the volume of essays to which he has given the title of " Tertium Quid," has put very strongly the unrest of a period in which religious thinkers who agree most closely in their social and in- tellectual tendencies, are often separated by a great chasm of creed ; while those who agree most closely in creed are often severed by a great chasm of intellectual alienation. Yet, amidst all these difficalties,—diffieulties of which our new tolerance is in some sense the cause,—we believe that the religious life of the nation, so far from exhibiting less sturdiness and integrity than of old, exhibits a great deal more of both.
Then, as to independence of modes of life,—namely, preference of real comfort to empty show,—and reverence for good old fashions as compared with flimsy new fashions,—though it is true, no doubt, that there appears to be less sturdiness than there was, is this not due in great measure to the very much greater consideration paid to the young, and that far greater willingness of the old to give way to the young which has grown up in this generation ? The effect has been that there is perhaps more changefulness and less solidity of comfort, especially in regard to the levities of life ; that there is more variety and less rest ; but this only means that on that side of life which is of less paramount significance, the sturdiness of the old has been willing to sacrifice itself to the restlessness of the young. If this be the basis for Mr. Ruskin's indictment, we should be disposed to admit it; but then, we should not admit that the field which this change covers is nearly large enough to justify the whole breadth of the accusation.
And in regard to the last count of the indictment, we should say that the change, remarkable as it is, is much more due to the initiative of the women, and the sense of justice in the men, than to any change in the masculine character at all events. That women are displaying astounding sturdiness in pursuing and working out their new love of independence, no one can deny who watches the strength of purpose with which the new nurses, the new teachers, the new literary writers, the new doctors, set about their arduous work. In this sense, the women are displaying a sturdiness of purpose which they never had a chance of displaying before, and hitherto, at least, are showing an unsuspected amount of that sturdiness of which men had been regarded as having almost a monopoly. But it cannot be denied, we think, that this new self-assertion in women has been, and is likely to be, of a nature to modify greatly and rightly that attitude of manly feeling towards them on the decay of which Mr. Ruskin comments. How is it possible to realise that, to a very large extent at least, women wish to break away from their dependence upon men, and are in justice entitled- to do so, so far as they have the capacity to do it, and not to feel that the attitude of tender responsibility for them which it has been the custom of the sturdiest men to assume, must be, provisionally at least, discouraged ?
Consider, finally, the extraordinary change, amounting in many ways to a great climatological revolution in English poli- tical character, which Mr. Gladstone has effected by persuading, and up to a certain point justly persuading, the new electors, that precisely where the middle class had been most sturdy in their political attitude towards one great section of our people, they had also been most perverse. Mr. Gladstone set on foot what we may fairly call a great spiritual conversion,—a critical change of character,—in our British attitude towards Ireland. We do not hesitate to say that that climatological change in our polities has amounted to something so important, that we may treat it as a great spiritual event of which even this
generation will hardly see the full consequences. Our
readers are aware that we do not regard this change as by any means a purely beneficent one, though up to a certain point it was purely beneficent, and beyond that point was, we think, almost purely prejudicial. But what we want to point out is the great, and we may almost say, mar- vellous sturdiness which suddenly developed itself amongst us, so soon as it was clearly perceived even by a few, that the change effected in our politics was passing beyond reasonable bounds, and tending to make us not more just, but, on the pretence of being more just, much more unjust, than we had hitherto been. No sooner was that perceived, than a power of resistance to this great revolution in political character developed itself which seems to us one of the most striking phenomena in the history of Great Britain. Statesmen who had always till then been only in the second rank, sprang to the first, and an attitude was developed in the people which may be compared to that of a wrestler whom a mighty antagonist strives, but strives in vain, to lift from the ground on which he has planted himself.
Take fairly into consideration all the rush of influences which have been at work in the last fifty years to change the British character, and we are very much more struck by the large amount of resolute sturdiness which that character has opposed to all undue influence, than by the readiness it has exhibited in yielding to one or two influences which it would have been sheer obstinacy to ignore.
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