THE

III.

HE preceding papers have attempted to show two aspects of the long and troubled history of Oxford, how the town was at war with the gown, and the students were at war with each other, and how behind all this contention were the larger issues of the little nations, who slowly were being welded together into that greater nationality which we now call English. These brief gleanings from the vast literature of Oxford serve to remind us that the massive walls of the colleges were built, not for academic seclusion as we now understand it, but for protection from direst peril. They testify, not of the past of romance in which our fancy wanders at will, but of a past filled with mortal combat. These quiet Oxford streets, these very cloisters which allure us with their beauty, have resounded to the cry, "Slay! Slay! Havock and Havock!"

At every turn Oxford tells us of that time happily gone by when there was in truth "a whole sublunary unseasonableness." And yet the memorials of that very unseasonableness, things in the doing that were not then accomplished, are among the greatest charms of this most alluring of universities. Here may be seen the history of the English nation written so plain that men may read. And here, furthermore, are the letters from which future history will spell out new words of civilization. If mediaeval Oxford carried through all her contentions and trials the promise of the present, so none the less surely the Oxford of today contains the possibliities of what in the centuries to come shall be realities. He who sees in modern Oxford only the

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memorials of by-gone time misses half the wonder of the place; for here, too, is the witchery, the mystery of the future.

Hard it is to read this future, yet now and again plans are formed and beginnings are made of which all men should take note. And to one such aspect of the future, vaguely noised abroad and perhaps but vaguely understood, Oxford must now address herself; namely, the proposed knitting together of English speaking people through the munificent gift of Cecil John Rhodes.

Doubtless our opinion of this bequest, and its potency, will depend on our belief in that larger movement of which this undertaking is but a part. But even if we have small faith in the many signs that men of English lineage tend the world over to draw together, it surely is permissable in view of past history to say that this meeting of many representatives of many peoples appears at least more significant for the future than did that first gathering of students at Oxford long ago seem significant for the present. And whether or not we grant to the Rhodes Scholarships the likelihood of wide influence in the future, we must remember that at least it was the deliberate aim of the founder to project such efficiency. It will be to the profit of England and the United States if thoughtful men in both countries clearly understand his purpose.

Whatever may be the final verdict of history on the career of this remarkable man, to whom our generation has given so lavishly of hatred and of love.—and it is quite too early to judge him impartially-of this

devoted the greater part of his fortune. But to see the vision as he saw it, we must at the outset clearly understand that he had no wish to build an empire that should be subject to the British Crown, whose centre would be the Buildings of Parliament in London. The Monarchy, Parliament, even the Constitution, were to him but present social adjustments, which might or might not serve in the future. These were details. His conception was far greater. He conceived the whole English-speaking race as one family. Once gain the family consciousness throughout the race, and it might be trusted adequately to express itself in governmental institutions. The location and form of government were incidental. "His fatherland," says Mr. Stead (p. 52) "is coterminous with the use of the tongue of his native land. He was devoted to the old flag, but in his ideas he was American, and in his later years he expressed to me his unhesitating readiness to accept the reunion of the race under the stars and stripes, if it could not be obtained in any other way. Although he had no objection to the Monarchy, he unhesitatingly preferred the American to the British Constitution, and the text-book which he laid down for the guidance of his novitiates was a copy of the American Constitution."

This feeling of Mr. Rhodes is more clearly set forth in his own words. "If even now we could arrange," he says, "with the present Members of the United States Assembly and our House of Commons, the peace of the world is secured for all eternity! We could hold our Federal Parliament five years at Washington and five years at London. The only thing feasible to carry this idea out is a secret society gradually absorbing the wealth of the world to be devoted to such an object. . . . Fancy the charm to young America, just coming on and dissatisfied. . For the Ameri

can has been taught the lesson of home rule and the success of leaving the management of the local pump to the parish beadle. . . . What a scope and what a horizon for work, at any rate, for the next two centuries, the best energies of the best people of the world; perfectly feasible, but needing an organization, for it is impossible for one human atom to complete anything, much less such an idea as this requiring the devotion of the best souls of the next 200 years. There are three essentials: (1) The plan duly weighed and agreed to. (2) The first organization. (3) The seizure of the wealth necessary." (pp. 73-76.)

The due weighing of the plan, his first essential, shows with what earnestness Mr. Rhodes gave himself to the undertaking. "The first thing that impressed him," says Mr. Stead (p. 94), "as a result of a survey, of the ways of God to man, is that Diety, must look on things on a comprehensive scale. If Mr. Rhodes thinks in continents, his Maker must at least think in planets. The Divine plan must be at least co-extensive with the human race. Holeand-corner plans of salvation, theological or political, are out of court. The Divine plan must be universal.

"The planet being postulated as the area of the Divine activity, perfecting the race by natural selection and the struggle for existence being recognized as favorite instruments of the Divine Ruler, the question immediately arose as to which race seems most likely to be the Divine instrument in carrying out the Divine idea over the whole planet. There are various racesthe Yellow, the Black, the Brown, the White. Numerically, the Yellow race comes first. But if the test be the area of the world and the power to control its destinies, the primacy of the White race is indisput able. The Yellow race is massed on half a single continent; the White exclusively

occupies Europe, practically occupies the Americas, is colonizing Australia, and is dominating Asia. In the struggle for existence, the White race had unquestionably come out on top." (pp. 95-96.)

Accepting these conclusions, Mr. Rhodes asks, "what is the ultimate aim of this evolution?" "What,' he asked, 'is the highest thing in the world? Is it not the idea of Justice? I know none higher. Justice between man and man, equal, absolute, impartial; that surely must be the first note.

Mr. Rhodes had no hesitation in arriving at the conclusion that the English-speaking man, whether British, American, Australian, or South African, is the type of the race which does now, and is likely to continue to do in the future, the most practical, effective work to establish justice, to promote liberty, and to ensure peace over the widest possible area of the planet."

"Therefore,' said Mr. Rhodes to himself, 'if there be a God, and he cares anything about what I do, I think it is clear he would

of perfected society. Secondly, there must be Liberty, for without freedom there can be no justice. And the third note of the ultimate, toward which Our race is blending, must surely be that of Peace, the industrial commonwealth as opposed to the military clan or fighting Empire. Justice, Liberty, Peace, these three!" (p. 97.)

"Which race in the world most promotes, over the widest possible area, a state of society having these three as corner stones?

like me to do what he is doing Himself. As he is manifestly fashioning the Englishspeaking race as a chosen instrument by which he will bring in a chosen state of society, based upon Justice, Liberty and Peace, he must obviously wish me to do as much as I can, to give as much scope and power to that race as possible. Hence, if there be a God, I think that what he would like me to do is to paint as much of the map of Africa red as possible, and to do what I can elsewhere to promote the unity