It would be interesting to learn from the _Academy_ what school of English writers it is that the American humourists "reflect," who among English novelists are the models for the present school of Western fiction, where in English historiography is to be found the prototype of the great histories of their country, collaborated or otherwise, which the Americans are now producing, which journals published in England are responsible for American newspapers, what English magazine is so happy as to be the father of the _Century_, _Harper's_, or _Scribner's_. The truth is that the writer in the Academy, like most Englishmen, knows nothing of American literature as a whole, or he would know that, whether good or bad, the one quality which it surely possesses is that it is individual and peculiar to the people. The _Academy_, it is only fair to say, has recently changed hands and I am not sure that under its present direction it would make the same mistake. CHAPTER VII ENGLISH AND AMERICAN EDUCATION The Rhodes Scholarships--"Pullulating Colleges"--Are American Universities Superior to Oxford or Cambridge?--Other Educational Forces--The Postal Laws--Ten-cent Magazines and Cheap Books-- Pigs in Chicago--The Press of England and America Compared-- Mixed Society--Educated Women--Generals as Booksellers--And as Farmhands--The Value of War to a People. It may be presumed that when Cecil Rhodes conceived the idea of establishing the Rhodes scholarships at Oxford, it did not occur to him that Americans might not care to come to Oxford--might think their own universities superior to the English. Nor is it likely that there will in the immediate future be any dearth of students anxious to take those scholarships, for the mere selection has a certain amount of _kudos_ attaching to it and, at worst, the residence abroad should be of advantage to any young American not destined to plunge at once into a business life. If it were a mere question of the education to be received, it is much to be feared that the great majority of Americans, unless quite unable to attend one of their own universities, would politely decline to come to England. At the time when the terms of the will were made public, a good many unpleasant things were said in the American press; and it was only the admiration of Americans for Mr. Rhodes (who appealed to their imagination as no other Englishman, except perhaps Mr. Gladstone, has appealed in the last fifty years), coupled with the fact that he was dead, that prevented the foundation of the scholarships from being greeted with resentment rather than gratitude.