tes to modify the
English character of the people. The weight of all those elements must
be, and, so far as they have any weight, is directly against the
American tendency to feminine predominance. All the Germans, all the
Irish, all the Frenchmen, Spaniards, Italians, or other foreigners who
are in the United States to-day or have ever come to the United States
have not, as Germans, or Irish, or Frenchmen, contributed among them one
particle, one smallest impulse, to the position which women hold in the
life of the country to-day; rather has it been achieved in defiance of
the instincts and ideas of each of those by the English spirit which
works irrepressibly in the people. There could hardly be stronger
testimony to the dominating quality of that spirit. One may approve of
the conditions as they have been evolved; or one may not. One may be
Feminist or anti-Feminist. But whether it be for good or evil, the
position which women hold in the United States to-day they hold by
virtue of the fact that the American people is _Anglais_--an English or
Anglo-Saxon people.

* * * * *

And in spite of all the precautions that I have taken to make myself
clear and to avoid offence, I feel that some word of explanation, lest I
be misunderstood, is still needed. It is not here said that American men
do not place woman on a higher plane than any Continental European
people. I earnestly believe that both branches of the Anglo-Saxon stock
do hold to a higher ideal of womanhood than some (and for all I know to
the contrary, than all) of the peoples of Europe. What I am denying is
that Americans have any greater reverence for women, any higher
chivalrousness, than Englishmen. And this denial I make not with any
desire to belittle the chivalry of American men but only in the
endeavour to correct the popular American impression about Englishmen,
which does not contribute to the promotion of that good-will which ought
to exist between the peoples. I am not suggesting that Americans should
think less of themselves, only that, with wider knowledge, they would
think better of Englishmen.

And, on the subject of co-education, it seems that yet another word is
needed, for since this chapter was put into type, it has had the
advantage of being read by an American friend whose opinion on any
subject must be valuable, and who has given especial attention to
educational matters. He thinks it would be judicious that