not hesitate to
condemn the boodlers who prey upon their cities, though they deplore the
corrupt practices of their elections, they count all these abuses as
but spots upon a brilliant sun. A knowledge of his country's political
dishonesty does not depress the true patriot. He is content to think
that his ideals are as lofty as their realisation is remote, and that
the triumph of graft is as nothing compared with a noble sentiment. The
result is that the Americans refuse to weaken their national prestige by
the advertised cannibalism which is so popular in England. They are for
their country, right or wrong. They do not understand the anti-patriot
argument, which was born of the false philosophy of the eighteenth
century, and which has left so evil a mark upon our political life.
To them the phenomenon which we call Pro-Boerism is not easily
intelligible. They take an open pride in their country and their flag,
and it seems certain that, when they stand in the presence of an enemy,
they will not weaken their national cause by dissension.

This exultant Patriotism is the more remarkable when we reflect upon
what it is based. The love of country, as understood in Europe, depends
upon identity of race, upon community of history and tradition. It
should not be difficult for those whose fathers have lived under the
same sky, and breathed the same air, to sacrifice their prosperity or
their lives to the profit of the State. In making such a sacrifice they
are but repaying the debt of nurture. To the vast majority of Americans
this sentiment, grafted on the past, can make no appeal. The only link
which binds them to America is their sudden arrival on alien soil. They
are akin to the Anglo-Saxons, who first peopled the continent, neither
in blood nor in sympathy. They carry with them their national habits and
their national tastes. They remain Irish, or German, or Italian, with a
difference, though they bear the burden of another State, and assume the
privileges of another citizenship. But there is no mistake about their
Patriotism. Perhaps those shout loudest who see the Star-spangled Banner
unfurled for the first time, and we are confronted in America with the
outspoken expression of a sentiment which cannot be paralleled elsewhere
on the face of the globe.

They tread the same ground, these vast hordes of patriots, they obey the
same laws,--that is all. Are they, then, moved by a spirit of gratitude,
or do they feel the sam