But with this principle unimpaired, there is no reason why any
further increase of territory or of population should overtask the
resources of our government.
In the United States of America a century hence we shall therefore
doubtless have a political aggregation immeasurably surpassing in power
and in dimensions any empire that has as yet existed. But we must now
consider for a moment the probable future career of the English race in
other parts of the world. The colonization of North America by
Englishmen had its direct effects upon the eastern as well as upon the
western side of the Atlantic. The immense growth of the commercial and
naval strength of England between the time of Cromwell and the time of
the elder Pitt was intimately connected with the colonization of North
America and the establishment of plantations in the West Indies. These
circumstances reacted powerfully upon the material development of
England, multiplying manifold the dimensions of her foreign trade,
increasing proportionately her commercial marine, and giving her in the
eighteenth century the dominion over the seas. Endowed with this
maritime supremacy, she has with an unerring instinct proceeded to seize
upon the keys of empire in all parts of the world,--Gibraltar, Malta,
the isthmus of Suez, Aden, Ceylon, the coasts of Australia, island after
island in the Pacific,--every station, in short, that commands the
pathways of maritime commerce, or guards the approaches to the barbarous
countries which she is beginning to regard as in some way her natural
heritage.
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