Is Britain on the Down Grade?
Is Britain on the Down Grade? is an article published in The Young Man in july 1899.
The article includes opinions by various authors, including Arthur Conan Doyle.
Below is the opinion from Arthur Conan Doyle only:
Is Britain on the Down Grade?
A REMARKABLE SERIES OF LETTERS FROM LEADERS IN THOUGHT AND ACTION.
The article on "Is Britain on the Down Grade?" which Mr. William Clarke, M.A., contributed to our last number, has attracted great attention throughout the country. Ministers have preached about it, editors have discussed it in leading articles — indeed, few contributions which have appeared in The Young Man have roused a keener or more widespread interest. We have secured a series of very valuable letters on the subject from some of our most prominent leaders in thought and action, and although we do not agree with all the opinions expressed (especially in the letters from Dr. Conan Doyle and Mr. H. G. Wells), we still think that this frank discussion cannot fail to be of intense interest and permanent value.
I. By Dr. Conan Doyle.
I read the paper with great interest, but the views expressed appear to me to be unduly pessimistic.
As far as material greatness goes, I believe that the history of this country has not yet begun. All that we have seen is an introduction to the part which Great Britain is to play in the world. As the central ganglion of the English-speaking races, she will be on a different footing to the unexpanded nations of the Continent.
Socially, I do not know what the writer means by "widespread discontent, more general and more far-reaching than has ever been known." I do not think that this country was ever more free from such a feeling. The papers which have the largest circulation among the working-classes are moderate and loyal in tone. To compare the social unrest now with that which preceded Wat Tyler's rising, or with that which followed Waterloo, is impossible.
Morally, I see no sign of decadence. As education has increased, crime has decreased in a steady ratio. A friend of mine who superintends convict labour bewails the fact that his works languish for want of workmen. Political bribery was very common last century: it is practically unknown now. Drunkenness has greatly decreased. Duelling is extinct.
Gambling in its more moderate forms seems to me to be a very venial sin. If Cabby gets an outside interest into his life by putting half a crown on his fancy, who is the worse for that? Extreme cases are no doubt very bad, but no one would call Australia a decaying community, and yet there is far more betting there than in Great Britain.
National decay seems to me to be climatic. I know no instance of a northern race having decayed. Sydney Smith said that if he had been born a few degrees farther south he would have given up marriage and beer and taken to sherbet and polygamy. So it is with races.
