which mix with European
waters. These are vast and novel elements in the distribution of
power. I acknowledge that the policy of England with respect to
Europe should be policy of reserve, but proud reserve; and in
answer to those statesmen--those mistaken statesmen who have
intimated the decay of the power of England and the decline of its
resources, I express here my confident conviction that there never
was a moment in our history when the power of England was so great
and her resources so vast and inexhaustible.

And yet, gentlemen, it is not merely our fleets and armies, our
powerful artillery, our accumulated capital, and our unlimited
credit on which I so much depend, as upon that unbroken spirit of
her people, which I believe was never prouder of the imperial
country to which they belong. Gentlemen, it is to that spirit that I
above all things trust. I look upon the people of Lancashire as
fairly representative of the people of England. I think the manner
in which they have invited me here, locally a stranger, to receive
the expression of their cordial sympathy, and only because they
recognize some effort on my part to maintain the greatness of their
country, is evidence of the spirit of the land. I must express to
you again my deep sense of the generous manner in which you have
welcomed me, and in which you have permitted me to express to you my
views upon public affairs. Proud of your confidence, and encouraged
by your sympathy, I now deliver to you, as my last words, the cause
of the Tory party, of the English constitution, and of the British
empire.

THE VENERABLE BEDE (672-735)

The VENERABLE BEDE, "The father of English literature," was bora
about 672 in the county of Durham. The Anglo-Saxons, whose earliest
historian he was, had been converted by St. Austin and others by the
then not unusual process of preaching to the king until he was
persuaded to renounce heathenism both for himself and his
subjects. Bede, though born among a people not greatly addicted
either to religion or letters, became a remarkable preacher,
scholar, and thinker. Professionally a preacher, his sermons are
interesting, chiefly because they are the earliest specimens of
oratory extant from any Anglo-Saxon public speaker.

Best known as the author of the 'Ecclesiastical History of England,'
Bede was a most prolific writer. He left a very considerable
collection of sermons or homilies, many of which are still
ex