Читать книгу Is a Ship Canal Practicable? онлайн

13 страница из 34

England now began to lay carefully the foundation of her empire. The policy she now adopted, whether through instinct or forethought, was one which looked beyond the temporary advantages of position and possession. She attempted to make these advantages permanent by the conquest of the territory from whence all these bounties seemed perennially to flow.

The British Empire in India, in its extent, power, wealth, and future possibilities, stands an enduring monument of the courage, energy, and wisdom of the British people. Whether actual possession has secured the reversionary benefit, time alone can show.

That wealth, power, and dominion follow oriental traffic, is now patent to the world. It is no longer the object of secret diplomatic intrigue; it has become an open question, to be solved by the general competition of commercial nations.

In the pursuit of this object, the leader in the Pansclavonic movement is pushing her outposts past India to the wall of China. The United States, conscious of her natural advantage, is awakening to the importance of a systematic policy.