rals or manners of the American people of to-day
with those of even three decades ago as it would be to compare the state
of twentieth-century society in New Zealand with the old convict days.
In one generation Japan has stepped from the days of feudalism to the
twentieth century. America, in all that goes to constitute civilisation,
has in the last twenty-five years jumped, according to European canons,
at least a hundred.

Certain outward manifestations of the change which has been wrought, the
peoples of Europe have been unable to ignore;--the immense growth in the
power of the United States as a nation, her invasion of the markets of
the world even in lines wherein, twenty years ago, the internal markets
of America herself were at the mercy of British manufacturers, the
splendid generosity which individual citizens of the United States are
showing in buying wherever they can all that is most beautiful or
precious among the treasures of the Old World for the enrichment of
their museums and galleries at home--these things the people of Europe
cannot help but see. It would be well if they would strive also to
understand the development of the moral forces which underlies these
things, which alone has made them possible.

* * * * *

What has been the course of events in England in the same period? I have
already said that I believe that Englishmen justly earned the reputation
of being the most upright of all peoples in their commercial dealings;
and for the sake of the context perhaps Americans who have had little
opportunity of gauging the opinions of the world will accept it as true.
It is probable that the world has seen no finer set of men engaged in
commerce than those who laid the foundations of England's commercial
greatness; and I imagine that there are more honest men in England
to-day than ever there were--more men of what is, it will be noticed,
instructively called "old-fashioned" honesty. Yet no one will be quicker
than just one of these "old-fashioned" honest men to declare that the
standard of commercial morality in England is deteriorating.

The truth is that a vast new trading community has sprung up with new
ideas which no longer accepts the old canons or submits to the old
authority. The old maxims pass current; there is the same talk of honest
goods and honest methods, but under stress of keener competition and the
pressure of the more rapid movement of modern life,