Page:Speeches and addresses by the late Thomas E Ellis M P.pdf/91

 THE INFLUENCE OF THE CELT IN THE MAKING OF BRITAIN.

I DESIRE at the outset to express my gratitude as a student and as a Celt to Mr. Matthew Arnold and the band of literary and scientific men who, determined to see things as they really are, have endeavoured to understand the Celtic peoples and appreciate the Celtic genius. This scholarly endeavour is all the more needful and welcome because of the spasmodic and aggressive outbursts of literary and political Jingoism. The "Rule Britannia" fever is apt to break out violently at any moment. Just now we are regaled from time to time with superlative laudations of Anglo-Saxonism, of the unapproachable superiority of the Anglo- Saxon race, of the matchless splendour of the empire which the Anglo-Saxons have built up, of the divine mission which the Anglo- Saxons have, by high heaven, been commissioned to undertake. Most of this fan-