There Go the Playing Fields

The English are downhearted and gloomily learning the meaning of being a second-rate power. This is not because they have lost their Empire. That happened quite a while ago and the typical Englishman feels that the loss is not his. The real sufferers are all those dark and dusky people who now have to look after themselves. The English were never very excited about their Empire. Apart from an occasional and short-lived bout of jingoism, they thought it was more trouble than it was worth. Even. Disraeli, before he began to suck up to Queen Victoria, said the English would get on much better if they had the accursed colonies off their back. Sir John Macdonald, the first prime minister of federal Canada, lived in lively fear of a takeover bid by the United States, and the fear was reinforced by the resentful knowledge that there were exceedingly powerful elements in England who would welcome the move. The real imperialists were the Scots and the Irish. The Empire proved a stage for rapid and high advancement which they could not find in their own small countries.

What did provide the English with an immense and complacent gratification was not dominion over palm and pine, but dominion over all fields of sport. They firmly believed that the English had been endowed by God with qualities, both moral and physical, which made them effortlessly supreme in all sporting endeavors.

CB

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Colm Brogan

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The English are downhearted and gloomily learning the meaning of being a second-rate power. This is not because they have lost their Empire. That happened quite a while ago and the typical Englishman feels that the loss is not his. The real sufferers are all those dark and dusky people who now have to look after themselves. The English were never very excited about their Empire. Apart from an occasional and short-lived bout of jingoism, they thought it was more trouble than it was worth. Even. Disraeli, before he began to suck up to Queen Victoria, said the English would get on much better if they had the accursed colonies off their back. Sir John Macdonald, the first prime minister of federal Canada, lived in lively fear of a takeover bid by the United States, and the fear was reinforced by the resentful knowledge that there were exceedingly powerful elements in England who would welcome the move. The real imperialists were the Scots and the Irish. The Empire proved a stage for rapid and high advancement which they could not find in their own small countries.

What did provide the English with an immense and complacent gratification was not dominion over palm and pine, but dominion over all fields of sport. They firmly believed that the English had been endowed by God with qualities, both moral and physical, which made them effortlessly supreme in all sporting endeavors.