s,
Anglo-Australians, and Anglo-New-Zealanders. As the native Indians of
America and the Maoris of New Zealand have given way before the onward
push and persistence of the English, so likewise did the ancient Britons
give way and were absorbed by the Anglo-Saxons; and then the Saxons,
being a little too fine for the stern competitor, allowed the Engles to
take charge. And as Dutch, Germans, Slavs and Swedes are transformed
with the second generation into English-Americans when they come to
America, so did the people from Eng-Land fuse Saxons, Norsemen, Jutes,
Celts and Britons into one people and fix upon them the indelible stamp
of Eng-Land.

Yet it is obvious that the characters of the people of England have been
strengthened, modified and refined by contact with the various races she
has met, mixed with and absorbed. To influence others is to grow. Had
England been satisfied to people and hold the British Isles, she would
ere this have been outrun and absorbed by Spain or France. To stand
still is to retreat. It is the same with men as it is with races.
England's Colonies have been her strength. They have given her poise,
reserve, ballast--and enough trouble to prevent either revolution,
stagnation or introspection.

Nations have their periods of youth, manhood and old age. Whether
England is now passing into decline, living her life in her children,
the Colonies, might be indelicate to ask. Perhaps as Briton, Celt, Jute
and Saxon were fused to make that hardy, courageous, restless and sinewy
man known as the Englishman, so are the English, the Dutch, the Swede,
the German, the Slav, transplanted into America, being fused into a
composite man who shall surpass any type that the world has ever seen.
In the British Isles, just as in the great cities, mankind gets
pot-bound. In the newer lands, the roots strike deep into the soil, and
find the sustenance the human plant requires.

Walls keep folks in as well as shut other folks out. The British Isles,
rock-faced and sea-girted, shut out the enemies of England without
shutting the English in. A country surrounded by the sea produces
sailors, and England's position bred a type of man that made her
mistress of the seas. As her drum-taps, greeting the rising sun, girdle
the world, so do her lighthouses flash protection to the mariner
wherever the hungry sea lies in wait along rocky coasts, the round world
over. England has sounded the shallows, marked the rocks and reefs