And now in all of these we are spreading the blessings of peace and justice, doing away with slavery and oppression, and developing commerce, and manufactures, and prosperity in those countries.
Other nations could formerly only look on and wonder, but now they too are pressing forward in the race for empire and commerce, so that we cannot afford to sit still or let things slide.
We have had this enormous Empire handed down to us by our forefathers, and we are responsible that it develops and goes ahead, and above all that we make ourselves fit and proper men to help it to go ahead. It won't do so of itself, any more than it would have become ours of itself. If we don't do this some other nation will take it from us.
If our island of England were attacked and taken, down comes our Empire like a house built of cards.
We have had this danger always, even before our Empire was a paying one and worth taking. Nowadays it is much more tempting for other people to take. We defeated determined attacks of the Dutch upon us in the old days. The Spaniards with their Armada attempted to invade us, when, largely thanks to a storm, we defeated them utterly. Then the French, after a long struggle to best us, had their invasion stopped by Nelson's victory at Trafalgar, and their harmfulness ended by Wellington at Waterloo. The French Emperor had been so sure of success that he had had medals got ready to commemorate the capture of England. And since helping in the defeat of the Russians in the Crimea we have been at peace with our Continental neighbours.
Let us hope that this peace will remain permanent.
HOW THE EMPIRE MUST BE HELD.
Peace cannot be certain unless we show that we are always fully prepared to defend ourselves in England, and that an invader would only find himself ramming his head against bayonets and well-aimed bullets if he tried landing on our shores.
The surest way to keep peace is to be prepared for war. Don't be cowards, and content yourselves by merely paying soldiers to do your fighting and dying for you. Do something in your own self-defence.
You know at school how if a swaggering ass comes along and threatens to bully you, he only does so because he thinks you will give in to him; but if you know how to box and square up to him he alters his tone and takes himself off. And it is just the same with nations.