The little naked St.George on the gold coins, or the armorial pattern on the silver coins never inspired any one.

The new copper coinage bears, it is true, a graceful figure of Miss Hicks Beach.

But we have made it so small and ladylike that it has none of the emotional force of the glorious portrait heads of France or Switzerland.
The only personification of his nation which the artisan of Oldham or Middlesbrough can recognise is the picture of John Bull as a fat, brutal, early nineteenth-century Midland farmer.

One of our national symbols alone, the 'Union Jack,' though it is as destitute of beauty as a patchwork quilt, is fairly satisfactory.

But all its associations so far are with naval warfare.
When we go outside the United Kingdom we are in still worse case.