Functional socialism

170 FUNCTIONAL SOCIALISM

Milton and dominated by Cromwell, whose outstanding fame is not so much that of a soldier as the characteristic Englishman of all time. If we look more closely into this misunderstanding, we shall find factors not yet disclosed. Our divergencies from Europe, due to geographical, physical, intellectual and religious causes are, on the whole, easily discerned and largely on the surface. In any event, Europe itself comprises equally wide differentiation. The great European diplomatists could easily have calculated on what they could see with their naked eyes; but always there was something unseen, incalculable, distracting.

The European diplomatists have, time and again, given us up in despair. Our Protestantism, our Puritan strain, the blunt gaucheries of Nonconformity, they could at least allow for; our Parliamentary system they knew without real appreciation; our queer addiction to sports quaintly commingled with strict attention to business puzzled them. Nevertheless, there remained something unseen, undisclosed. When Prince Albert, of pious memory, became Victoria’s Consort, he thought and acted as though it were easy to bring the English Court under the influence, if not the hegemony, of the Teutonic system. He was speedily undeceived. He found to his dismay that the English aristocrats, with their castles, estates, retainers, their powers both as legislators and landlords, were as strongly entrenched as the Throne itself. When he began to interfere in English affairs, as he thought was natural, he was