Page images
PDF
EPUB

element; so, by the lapse of time and other influences unnecessary to name, the Norman and the Saxon became blended together, bearing the same name and becoming the same people. From these four elementary races the staple of the English character has been formed. In looking abroad upon this assembly to-night, I cannot say there is a Celt, and there is a Saxon, and there is a Dane, and there is a Norman: they have all become fused into a mass; and as a number of pieces of iron, when welded together, are all the more powerful because they have been separate, so these different races, in this way amalgamated together, I have no doubt have very powerfully contributed to that concentration of will, that determination of character, that indomitable energy, and that untiring industry, which are found to characterise everywhere the Anglo-Saxon race. This character is making itself felt everywhere throughout the whole world, dominating everything to itself, subjecting everything before it, producing a wrench in every state of society in which it may be cast, and stamping its impress upon almost the whole population of the globe.

This, then, my Christian friends, is the first agency that I would name as having largely contributed, under God, to the "formation of English character."

The second is what we call the Feudal system. I am not now about to enter into that system in detail. It was in existence, no doubt, in the continental nations as early as the time of Charlemagne. Distinct traces of it are to be found during the reigns of our Saxon kings, but it was enlarged and consolidated under William the Conqueror. A few sentences will just set before you, popularly, what we mean by the Feudal system. The king, in theory, professed to be the owner of the whole kingdom. He made his grants of manors and of estates to certain nobles-great persons-whom we will call the earls. These grants of

land were not made absolutely, but under certain conditions. They owed the king "suit and service," as it was called, and were obliged to afford help upon every emergency. The earls, in the same way, or the great barons, made grants of their lands to others under them, whom we will call baronets,-not absolutely, but just upon the same conditions; they owing to the grantor suit and service. We might come to the yeomen in the same way. But you see the keystone of the whole system was the monarch. There was an inter-dependence between all classes, from the highest to the lowest. You will understand that I am not going, for one moment, to enter into a defence of the feudal system: not at all. It had its deep vices, and enormous abuses, when in existence. I am only going to show the influence which, in God's providence, it exerted in the formation of English character. It is most advantageous to us all to be linked together, and not to be independent of each other. We cannot be so in reality, but it is a great matter not to imagine ourselves so. I am persuaded that it is most advantageous for the symmetrical development of character to have somebody above us, somebody to look up to. Take a village, for example-I am not drawing a fancy picture; I have it this moment in my mind's eye,-where there is no minister of any kind, no 'squire, no yeoman, no “big house," no parsonage, but all the people are upon the same level: the result is, the type of character there is most unfavourable. I cannot help thinking that in this country the fact of our having different gradations in society is very advantageous. We have the House of Commons, who have their inalienable rights, and ought to assert them; then we have the House of Lords, and above them we have the Queen, who crowns and adorns the pyramid. It appears to me that our political constitution, in this way, most favourable for the symmetrical formation of character.

is

I cannot help thinking that, upon the whole, the type of English character, from this circumstance, if I may venture to say so, is superior to that of our Transatlantic brethren. It would be a most unamiable and unnatural thing for any person, much more a clergyman, to make a disparaging allusion to our brethren on the other side of the Atlantic; they are our "brothers and our cousins." They speak the same language; they profess the same religion; they have embraced the same sentiments; and are identified with us in our most important interests. I may, therefore, venture to say, on behalf of this assembly to-night, that we are as intensely anxious, and as devoutly pray for the amicable settlement of their present serious disturbances, as the Americans themselves. Now, the first principle affirmed by the political constitution of America is, that all men are equal. It is a great truth: all men are equal before God; and how they reconcile their retention of four millions of persons in abject slavery, with the assertion of that great principle, it is not of course for me to say. But the too strong assertion of this principle is found to be most inconvenient, both in domestic and political life. If I were asked briefly to state in what I consider our type of character to be superior to our American brethren; it is simply this, to speak phrenologically, we have got a better development of what is called "the bump of veneration." This has been produced by the nature of our institutions. We have a glorious past, we have antecedents that we revere; ancient and hallowed recollections are interwoven in the national mind. With America it is very different. It is a new country altogether. Their institutions are but of yesterday. There is, therefore, more of anticipation for the future than reverence for the past. Their national feeling is more concentrated upon the present, and is expressed in that well-known phrase," Go ahead! Go

ahead!" If a steam-boat or a railway-train is going to start, the great watchword in America is "Go ahead!" With us it is different. In England, when a coach, or a steam-boat, or a train, is going to start, it is—" All right!" "All right!" Your Englishman will not only look before him that he will, but he will look behind him. He will not move but according to precedent. He will neither legislate nor educate except in the light of the past. God's Word having formed the staple of education in this country from time immemorial, Englishmen will adopt no national system of education where God's Word is ignored. In legislation you just see the same thing. All political parties, all ranks of the community now amongst us, while they are favourable to amendment and progress, insist that all must be done in perfect accordance with our cherished antecedents. Englishmen will reform, but not revolutionise. They will repair, but not subvert. They will extirpate abuses, and extend privileges, just as the growth of the population and the advance of education require; yet, at the same time, all parties will religiously maintain the great landmarks of our Constitution, in spite of either the experiments of conceited theorists, or the assaults and attacks of disloyal dissatisfactionists. Now, I am per

suaded that this feeling has been largely brought about by the substratum which the old Feudal system formerly induced in the English character. You will find it amongst all classes of English society. I am prepared to say-and I speak from some knowledge of the labouring classes of this country-I believe that there is more reverence for law, more submission to authority, amongst the great masses of the labouring classes of England, than in any other country in the world. It is a very common thing for our neighbours across the Channel to say that Englishmen are cowards. The proof they give is this. They say

that one constable with his truncheon can put thousands

of Englishmen to flight. It is so; but it is not because Englishmen are cowards. Englishmen, essentially, are not So. We might appeal to Cressy, Agincourt, Blenheim, and Waterloo, to show that Englishmen are not cowards; and if they flee at the appearance of the truncheon of the constable, it is because of their natural instinct of reverence for law, and submission to constituted authority. I trust that Englishmen may ever remain as they are in this part of their character. I do believe that the permanence and safety of this mighty country depends very largely, under God, upon that very feeling to which I have referred; yet this has been superinduced by the Feudal system. As I said before, you will not suppose that I am defending everything in this system as it formerly existed, much less advocating its restoration in the present day. The idea is preposterous in itself. Such a thing would be eminently unsuitable to our present state of society. England has just as much outgrown such a system as a man has outgrown the clothes he wore in his childhood; or as the classic scholar has outgrown the education that he received in the nursery. But this should not cause us to overlook the beneficial influence it has providentially exerted in the formation of our national character.

The third influence which has helped to form our national character is our insular position. I believe that the localities in which we live, the professions into which we enter, the trades which we pursue, all contribute wonderfully to produce individuality of character. The clergyman is different from the lawyer, the lawyer from the doctor, the doctor from the merchant, and all distinct from each other. There was, last Thursday evening, upon this platform, a military gentleman of some distinction, with whom

« PreviousContinue »