II.
It is true that the British navy was maintained in strength, vigor and efficiency, but the navy was not an instrument of aggression nor even the guardian of exclusive paths for British commerce across the seas. It was the bulwark of freedom; the police force of all nations. The trade of the Empire had no other protection. The Empire itself had no other wall of defence. There was no British army to challenge other communities nor any thought of aggression or conquest. Indeed it is certain that the people of Great Britain and the Dominions could not be united in support of a war for territorial extension or a wanton attack upon the independence of any other country. There may be doubtful chapters in British history. There may have been ages when Great Britain was willing to live by the sword; when her statesmen strove for dominion over other lands and peoples. But with the Victorian era a new spirit entered into British councils. Her statesmen thought of the sword only as a necessary guarantee of British security. They gave earnest support to all movements designed to settle international differences by conciliation and arbitration. They were so “slow to anger” that envious and restless neighbors persuaded themselves that the old might and puissance of Imperial Britain had gone forever.