h better in England. All this, however (which
is mere commonplace) may be conceded, but, though educated Americans may
use a more debased speech than educated Englishmen, the point is that it
is not safe to argue therefrom to an inferiority in culture in America;
because the American uses his speech for other and wider purposes than
the Englishman. The different American classes, just as they dress
alike, read the same newspapers and magazines, and, within limits, eat
the same food, so they speak the same language. It is unjust to compare
that language with the language used in England only by the educated
classes.

But, what is an infinitely larger fact, the inferiority of the American
speech to the English is daily and rapidly disappearing. Twenty years
ago, practically all American speech fell provincially on educated
English ears. That is far from being the case to-day; and what is most
interesting is that the alteration has not come about as the result of a
change in the diction of Americans only. The change has been in
Englishmen also. To whatever extent American speech may have improved,
it is certain also that English speech has become much less
precise--much less uniform among the educated and "gentlemanly"
classes--and English ears are consequently less exacting.

With the gradual elimination of class distinctions in England, or rather
with the blurring of the lines which separate one class from another, a
multitude of persons pass for "gentlemen" in England to-day who could
not have dreamed--and whose fathers certainly did not dream--of being
counted among the gentry thirty-five years ago. The fact may be for good
or ill; but one consequence has been that the newcomers, thrusting up
into the circles above them, have taken with them the speech of their
former associates, so that one hears now, in nominally polite circles,
tones of voice, forms of speech, and the expression of points of view
which would have been impossible in the youth of people who are now no
more than middle-aged.

There was a time when the dress proclaimed the man of quality at once.
That distinction began to pass away with the disappearance of silk and
ruffles and wigs from masculine costume. For a century longer, the
shibboleths of voice and manner kept their force. But now those too are
going; and the result is that the English speech of the educated class
has become less precise and less uniform. The same speech is now common
to a la