ritish
history. German and Austrian municipalities give the widest scope for
political genius and attract the ablest men. If the same conditions
had prevailed in this country, Mr. Chamberlain would have been content
to identify himself with the prosperity of his adopted city, as the
Mayor of Duisburg identified himself with the greatness of Duisburg;
as Lueger identified himself with the greatness of Vienna. And if
Birmingham had given full scope to the genius of Mr. Chamberlain, how
different would have been the life-story of the late statesman, and
how different would be the England in which we are living to-day!

CHAPTER VIII

THE NEGLECT OF GERMAN

There are many urgent reforms needed in our national education; those
who are best qualified to speak could make many a startling revelation
if they only dared to speak out. And there is ample evidence that
almost every part of our educational machinery requires the most
thorough overhauling. In the words of Bacon, "Instauratio facienda ab
imis fundamentis." But I doubt whether there does exist any more
glaring proof of the present inefficiency of our Secondary Schools and
Universities than their scandalous attitude towards the study of the
German language and literature.

The plain and unvarnished truth is that at the beginning of this, the
twentieth century, when Germany is the supreme political and
commercial Power on the Continent of Europe, the study of German is
steadily going back in the United Kingdom. In some parts it is
actually dying out. In many important Secondary Schools it is being
discontinued. Even in the Scottish Universities, which pride
themselves on being more modern and more progressive than the English
Universities, there does not exist one single Chair of German. In
Oxford a Chair of German was only established through the munificence
of a patriotic German merchant.

And even when there are teachers there are very few students. In one
of the greatest British Universities, with a constituency of 3,500
students, there has been, for the last ten years, an average of five
to six men students. And the reluctance of young men to study German
is perfectly intelligible. The study of German does not pay. It brings
neither material rewards nor official recognition. All the prizes, all
the scholarships and fellowships, go to other subjects, and mainly to
the classics. Let any reader of _Everyman_ stand up and say that I am
exaggerating; I would