Genre:

Regular Feature, Editorial, News-Commentary

Subjects:

Nationalism, National Efficiency, Declinism, Industry, Electricity, Commerce, Transport, Technology

    Remarks that 'Compared with New York, London is a badly lighted country village. Compared with Hamburg, the street locomotion is as that of the stage coach era compared to that of the train de luxe. Why, even here in Sebastopol, in the city which has risen like a phoenix from the ashes of the fortress we pounded to bits half-a-century since, electric trolley cars are running which are immensely in advance of anything to be found in the capital of the British Empire'. At the same time, there is a 'general movement against the English abroad', and although 'Englishmen made the gas for St. Petersburg', and 'All over Southern Russia, Englishmen founded and directed ironworks, and presided over the industrial development of the country. Now all is changed. Belgians and Frenchmen and Germans do the business, and a greater business, that the English began. Even in the working of tramways Belgians make lines pay which the English have abandoned in despair of earning a dividend'. (442)