St. George's day: England and the English

Well, what a cracking good read. Tim, over at An Englishman’s Castle has posted the text to what looks like a speech given by Rudyard Kipling to the Royal Society of St. George in 1920. It certainly reads like it should be spoken and the ending sentence is just begging to be repeated in the pub when I get there tonight:

But we will be circumspect! My lords, ladies and gentlemen—for what there is of it—for such as it is—and for what it may be worth—will you drink to England and the English?

Yes, they will look at me in that funny way again.

I urge you to read it. Though there is in the text parts that I cannot quite bring myself to believe (that bit about the driving force of the Empire for example) it is nevertheless a frank and beautifully written statement of the authors understanding of England and the English.

It must be read with some understanding of the time in which it is written. It is just after the Great War (that is the first World War) and England and much of the world is reeling from the blow that comes with the virtual loss of a whole generation of youth to war.

He nails one national characteristic that can be attributed to the masses:

Our national weakness for keeping to the easiest road to the latest possible minute sooner than inconvenience ourselves or our neighbours has been visited upon us full tale. After ninety-nine years of peace the English were given ninety-six hours in which to choose whether they would buy a little longer peace from the Heathen of the North, as some of their ancestors had done, or whether they would make peace with them as our King Alfred made it with the Danes. It was a race that had almost forgotten how to say “No” to anybody who said “Yes” in a sufficiently loud voice. It seemed as if it had quite forgotten that it had broken a Church, killed a King, closed a Protectorate and exiled another King, sooner than be driven where it did not want to go. But when its hour came, once again it decided to go its own way, and once again by instinct. For it had prepared nothing—it had foreseen nothing. It had been assured that not only was there no need for preparation against war, but that the mere thought of preparation against war was absurd where it was not criminal. Therefore, through the first two years of the war, it was necessary to throw up a barricade of the dead bodies of the nation’s youth behind which the most elementary preparations could be begun.

We still see this national characteristic of not getting excited about things until it is almost too late today. I have often read little comments by pundits deriding the English for not doing something about it, whatever it might be. The European Project, not being allowed to own firearms for self defence, tolerating New Labour’s meddling in national institutions that have functioned in a perfectly satisfactory manner for centuries.

It can take a lot to wake the lion. The English will never go quietly into the night but it is a walk in the park to keep them occupied until early evening.

Oh and another thing. Kipling is fully aware of the multicultural aspects of English heritage. This is not an isolationalist rant by a little Englander (Oh Lord, how I hate that phrase, amen) but a work that is fully accepting of the mix that is England and the English.

Posted by John at April 23, 2004 10:05 AM | TrackBack