The Rev. William Cunningham, the English economist, addressed the members of the Twentieth Century Club in the hall of the Boston University Law School, on "Imperialism." He began with a sketch of the English national character. This was supplemented with a statement of the historical events and conditions which led England to substitute for the old national policy her modern cosmopolitan policy, in the pursuance of which she regards it as her duty to keep neutral markets open to cosmopolitan trade.

The economical policy of the English government to-day, he said, is never to grasp at excessive advantage for England's consumers and producers, but simply to maintain fair play for all. This policy leaves all others free to tal advantage of all the markets and all the industrial opportunities which any district under our control affords. Our policy in Egypt, for example, is just as beneficial to the American as to the English manufacturer, and you are reaping advantage from our imperialism.

The modern problem, and our imperialism endeavors to solve it, is to provide police control for large areas in various parts of the world, inhabited by diverse races, with different standards of duty and different capacities for self-government. We have provided this control in India, and we are ready to do it elsewhere; we do not grasp at the opportunity, yet we do not shrink from the responsibility. If others do it, good and well; the advantage of our doing it is that our experience qualifies us for tackling the problem, and that we are prepared to give everybody a fair chance.

The spread of English imperialism, he continued, in its free play for the commerce of all nations, is the chief factor in diminishing the risks of commercial quarrels between the civilized powers; it is, moreover, the one practical step that is being taken in the present day to secure the peace of the world, and at the same time afford the greatest possible scope for national self-development. This is why we English think about our empire and this is why it arouses our enthusiasm. And so, as long as Rudyard Kipling writes our ballads, we do not much care how the colonists draft their constitutions.

It may be said, of course, that the empire is a great drain upon our resources, and that, sooner or later, the colonies will break away altogether from the mother country. We do not care if they do, but we do not think they will. During the last thirty years there has been a remarkable intensification of loyalty to the Queen. Its strength in the colonies has been a surprise to us. On the other hand, we are as proud of the achievements of our colonists as if they were our own. In that feeling you and your achievements are included, and our admiration for you and them depends in no sense on our selfish interests, but upon the sense of our kinship with you. Paternal pride we all feel in what you do, and this is the true guarantee, so far as we in England are concerned, of continued peace and friendship between us. We know that we tried to keep you in tutelage too long, and there was a row. (Laughter.) But we did our duty by you; we gave you a good education and a first-rate start in the world. (Applause.) So we feel genuine pride in the great achievements—naval and military, as well as industrial—which you have accomplished in your great career.

We in England, said Mr. Cunningham, look out upon the twentieth century with the sense of difficulties, but with no misgivings. We know that our national debt is large and that our coal may get exhausted. But somehow, we seem to have the men fitted to do the things the world needs most, and we hope to rise to the new responsibilities pressing upon it.

Notwithstanding deep differences, I hope and believe that there will continue an unbroken friendship between the two great branches of the Anglo-Saxon race. And I feel that if you could know our foibles and our dreams, as Englishmen—foolish as they may be—you might be less ready to condemn, even if you cannot approve, our English imperialism.