Essay No. 5
The Early Training of Boys
in Citizenship*
BY
The Right Rev. Bishop Welldon, D.D.
IT is remarkable how prominently citizenship looms in the programme of the Conference this year. But it is not the mere fact of citizenship which occupies attention ; rather it is the thought of citizenship as a mental and moral habit in which the young of Great Britain, both boys and girls, may be trained by skilful discipline from early days. May I say frankly, as an old educator of boys, that I look upon citizenship as affording the supreme test of educational success ? When I was the headmaster of a great Public School I was wont to ask myself, What is the highest object which I am in duty bound to set before my eyes ? Is it to produce athletes or scholars ? Is it to ensure in my pupils health, or good manners, or what is called savoir faire, or knowledge of the world, or esthetic taste, or intellectual distinction ? And, often as I put the question, the answer borne in, as it were, upon my soul was ever the same : No one of these ends, desirable as they are and honourable in
* Being a paper read at the Conference of the National Union of Women Workers held at Aberdeen, October, 1908.
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themselves, should be the supreme object of a schoolmaster's or a schoolmistress's endeavour; their supreme object is to produce good citizens—men and women who will play their part in life "justly, skilfully, and magnanimously," as Milton says—good fathers and mothers, good husbands and wives, good patriots, good citizens. That is the true educational end, and because it is so, the criterion of a teacher's success is not what his pupils are at the age of 12 or 15 or 19 or 21 years, but how they acquit themselves as men and women in the responsible arena of mature life.
But if the thought of citizenship claims so high a place in the training of the young—and perhaps I may speak of it now, as the programme intends, with special reference to boys—it is a vital matter that the schoolmaster should rightly apprehend what is the nature of true citizenship, and how it affects the relation of the State to the individual citizen and of the individual citizen to the State.
As soon, however, as this position is asserted—it will not, I think, be seriously challenged—there emerges a sharp distinction between two theories which may be not improperly described as the ancient and the modern, or perhaps as the classical and the Christian.
Modern readers of such treatises as Aristotle's "Politics" are startled to find that it is the duty of the individual to the State, which is assumed as
an
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axiom of political science. To serve the State, to honour the State, to live and, if need be, to die for the State—that is the office of a good citizen. The heroes of antiquity are the men and women who have sacrificed themselves unreservedly for the public good. It does not seem to enter into the mind of an ancient writer upon politics that the State exists, or can conceivably be held to exist, for the good of individual citizens. Ethics itself is regarded as a branch of politics. Individualism, if it means the rights of individual men and women, counts for little or nothing. The State is everything. The "polis" or civitas not only contains in itself, but practically annihilates the interests of its citizens. And what is true of the classical writings of antiquity is largely true of the Old Testament as well. The individual is merged in the society to which he belongs.
But the gradual tendency of European civilisation has been to accentuate individualism as against the rights of the community. This has been, I imagine, the outcome of the stress laid by Christianity on the value of the individual soul. The State has ceased to be generally the master; it has become in a large degree the servant of its citizens. Nobody can listen to the harangues delivered from political platforms at the present time, whether in behalf of one party or of the other, without perceiving how often politicians seek to capture the electorate by holding up before their eager eyes and open mouths the hope of gaining
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some advantage from the State for themselves. It is not to serve the State but to squeeze the State which is the ambition of modern citizenship, and the franchise is the instrument by which the squeezing process is effected. In a word, if ancient civilisation subordinated the individual to the State, modern civilisation subordinates the State to the individual.
Now I wish to begin my paper by declaring that this political individualism has gone too far. I wish to plead for a return to something like the ancient spirit of disinterested patriotism. I wish to insist upon the duty of educating the young in the laws of civic discipline and public duty.
It is not difficult to specify cases where the citizen of Great Britain is apt to forget what is his obligation to the State. To the State as an ordered community he is indebted for nearly all the safety and comfort of his life, for his personal liberty, for his security in the acquisition and the transmission of his property, for the means of communication, for the supply of food, for trade, for culture, for the world-wide dignity which attaches to membership of the British Empire. Yet how slow he is to acknowledge that he ought to make any adequate return for such benefits as these ! He pays taxes and rates, perhaps, although in a grudging spirit. He submits, but submits unwillingly, to a few restrictions upon his self-will. But too often he resents and resists the mere suggestion of bearing arms for the safety or the honour of his
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country. I do not enter now upon the vexed topic of conscription. I am personally as well as professionally a lover of peace. I say only that military service, like any other service, cannot be justly considered as a burden which the State is not entitled to lay upon its citizens, in view of the numerous and serious benefits which they enjoy every day of their lives as being members of the State.
Again, it seems to be one of the ominous signs of the times that the law of the land is in danger of ceasing to command the respect of the citizens. The supremacy of law is the most deeply cherished principle, as it has been the most dearly achieved prerogative, of civilisation. Yet the modern State is coming to be full of men and women who, under the thin pretext of conscientious feeling, refuse obedience to the law. I cannot too deeply regret that members of my profession should have set an example of illegality. There is a strange inheritance of illegal conduct. The passive resisters are the direct descendants of the clergy who pleaded conscience
against the law. But conscience, if it is not enlightened, is the most dangerous of guides. It is like a clock, which is the most useful of guides, if it is right, but the most misleading, if it is wrong. And the duty of a good citizen is not only to follow his conscience, but to take care that his conscience is true. Nor is there any method of keeping conscience true to time so sure as that of asking ourselves, in
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accordance with Kant's wise rule, whether it would be well for the world that all other persons should act as we are disposed to act in particular circumstances.
It is necessary, then, to train the young in a sense of obligation to the State, and in a habit of obedience to the law.
So far as I am able to judge, public schoolmasters have not failed to inculcate obedience. They have maintained a strict discipline ; sometimes it has been so strict as to provoke a reaction in the days following school-life. But they have not, I think, taken the adequate pains to impress upon their pupils' minds the nature, magnitude and dignity of the Empire, or the responsibility which must rest upon them as citizens of the Empire for its preservation and development.
It is for this end that I would bring Geography, as a fruitful subject of study, into all schools. I would invite competent lecturers to speak upon it. Familiarity with maps, especially, as the late Lord Salisbury once said, with large maps, is of vital im portance to the appreciation of imperial interests The courses of mountains and rivers, the differences of climate, products, industries, civilisations, in the various countries which constitute the Empire, should be made known to the coming generation of citizens May I add, not without regret, that I have never succeeded in learning much geography from books of
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even from maps ? I have learnt it so far as I know it all by travel. A journey round the world is now no greater undertaking than was the grand tour of the European capitals in Lord Chesterfield's time, and again and again have I urged my pupils to accomplish such a journey in the interval of years between their leaving school or college and their entering upon professional life.
But the twin-sister of Geography is History. It is essential that young Englishmen should be taught how the Empire was built up, at what dates and by what means its various regions were acquired, and who were the statesmen, the generals and the administrators who played the chief parts in creating it and consolidating it. To the young, perhaps the most fascinating part of history is biography. I would strongly recommend the study of the lives of such Englishmen as the Elizabethan navigators, or Cromwell, or Chatham, or Pitt, or Clive, or Wolfe, or Nelson, or Wellington. Not less valuable are books at once so interesting and informing as Dr. Fitchett's "Deeds that Won the Empire."
It is well, too, that the young should study the rising and falling of nations. They may ask themselves in the spirit of Sir John Seeley's "The Expansion of England," What is the security, if there is any, that the British Empire, as it has risen like other empires, so will not like them gradually decay ? Such a book as Carlyle's "French Revolution " may bring
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home to them how intensely moral is the law which governs the history of nations. From such studies as these they will rise with a strong belief not only in the God-given mission of their race, but in their own personal responsibility.
The patriotism or citizenship so inspired will be a calm and noble temper. It will reflect perhaps not so much the spirit of Lord Palmerston's famous speech in the case of Don Pacifico, as of Mr. Glad stone's less famous reply to it. It will not be a spirit of Jingoism or Chauvinism. It will be a temper of national pride chastened by the solemn feeling of national responsibility. It will be a strong resolve to use imperial power for the good of humanity at large.
The citizen of the future must be prepared to sacrifice himself for the State. How much can be done by regular persistent discipline to foster a sense of citizenship has been lately shown by the Japanese people. To the young citizen of Japan it does not occur that he should set his own interest against the interest of the State. When I was at Tokio, I visited a boys' school ; I saw there on the wall the veiled portrait of the Mikado, before which, when it is ex- posed to view once a year on his birthday, the pupils all prostrate themselves in humble obeisance; I asked the schoolmaster what would be the highest ambition of the scholars, and he told me that, if he were to inquire of ten of them what is the fate that they would covet for themselves, as many as eight of them would
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choose the happiness of laying down their lives for their country.
The citizen of the British Empire must in the future do his duty, and he must do it for its own sake rather than for any recognition or reward which it may bring him. The multiplication of orders, badges and titles tends to impoverish the sense of duty in the present day. Testimonials have almost degenerated into certificates of inefficiency. It is duty because it is duty that England expects every man to do; and a people who look to the reward of duty rather than to the duty itself become gradually incapable of doing their duty at all.
May I add that in the training of the young it is desirable to cultivate a certain hardness of character. By "hardness" I mean not cruelty, but fortitude. Men and women, boys and girls, are becoming soft. The Earl of Meath, who has done so much for the promotion of a true imperial spirit, has lately raised the question, whether the English men and women of to-day possess all the grit of their ancestors. The age, I am afraid, is self-pleasing, self-indulgent. It repudiates the idea of doing what it does not like. Men shrink from the obligation of citizenship, women avoid the responsibilities of motherhood. Marriage has lost or is losing its intrinsic sanctity. The de crease in the progressive rate of population, whether in itself it be a good thing or a bad, is deplorable, if it is the result of vicious habits. The luxury of the rich
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is the explanation of the strong vindictive feeling which lies behind Socialism. The East End would not feel its misery so acutely, were it not for the proximity of the West End. As an old schoolmaster I deplore the evidences of effeminacy among the sons of rich parents. Public schools have much to answer for, but preparatory schools have more. It is possible that children in old days suffered too much—too much from their schoolfellows and even from their masters. To-day they may suffer too little. Their lives are so easy, they live so well, they spend so much money, that it is difficult for them to sympathise with human suffering. I used sometimes to think that it would be well that every boy should learn once in his life what it is to be hungry—painfully hungry—then he would feel more for his fellow-citizens in their lack of daily bread. It is sympathy which binds a nation together. Sympathy is another word for fellow-feeling. Without community of experience it is difficult—it may even be impossible. Again and again in my intercourse with the young have the sacred words of the Apostle seemed to ring in my ears, "Thou, therefore, endure hardness as a good soldier of Jesus Christ."
To this hardness of temper I do not scruple to add, as an element in good citizenship, a feeling of indignation against the sins which debase and degrade a nation. Righteous anger is not a vice, but a virtue. It sometimes seems to me that the youth of England
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are not adequately taught to look upon offences against the moral law from a patriotic standpoint. Let them learn to appreciate what a national asset has been the trust reposed all the world over in an Englishman's word; will they not then feel a holy indignation at the commercial dishonesty which impairs and may in the end destroy national credit ? Let them realise that there have been in English history crises, as after the capture of Delhi in the Indian Mutiny, when the achievement of valour was imperilled and all but defeated by the slavery of British soldiers to intoxicating drinks; will they not then as citizens enlist in the crusade against the Drink Trade ? Let them remember what Cobbett, who was, if ever a man was, a good friend of the working classes, said about gambling, that he had never known a gambler who was a thoroughly trustworthy man ; will they not then fight against the gambling which, according to recent testimony of the Chief of the Police in London, has become an even more fertile source of crime than drinking itself ?
It should be the object of all who are concerned in the training of the young, of schoolmasters and schoolmistresses, and even more of fathers and mothers, to inculcate an enlightened spirit of citizenship, They must impress upon the youthful how large is their indebtedness to the State—how strong their obligation to serve the State in return.
"Here and here did England help me; how can a
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I help England, say ? " is the noble motto which a great modern poet [Robert Browning] proposes to his fellow-countrymen.
True citizenship again will not be unmindful of international rights and duties. It will look upon diplomatists as sent abroad not to lie, according to Sir Henry Wotton's famous definition, but to speak the truth, in their country's behalf. It will look upon statesmen as doing their duty best to their country when they regard the interest first of their country but ultimately of humanity at large. It will discern the security for peace as consisting not in an aggressive, but in a pacific policy. It will welcome every opportunity of promoting a sympathetic understanding among the nations of the world.
In conclusion let me summarise the principles upon which the training of boys and even of girls in citizenship will, as it seems to me, finally proceed :
1. That God has endowed the British race with a world-wide Empire, an Empire transcending all imperial systems which the world has known, not for their own aggrandisement, but that they may be the executants of His sovereign purpose in the world; the citizens of the Empire should therefore cultivate the sense of a mission to humanity.
2. That the testimony of history shows how empires, whether ancient or modern, have expanded and flourished in such degree as they have obeyed, and have declined and decayed as they have violated, the laws of truth and righteousness.
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3. That the British Empire has been founded upon the basis of justice, equality, freedom, and progress in matters both secular and sacred, and that to these laws it must be true if it is to endure.
4. That the fear of God, as Froude says, made England great, and no nation was ever made great by any other fear. It is, therefore, in the spirit of Mr. Kipling's great Recessional Hymn, and in no other spirit, that the Empire can be consecrated and conserved.
5. And lastly, that the State, which is so often treated as if it were an entity distinct in itself, is no more than an aggregation of individuals; that there can be no great State where the individuals composing it are mean and low ; and that it is, therefore, upon the moral qualities of the men and women of Great Britain that the safety and the dignity of the British Empire depend. That is the only solid, permanent strength of the Empire; all else will in the end be worth little.
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