Introduction
In 1879, William Gladstone MP berated his rival Benjamin Disraeli, the Prime Minister, for turning Russia into Europe’s bogeyman. Patriotism, Gladstone said, is a healthy thing, but the true patriot is generous, and never claims for his own country rights and dignities he denies to others.
YOU may sympathize with one nation more than another. Nay, you must sympathize in certain circumstances with one nation more than another. You sympathize most with those nations, as a rule, with which you have the closest connection in language, in blood, and in religion, or whose circumstances at the time seem to give the strongest claim to sympathy.*
But in point of right all are equal, and you have no right to set up a system under which one of them is to be placed under moral suspicion or espionage, or to be made the constant subject of invective.* If you do that, but especially if you claim for yourself a superiority, a Pharisaical superiority over the whole of them,* then I say you may talk about your patriotism if you please,* but you are a misjudging friend of your country, and in undermining the basis of the esteem and respect of other people for your country you are in reality inflicting the severest injury upon it.
Gladstone’s sympathies were entirely with Christian Russia. In 1876, the Ottoman Turks had crushed uprisings among Christian Slavs in Bulgaria, Serbia, Romania and Montenegro, then under Ottoman control, with a series of indiscriminate massacres. Disraeli’s government, fearing that Russia’s religious and ethnic ties with the rebels might be exploited by Tsar Alexander II as an excuse to expand the Russian Empire’s territories, tried to ignore the crimes, but Gladstone spoke out, and was rewarded with a second term as Prime Minister in April 1880.
A now infamous example of the invective was a music hall chorus in support of Turkey:
We don’t want to fight but by Jingo if we do,
We’ve got the ships, we’ve got the men, we’ve got the money too,
We’ve fought the Bear before, and while we’re Britons true,
The Russians shall not have Constantinople.
It is from these lyrics that we derive the noun Jingoism, meaning patriotic sabre-rattling. See also Richard Price On Love of Country.
A reference to the Parable of the Pharisee and the Publican in Luke 18:9-14, which Jesus told ‘unto certain which trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and despised others’. A Pharisee was a member of a strict Jewish movement committed to political and cultural separatism; a ‘publicanus’ was a Jewish tax-collector working for the Roman Empire, at that time an occupying power in Israel.
We do not invoke ‘patriotism’ today in this regard, but we do invoke humanitarianism, human rights, or national security to the same end: a world in which all countries are equal, but some are more equal than others.
Précis
William Gladstone strongly criticised those who pretended to respect other nations, but in fact gave Britain licence to behave in ways that they forbade to others. He argued that such special pleading on Britain’s behalf could not be justified as patriotic, because it lowered Britain’s standing the eyes of the world. (51 / 60 words)
William Gladstone strongly criticised those who pretended to respect other nations, but in fact gave Britain licence to behave in ways that they forbade to others. He argued that such special pleading on Britain’s behalf could not be justified as patriotic, because it lowered Britain’s standing the eyes of the world.
Variations: 1.increase the length of this precis to exactly 55 words. 2.reduce the length of this precis to exactly 45 words. 3.introduce one of the following words into the precis: about, although, besides, despite, just, ought, unless, whether.
Archive
Word Games
Sevens Based on this passage
Suggest answers to this question. See if you can limit one answer to exactly seven words.
Variations: 1.expand your answer to exactly fourteen words. 2.expand your answer further, to exactly twenty-one words. 3.include one of the following words in your answer: if, but, despite, because, (al)though, unless.
Jigsaws Based on this passage
Express the ideas below in a single sentence, using different words as much as possible. Do not be satisfied with the first answer you think of; think of several, and choose the best.
Spinners Find in Think and Speak
For each group of words, compose a sentence that uses all three. You can use any form of the word: for example, cat → cats, go → went, or quick → quickly, though neigh → neighbour is stretching it a bit.
This exercise uses words found in the accompanying passage.
1 Have. Sympathy. Then.
2 Blood. Close. Time.
3 Give. Injury. Nay.
Variations: 1. include direct and indirect speech 2. include one or more of these words: although, because, despite, either/or, if, unless, until, when, whether, which, who 3. use negatives (not, isn’t, neither/nor, never, nobody etc.)
Add Vowels Find in Think and Speak
Make words by adding vowels to each group of consonants below. You may add as many vowels as you like before, between or after the consonants, but you may not add any consonants or change the order of those you have been given. See if you can beat our target of common words.
wrths (5)
worthies. wraiths. wreathes. wreaths. writhes.
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