four years or so, and open to the best pupils in competitive examinations in all parts of the country. The present writer was supported almost entirely by scholarships from the age of fourteen to the age of twenty-three, and could not have got through the University otherwise. So it is not for him to complain of the exclusion of poor boys from the highest education that England can provide. And his case is perfectly normal and common. If you look through the lists of "scholars" and "exhibitioners" compiled by several Oxford colleges of recent years, you will find a majority coming from homes by no means wealthy and a large proportion actually from the working class. And these men go on to fill high positions in the civil service, politics, the law, the Church, or other "gentlemanly" professions. And if this was done under the old system with its "great Public Schools," with high fees, numbering less than a hundred all told, how much more will be done when the new State-aided Secondary Schools, numbering over nine hundred already, with very low fees and an abundance of free places and university scholarships, have begun to exert their full influence in the national education? Of course we must not delude ourselves. It remains difficult, by any measures of public help, entirely to get over the inherent disadvantages to a working-class child of the poverty of its parents. They will want it to bring in wages at once instead of improving its education. They will not be able to provide it at home with a background of cultured thought or interesting conversation. However, we see those difficulties and we mean to face them. I must not allow them now to make me digress from my main subject. . . . Hitherto the public services and learned professions, the original preserves of the "upper classes," have absorbed without any loss of standard, indeed with a considerable rise in standard, the hundreds of "poor scholars" who came to them from the old Public Schools and Universities. They will absorb equally the thousands of chosen boys and girls who come from the new Secondary Schools and the cheap modern Universities.

I have spoken of the civil side of life, since that is the only side of which I have personal knowledge. The army and navy used to be the great strongholds of aristocratic privilege, the impregnable fortresses of anti-liberal thought. The famous phrase quoted at the head of this essay has lingered in men's memories. But it is well to remember that it referred to the Engand of 1812, and even then only to the army. The army of 1917 is very different from the army of a hundred years ago, or even of three years ago. The soldier in whom the nation now places its chief trust, Sir William Robertson, was himself a working man. Promotions from the ranks are now the rule, not the exception. I make no profession of knowing the army from inside; but I believe one is safe in saying that if the nation as a whole is moving forward in a democratic direction, the opposite tendency will find no stronghold any longer in the army. The British soldier fights no more "in the pale shade of aristocracy."

Yet the standard of honor remains untouched. War makes good men do horrible things; there is no shutting of the eyes to that. Yet I believe all good judges will agree that our soldiers now have more chivalry, not less, than those of Wellington.

There are bad symptoms here and there: vulgarities, meannesses, intrigues, and blatancies. Such things exist in every large society, and a state of long and desperate warfare calls them into prominence. But, on the whole, there is no visible decay in the strength of that ideal of manners which is descended originally from a bygone aristocracy but is now felt to be part of the birthright of every free Briton: an obligation imposed on him by his own freedom and by the position which his race holds in the world. How can a member of so great a Commonwealth consent to be anything but a Gentleman? A rule of duty as of the strong towards the weak, courage and gentleness, no bullying and no intrigue: it may be based ultimately on mere pride, but it is better to be proud of these qualities than of their opposites. And such pride, as America herself is the best witness, is no bad ornament to a great and sovereign democracy.

THE BRITISH COMMONWEALTH OF NATIONS 1

JAN CHRISTIAN SMUTS

[Lieutenant-General Smuts (1870- ) is a native of South Africa, but was educated at Christ's College, Cambridge, where he distinguished himself as a scholar. In the Boer War of 1899-1902 he fought against the British, but in the World War he commanded the British troops which drove the Germans out of East Africa. During 1917 he visited England as South African representative in the Imperial War Cabinet, and his speeches on the war and the question of Imperial federation made a profound impression. This after-dinner speech was delivered at a banquet given in his honor by members of both Houses of Parliament on May 15, 1917, and was characterized by the London Daily Telegraph as one of the finest and most statesmanlike utterances that the war has produced.” It is especially valuable for its presentation before a not entirely sympathetic audience of the attitude of the British "colonials" to the British Crown and Constitution.]

Ever since I have come to this country, about two months ago, I have received nothing but the most profound and charming kindness and hospitality, which has culminated in this unique banquet to-night. I appreciate it all the more because I know it is given at a time when the greatest storm in the world's history is raging, and when nobody in this country or great city feels inclined to indulge in any festivities or banquets. When I return home, I shall be able to tell the people of South Africa that I have been received by you not as a guest, not as a stranger, but simply as one of yourselves. Speaking with a somewhat different accent, and laying a different emphasis on many things, as no doubt becomes a barbarian from the outer marches of the Empire and one whose mind is not yet deeply furrowed with trenches and dugouts I would like first of all to say how profoundly 1 From International Conciliation, November, 1917. Reprinted by permission.

thankful I am to Lord French for the words which have fallen from his lips. Your expressions in regard to myself are largely, I feel, undeserved. At any rate, I accept them as coming from an old opponent and comrade in arms. I know they are meant in the best spirit, and I accept them as such.

Your words recall to my mind many an incident of those stirring times when we were opposing commanders in the Boer War. I may refer to two. On one occasion I was surrounded by Lord French—and was practically face to face with disaster. Nothing was left me but, by the most diligent scouting, to find a way out. I ventured into a place which bore the very appropriate name of Murderers' Gap - and I was the only man who came out alive. One account of that stated that one Boer escaped, but he probably had so many bullets in him that he would be no further danger. I survived to be your guest to-night. Two days after I broke throughblessed words in these times and on a very dark night, I came to a railway, which I was just on the point of crossing, when we heard a train. Some of us felt inclined to wreck and capture that train, but for some reason or other I said, "No, let it pass." You can imagine my feelings when some time afterwards I learned that the only freight on that train was Sir John French with one or two A.D.C.'s, moving round from one part of his front to another to find out how I had broken through. If I had not missed that chance, he would have been my guest, no doubt very welcome, though no doubt embarrassing. Fate has willed otherwise. I am his guest.

Those were very difficult and strenuous days in which one learned many a valuable lesson, good for all life. One of those lessons was that under stress of great difficulty practically everything breaks down ultimately, and the only things that survive are really the simple human feelings of loyalty and comradeship to your fellows, and patriotism which can stand any strain and bear you through all difficulty and privation. We soldiers know the extraordinary value of these simple feelings, how far they go, and what strain they can bear, and

how ultimately they support the whole weight of civilization. That war was carried on by both sides in a sportsmanlike spirit, and in a clean, chivalrous way - and out of that calamity has been produced the happy state of affairs that you see to-day in South Africa, and which led to a new basis on which to build the larger and happier South Africa which is arising to-day.

I am sure in the present great struggle now being waged you will see some cause leading to lasting results. Here you have from all parts of the British Empire young men gathering on the battle fields of Europe, and whilst your statesmen keep planning a great scheme of union for the future of the Empire, my feeling is that very largely the work is already done. The spirit of comradeship has been borne in this campaign on the battle fields of Europe, and many of the men from the various parts of the Empire will be far more powerful than any instrument of government that you can elect in the future. I feel sure that in after days, when our successors come to sum up what has happened and draw up a balance-sheet, there will be a good credit balance due to this common feeling of comradeship which will have been built up. Now once more, as many ages ago during the Roman Empire, the Germanic volcano is in eruption, and the whole world is shaking. No doubt in this great evolution you are faced in this country with the most difficult and enormous problems which any Government or people have ever been called upon to face — problems of world-wide strategy, of man-power, communications, food supply, of every imaginable kind and magnitude, so large that it is almost beyond the wit of man to solve them, and it is intelligible that where you have so many difficulties to face, one forgets to keep before one's eye the situation as a whole. And yet that is very necessary.

It is most essential that even in this bitter struggle, even when Europe is looming so large before our eyes, we should keep before us the whole situation. We should see it steadily and see it whole. I would ask you not to forget in these times