CIVIC PRIDE.
THIS week a new scheme of historical teaching was introduced in London with the sanction of the London County Council. In the days of the old School Board, lectures on the history of various parts of London were delivered to the teachers in London schools • but the new plan takes the history of London as a whole, and is intended to describe the development of civic institutions, and to show the place London holds in the history of England. The lectures, which are delivered by Mr. Vickers, Lecturer in Modern History at University College, Bristol, are open to all teachers in London schools, both elementary and secondary. Not having heard the lectures this week, we cannot speak of their quality, or venture to predict what effect the scheme may have in helping Londoners to appreciate the greatness of their city and the significance of its history ; but we are quite sure that every effort of this sort deserves encouragement. For a good deal more than a century London has, as it were, lost herself. The old parochial boundaries are broken down, or at all events are hopelessly obscured, and London is a vast amorphous world in which no man has an obvious rallying-point. How many people in the heart of London know to what parish they belong? The old vestries did not inspire either veneration or "patriotism," and the boroughs which flourish where the vestries once reigned do not promise either, so far as one can judge, to provide such a standpoint of civic pride and consciousness as one finds in many country towns. Perhaps a large part of the youth of London would have no sense of belonging to a particular administrative area were it not that they are reminded of the existence of their borough by the fact that it is also the sphere of influence of a cricket or football club. It is very different with country towns. Such a town is, let us say, Yorkist by geographical position and tradition, and that is enough to make it violently anti-Lancastrian. Another town prides itself on belonging to the Midlands, or to East Anglia, and the fact is an incentive in all its affairs. Its citizens will not allow that any other town has a title to self-respect ; it must abide by the unfortunate accident of not being their town. This incentive achieves remarkable results. c'We could point to country towns which, on their own impulse, have supplied themselves with first-rate music and excellent collections of •pictures. They understand what is good and what is bad, and they do not rest content till they have got what is good. They do not take their opinions at second hand from London, but form their own. There are two reasons for this phenomenon. The first is that no town in England except London is too large to be conscious of its civic existence, and the second is that in country towns all the luxuries of public good-taste are paid for by the citizens out of their own pockets. They are the real proprietors, and know it. In London we expect to have things bought for us. London is the museum or receiving-house of all the symbols of our national civilisation, and it is expected that the State shall pay the bill. We are not personally proud of what we have got because we are not provoked by the existence of any serious competition, and are not conscious of any self-sacrifice in 'winning our easy victory.
For such reasons London has lost herself, and it would be well if, by historical lectures or any other means, she could be helped to find herself once more. It is as easy as it is injurious to be reconciled to the absence of civic pride. Most people just accept the fact, and explain it by saying t hat London is unique and that there is no standard by which to judge her. But a -revolution in the way.people think about London might still conceivably be'compassed by some new fashion in the bearing of the better educated classes towards municipal politics, or even by the action of some strong and popular public character in this respect. If Londoners were familiar with the greatness of their past, they would simultaneously understand the greatness of the responsibility it imposes upon them. At present they are apathetic; everything is left to the few people who are willing to act. Happily, willingness to act is in itself a, tesb of competence, and so things do generally get done by the right people. Yet there are occasions when only strong and widespread public feeling can gain a cause worth gaining. Two instances occur to us at the moment where wide public support is needed and is wanting. First, Crosby Hall is still threatened. This glorious specimen of old English domestic architecture is in serious danger because Londoners leave it to a few culti; vated citizens,'whose enthusiasm may be mistaken for whimsicality, to conduct the agitation. If any other city had Crosby Hall, would it allow it to be pulled down before meetings had been held at which working men and women would cheer themselves hoarse in honour of a resolution of indignation ? We do not believe it. One country news- paper, the Manchester Guardian, puts the case very well in order to help Londoners to see more clearly what they ought to do. Architecture, it points out, is less highly rated than the sister-art of painting, but it is not really an inferfor art, and the value of architectural specimens may be fairly tested by the standards we recognise in painting. Suppose, then, that a noble painting by Reynolds or Gainsborough were hung up where Crosby Hall stands, and it were pro- posed to cut it down and destroy it. Would even Londoners tolerate that for a moment ? We do not think so. The second instance of apathy we had in mind is the absence of general encouragement of the Committee who with so great a weight of argument are trying to save the Strand from an ugly building-plan,—a plan which, if it is carried out, will not fail to offend the eye of every one who passes east down the Strand.
In the United States children are taught in the public schools what is known as "Civics." It is always a kind of humiliation to be forced to teach what ought in a perfect world to come by instinct ; but if the plant will not grow wild, it is better to have it forced in a hothouse than to have none at all. And, after all, it has been said that even the respect of a son for his father is an artificial virtue. We would, then, not be averse from having the less obvious virtue of civic pride taught in our schools. There are other similar things which children might be taught profitably in schools if only the teaching did not depend for its efficacy so completely upon the delicacy and tact of the teacher. Patriotism, for example, may with fatal facility be made indistinguishable from bombast, and a, proper veneration for the national flag as the symbol of lofty principles may be turned into a pretext for a vulgar aggressiveness. Good manners are at a sad discount in County Council schools, and they, above all things, ought to be taught. Rudeness is commonly mistaken for independence. We do not ask for an obsolete servility from the poor man to the rich, liut only for a proper recognition of the dignity of the human person in the dealings of every man with another. By a democracy, surely, few things ought to be more valued than that. Concern for the appearance of, London would, we imagine, be only one of several aspects of civic pride. Children should be told that, whatever London used to be, it is no longer an ugly, place. Paris is beautiful for the arrangement of its vast spaces, but its public buildings do not match those of London. Loudon grows in beauty yearly. This is a, great building age, and our young architects are fast removing the blots upon their profession. Town children are often taught what they may observe in the country— where they seldom go ; but if the faculty of observatiod be encouraged among the objects of a town, it' will work automatically afterwards in all places and at all times. It can be encouraged first only on things which are continually before the eyes. ' Thus the buildings of London might become for the child an epitome of history. The child would be an exception to the present rule, and would go sight-seeing in his own city. He would learn the greatness of Wren ; be would trace in old terracee the work or influence of the brothers Adam ; he would learn that the Savoy is not only the name of a hotel and a theatre ; he would appreciate the antiquarian learning of Mr. Gomme which evolved the splendidly apt names Kingsway and Aldwych and made all other suggestions look foolish ; he would have an eye capable of seeing the beauty of New Scotland Yard. We need not continue these very haphazard examples. All this may be only a dream, but let us hope that at least part of it will come true.
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