The Origins and Destiny of Imperial Britain - Nineteenth Century Europe

J. A. (John Adam) Cramb

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• Publié par: ostle
• Publié le: 08 décembre 2010
• Nombre de lectures: 36
• Langue: English

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The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Origins and Destiny of Imperial Britain, by J. A. Cramb This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.net Title: The Origins and Destiny of Imperial Britain Nineteenth Century Europe Author: J. A. Cramb Release Date: December 19, 2009 [EBook #30710] Language: English Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 *** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ORIGINS, DESTINY--IMPERIAL BRITAIN *** Produced by Al Haines [Transcriber's note: transliterated Greek is surrounded by plus signs, e.g. "+agôníai+".] J. A. Cramb THE ORIGINS AND DESTINY OF IMPERIAL BRITAIN NINETEENTH CENTURY EUROPE BY THE LATE J. A. CRAMB, M.A. PROFESSOR OF MODERN HISTORY, QUEEN'S COLLEGE, LONDON WITH A BIOGRAPHICAL NOTE AND PORTRAIT OF THE AUTHOR LONDON: JOHN MURRAY, ALBEMARLE STREET, W. 1915 All rights reserved "For the noveltie and strangenesse of the matter which I determine and deliberate to entreat upon, is of efficacie and force enough to draw the mindes both of young and olde to the diligent reading and digesting of these labours. For what man is there so despising knowledge, or any so idle and slothfull to be found, which will eschew or avoide by what policies or by what kinde of government the most part of nations in the universall world were vanquished, subdued and made subject unto the one empire of the Romanes, which before that time was never seen or heard? Or who is there that hath such earnest affection to other discipline or studie, that he suposeth any kind of knowledge to be of more value or worthy to be esteemed before this?" The Histories of the most famous Chronographer , POLYBIUS. (Englished by C. W., and imprinted at London, Anno 1568). PREFACE The following pages are a reprint of a course of lectures delivered in May, June, and July, 1900. Their immediate inspiration was the war in South Africa (two of the lectures deal directly with that war), but in these pages, written fifteen years ago, will be found foreshadowed the ideals and deeds of the present hour. When the book first appeared, Mr. Cramb wrote that he "had been induced to publish these reflections by the belief or the hope that at the present grave crisis they might not be without service to his country." In the same hope his lectures are now reprinted. BIOGRAPHICAL NOTE John Adam Cramb was born at Denny, in Scotland, on the 4th of May, 1862. On leaving school he went to Glasgow University, where he graduated in 1885, taking 1st Class Honours in Classics. In the same year he was appointed to the Luke Fellowship in English Literature. He also studied at Bonn University. He subsequently travelled on the Continent, and in 1887 married the third daughter of the late Mr. Edward W. Selby Lowndes of Winslow, and left one son. From 1888 to 1890 he was Lecturer in Modern History at Queen Margaret College, Glasgow. Settling in London in 1890 he contributed several articles to the Dictionary of National Biography , and also occasional reviews to periodicals. For many years he was an examiner for the Civil Service Commission. In 1892 he was appointed Lecturer and in 1893 Professor of Modern History at Queen's College, London, where he lectured until his death. He was also an occasional lecturer on military history at the Staff College, Camberley, and at York, Chatham, and other centres. In London he gave private courses on history, literature, and philosophy. His last series of lectures was delivered in February and March, 1913, the subject being the relations between England and Germany. In response to many requests he was engaged in preparing these lectures for publication when, in October, 1913, he died. CONTENTS PART I THE TESTIMONY OF THE PAST LECTURE I SECTION WHAT IS IMPERIALISM? 1. THE UNCONSCIOUS AND THE CONSCIOUS IN HISTORY 2. ANCIENT AND MODERN IMPERIALISM 3. THE MANDATE OF DESTINY LECTURE II THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE POLITICAL IDEAL 1. OF THE ACTION OF STATES AND OF INDIVIDUALS 2. THE LAW OF TRAGEDY AS APPLIED TO HISTORY 3. THE LAW OF TRAGEDY: ITS SECOND ASPECT LECTURE III THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE RELIGIOUS IDEAL 1. RELIGION AND IMPERIALISM 2. THE PLACE OF RELIGION IN ENGLISH HISTORY 3. DISTINCTION OF THE RELIGION OF THE VIKINGS 4. WORLD-HISTORIC SIGNIFICANCE OF THE ENGLISH REFORMATION 5. THE TESTIMONY OF THE PAST: A FINAL CONSIDERATION PART II THE DESTINY OF IMPERIAL BRITAIN LECTURE IV THE WAR IN SOUTH AFRICA 1. HISTORICAL SIGNIFICANCE OF THE WAR IN SOUTH AFRICA 2. NATIONALITY AND IMPERIALISM 3. THE WAR OF A DEMOCRACY 4. COSMOPOLITANISM AND JINGOISM 5. MILITARISM LECTURE V WHAT IS WAR? 1. THE PLACE OF WAR IN WORLD-HISTORY 2. DEFINITION OF WAR 3. COUNT TOLSTOI AND CARLYLE UPON WAR 4. COUNT TOLSTOI AS REPRESENTATIVE OF THE SLAVONIC GENIUS 5. THE TEACHINGS OF CHRIST AND WAR 6. THE IDEAL OF UNIVERSAL PEACE 7. IMPERIALISM AND WAR LECTURE VI THE VICISSITUDES OF STATES AND EMPIRES 1. THE METAPHYSICAL ORIGIN OF THE STATE 2. THE STATE, EMPIRES, AND ART 3. THE FALL OF EMPIRES: THE THEORY OF RETRIBUTION 4. THE FALL OF EMPIRES: THE CYCLIC THEORY 5. WHAT IS MEANT BY THE "FALL OF AN EMPIRE"? LECTURE VII THE DESTINY OF IMPERIAL BRITAIN AND THE DESTINY OF MAN 1. THE PRESENT STAGE IN THE HISTORY OF IMPERIAL BRITAIN 2. THE DESTINY OF MAN 3. THE FOUR PERIODS OF MODERN HISTORY 4. THE IDEAL OF THE FOURTH AGE 5. THE "ACT" AND THE "THOUGHT" 6. BRITAIN'S WORLD-MISSION: THE WITNESS OF THE DEAD TO THE MANDATE OF THE PRESENT NINETEENTH CENTURY EUROPE 1. DOMINION OF THE IDEAL OF LIBERTY 2. NATIONALITY AND MODERN REPUBLICANISM 3. THE IDEALS OF A NEW AGE PART I THE TESTIMONY OF THE PAST REFLECTIONS ON THE ORIGINS AND DESTINY OF IMPERIAL BRITAIN LECTURE I WHAT IS IMPERIALISM? [Tuesday, May 8th, 1900] The present age has rewritten the annals of the world, and set its own impress on the traditions of humanity. In no period has the burden of the past weighed so heavily upon the present, or the interpretation of its speculative import troubled the heart so profoundly, so intimately, so monotonously. How remote we stand from the times when Raleigh could sit down in the Tower, and with less anxiety about his documents, State records, or stone monuments than would now be imperative in compiling the history of a county, proceed to write the History of the World! And in speculation it is the Tale, the fabula, the procession of impressive incidents and personages, which enthralls him, and with perfect fitness he closes his work with the noblest Invocation to Death that literature possesses. But beneath the variety or pathos of the Tale the present age ever apprehends a deeper meaning, or is oppressed by a sense of mystery, of wonder, or of sorrow unrevealed, which defies tears. This revolution in our conception of History, this boundless industry which in Germany, France, England, Italy, has led to the printing of mountains of forgotten memoirs, correspondences, State papers, this endless sifting of evidence, this treasuring above riches of the slight results slowly and patiently drawn, is neither accident, nor transient caprice, nor antiquarian frenzy, but a phase of the guiding impulse, the supreme instinct of this age—the ardour to know all, to experience all, to be all, to suffer all, in a word, to know the Truth of things—if haply there come with it immortal life, even if there come with it silence and utter death. The deepened significance of history springs thus from the deepened significance of life, and the passion of our interest in the past from the passion of our interest in the present. The half-effaced image on a coin, the illuminated margin of a mediaeval manuscript, the smile on a fading picture—if these have become, as it were, fountains of unstable reveries, perpetuating the Wonder which is greater than Knowledge, it is a power from the present that invests them with this magic. Life has become more self-conscious; not of the narrow self merely, but of that deeper Self, the mystic Presence which works behind the veil. World-history is no more the fairy tale whose end is death, but laden with eternal meanings, significances, intimations, swift gleams of the Timeless manifesting itself in Time. And the distinguishing function of History as a science lies in its ceaseless effort not only to lay bare, to crystallize the moments of all these manifestations, but to discover their connecting bond, the ties that unite them to each other and to the One, the hidden source of these varied manifestations, whether revealed as transcendent thought, art, or action. Hence, as in prosecuting elsewhere our inquiry into the origin of the French Monarchy or the decline of oligarchic Venice, we examined not only the characters, incidents, policies immediately connected with the subject, but attempted an answer to the question—What is the place of these incidents in the universal scheme of things? so in the treatment of the theme now before us, the origins of Imperial Britain, pursuing a similar plan, we have to consider not merely the relations of Imperial Britain to the England and Scotland of earlier times, but its relations to mediaeval Europe, and to determine so far as is possible its place amongst the world-empires of the past. I use the phrase "Imperial Britain," and not "British Empire," because from the latter territorial associations are inseparable. It designates India, Canada, Egypt, and the like. But by "Imperial Britain" I wish to indicate the informing spirit, the unseen force from within the race itself, which in the past has shapen and in the present continues to shape this outward, this material frame of empire. With the rise of this spirit, this consciousness within the British race of its destiny as an imperial people, no event in recent history can fitly be compared