ct is more familiar to the American people
than the immense advantage which it derived, during the period of its
internal development, from its enjoyment of external peace. Will not the
American people, then, reasoning from analogy, believe that, under more
compelling conditions, England also earnestly desires external peace?

I can almost hear the retort leaping to the lips of the American reader
who holds the traditional view of the British Empire. "It is all very
well for you to talk of peace now!" I hear him say. "Now that the world
is pretty well divided up and you have grabbed the greater part of it.
You haven't talked much of peace in the past." And here we are
confronted at once with the fundamental misconception of the British
Empire and the British character which has worked deplorable harm in the
American national sentiment towards England.

First, it is worth remarking that with the exception of the Crimean War
(which even the most prejudiced American will not regard as a war of
aggression or as a thing for which England should be blamed) Great
Britain has not been engaged in hostilities with any European Power
since the days of Napoleon. Nor can it be contended that England's share
in the Napoleonic wars was of England's seeking. Since then, if she has
avoided hostilities it has not been for lack of opportunity. The people
which, with Britain's intricate complexity of interests, amid all the
turmoils and jealousies of Europe, has kept the peace for a century can
scarcely have been seeking war.

And again the American will say: "That's all right; I am not talking of
Europe. You've been fighting all over the world all the time. There has
never been a year when you have not been licking some little tin-pot
king and freezing on to his possessions."

Americans are rather proud--justly proud--of the way in which their
power has spread from within the narrow limits of the original thirteen
States till it has dominated half a continent. It has, indeed, been a
splendid piece of work. But what the American is loth to acknowledge is
that that growth was as truly a colonising movement--a process of
imperial expansion--as has been the growth of the British Empire. Of
late years, American historical writers have been preaching this fact;
but the American people has not grasped it. Moreover there were tin-pot
kings already ruling America. Sioux, Nez Perce, or Cree--Zulu, Ashanti,
or Burmese: the names do not matter. An