IMAGE EVALUATION TEST TARGET (MT-3) 'Y /. /:% C/j {/. V] <^ // A o ^) ^.. > '/ /^. 1.0 I.I 1.25 112 8 Photographic Sciences Corporation M 2.2 1.8 1-4 IIIIII.6 23 WEST MAIN STREET WEBSTER, NY. 14580 (716) 872-4503 ^ AT THE CdraiTIOK of ae HOSra ilERIC&H 81: SME'S^MOI AT TORONTO, AUGUSt 30, 1883, BY* LEWLS ABRAHAM, of WA8«rtNGTONi lit C. Printed by o»bfi» op thk Convention. WASHINGf OK, 0. C. : jyp_D & DETWEILER, PRmTlRS. 1883. j g) i g;jj[ i aw» ^i i i i 9 kimw lliat llriliiiii iiiid Aincricii tu-diiy own jiikI •'oiitnd iIh! vast rcsci'vuirs uC wealth, the iiiiiiit'iisc ;;u|(| (it-Ids, tlic silver iiiiiicM, tlio oil wells, llie coiislaiitly i'e|)leiiisliiii;x lisliei'ies, and the iinineiise, the almost iiiinieasurahle wheat fields. In addition to all this, we all know that the ;r<'iiins, the hrain, the skill, the push, that employs the wind and water, the steam and electrieity, is very hirjL'ely possessed hy the same people. "The innnense Slim of nearly L'2,MI)(),0()(),0II0 is now owin;f to Mn;r|iiii,| iVoin forei<;n nations, and they are eontiniuilly eomin^r for inori^ 'A loan is announced for some State in the Old World or the New,' and the suhseriptions so pour into the hanks appointed to receive them, that the usual thin^^ is fo'* many millions more than are re(|iiire«l to he oHered in a week, s(»metimes in a day; the appli- cations for permission to lend to tlie Ixtrrowcr heinj; so numerous, that an applicant is not permitted to contrihute more than a half, or a third, or less than that of what he oiters. So enormous are the loans, that tin; amount of interest paid u|)ou them in Kn;^land alone sometimes exceeds five or six millions sterlinir in a sinj^le month. And while they liave thus leiil and are still lendint!;, the amount of unemployed capital is often so great that, though oHered on loan ut from 2 to 3 i)er cent., borrowers cannot he found." The (piestiou is often aske; islands. The Knjflish people is not of itself -i sovcrcipfu ])e<)ple, but it is for other nations an empire. It governs feudally 2,370,000 Scotch, «,280.000 Irish, 244,000 Africans, 00,000, Austra- lians, 1,200,000 Americans, 124,000,000 Asiatics; that is to say, 14,000,000 of English ])ossess upon the earth 1.37,000,000 of meii. All the places named are the hooks of the immense net wliereby England has taken tlie world." An English writer says: " Taking into account only the colonies of England, and the jK.pu- lation increases forty per cent, each decade, we shall shortly see thirty to forty millions of British people scattered over the earth, and in less than a century there will be two hundred millions of Anglo-Saxons on the globe. This, irrespective of the population of America. How remarkable the fact that the AngKvSaxon race should be the one only race that is expanding! What a sign of rich and manifold blessing to the world ! It might have been the Muscovite, or the Spaniard, or the Hindoo, or the Moslem who had become the colonizer of the world. How terrible in that case wcidd have been the prospect before the species ! The blackness of dark- ness would have rested on tiie future. We would have felt that we were rapidly and inevitably api)r()ximating the extinction of liberty, and that a revolution was in progress, which would as surely bring the world under the shadow of a universal tyranny and a universal idolatry as the revolution of the earth on its axis brings it under the shadow of night. Amazing phenomenon! On all sides dead or dying nations ; one trunk alone, the Anglo-Saxon to wit, ha.s life in it. but a life so vigorous that it is fillini;: the earth with its boughs." Mr. Diipin, in liis poorer Commerrialr dr hi (inniile lirriange, (l.H2(),) writes: " III Europe the British Knipiro Ixirders at oiico towards the iiortli upon (fcrniany, npon Holland, upon France; towanls the south upon Spain, upon Sicily, upon Italy, upon Wi'slcrn Turkey; // Jiolilx fhe knjs of the Adriatic and .Mediterranean ; it eouiniands the mouth of the Black Sea as well as the Baltic. In America it ^ives houndaries to Russia towai'd the Pole; ann the masters of the northern continent think fit to extend themselves. " At all events the American continent is, in its whole extent, des- tined to belong to the Anglo-Saxon race ; and if we take into account the increase of speed which is so very notable in human events, it is very likely that such an im])ortant change will be accomplished in the cour.se of about a century or a century and a half. It is not the less certain that Oceanica belongs forever to the Anglo-Saxons of Australia and New Zealand ; and in that ])art of the world the march of events will be very rapid." The learned writer tlien comments on the marvelous material pro- gress of this portion of the British Empire, and adds that it is easy 11 to foresee tluit Cliiiiii, to wliicli they stsUKi nearer than any civilized nation, will acknowledge them masters sooner or later. " [t is certain," he continues, " that the United States will play a "Treat part in the Eiust, when the Pacific will he in great activity, lint Australia can heat the United States with speed ; and in any case will contend withthe United States for the commercial and political supri;- niacy in the far Kast. Neither Russia nor United ( lermany, supposing they should attain the highest fortune, can attempt to im|)ede that cur- rent of things nor prevent that solution — relatively near at hand — of the long rivalry of European races for the ultimate colonization of the univei'se. The world will not he Russian, nor German, nor French, ahia! nor Spanish; for it can be assevted that, .since the great navigation has given the whole world to the enteri)risc of the European races, three nations were tried, one after the other, by fate, to play the first part in the fortune of mankind, by everywhere propagating their tongue and blood, by means of durable colonies, and by transforming, so to say, the whole world to their own like- ness. During the sixteenth century it was rational to l)eliev(! that Spanish civilization would spread all over the world; but irreme- diable vices soon dispersed that colonial power, the vestiges of which, .still covering a va.st S|)ace, tell of its ephemeral grandeur. Then came the turn of P^rance ; and Louisiana and Canada have presented the .sad remembrance of it. Lastly, England came for- ward ; she definitely accomplished the great work; and England can disappear from the world without taking her work with her — without the Anglo-Saxon future of the world being sensibly changed." The writer then goes cm to show that even if Ru.'isia should possess Constantinople she would never be able to counterbalance the naval powers of the Anglo-Saxons; and, as to her military progress, it would at once be .stop])ed when it ha[)j)ens to meet either England in India, the United States or Australia in China ; and the same argument ap])lies to other nations. i\i '^ ^ ^i * * i'f. "When affairs shall have reached that climax — and it is not too much to say that two centuries will suffice for it — will it be possible to deny, from one end of the globe to the other, that the world is Anglo-Saxon. * ^ ;!; '^ ijc >i< * "Thus we can foretell, through imagination, that future situation of the world, and glance at that picture, the main lines of which are, so to say, already sketched by the hands of fate. And if we are inclined .seriously to ask ourselves in what time earth shall have taken that new form, we shall easily perceive that two centuries are scarcely necessary to bi'ing to its apogee the Anglo-Saxcm grandeur in the Oceanian region, as well as on the American continent. 1-J Tliat jjrcaliu'ss n of England, the balance of her powers, the slow but sure energy of the nnivi'rsal thought of the peo|)le, all this is so beautiful "that we cannot but recognize the Master-hand." Again : "What Tacitus said of the JJritons i.s still true of them. Tiu^y respect power, but cannot suffer the abuse of it. They know how- to obey, but not how to serve." j\I(nites(iuieu gave utterance to some apothegms ap[)osite to the subject on which I am treating: "No peoi)le have true conunon sense but those born in England." "The Constitution of England is the admiration and the envy of the world; the pattern f()i' politicians; the theme of the elo(|uent ; the meditatitin for the [)hi!osi)pher, in every i)artof the world." "The innnediate object of their ( Jovernmont is political lilH'rty ; thev possess more freedom than any republic; and their system is ill fact a republic disguised as a monarchy." It must be remi'mbered these are not exclamations of the present hour, but the production of one of the greatest writers of any age. Emanuel Swedenborg I'cmarked : "For the English nation the best of them are in the centre of all 13 Chrisliiiiirt, iHriiusc they liavi' interior iiitrlloctual lijj;lit. This ap- poars (ionspicuoiisly in llu! spiritual world. This liirlit llu-v (h'rivc tVoin the liberty oi'speakiii},' and \vrilin<,', and theirhy tllinlvin^^" rhillip de Coniniinos expressed iiiniself thus: "Now, in niv opinion, amonj; all tiu' soveivijiutics I know in the world, that in which the public <,^ood is best attended to, and the least violence exercised on the j)eople, is that of England." I.aniartine, in his History of the Girondists, although often attack- iug the policy of Great Britain, pays tribute to the greatness of the Empire and the grandeur of the character of its statesmen. He writes: " In England the mind a long time free had |)roduced sound morals. The aristocracy considered itself sufficiently strong never to become persecuting again. "England had been intellectually the model of nations and the envv of the reflecting universe. iS'ature and its institutions had conferred u])on it men worthy of its laws." Grosley, struck with amazement, exclaims: " Property in England is a thing sacred which the laws protect from all encroachment, not only from engineers, inspectors, and other people of that stamp, but from the king himself." " In England," says Helvetiusi, " the peoi)le are respected ; every citi/en caii take some part in the management of affairs and authors are allowed to enlighten the public respecting their own interest." And Brissot, who had made these matters his esi)ccial study, cries out: "Admirable constitution! which can only be disparaged either by men Avho know it not or else by tongues bridled in slavery." " The English nation," says Voltaire, " is the only one on earth which, by resisting its kings, has sncceded in lessening their power. How I love the boldness of the English! How I love men who say what they think ! " "The English," says LeBlanc, " are willing to have a king, pro- vided they are not bound to obey him." " For forins of guvornmcnt let fools contest, Wliatever's best administered is best." Although the converse is believed to be the fact, no country or government yields more readily and implicitly than England to |)iil)lic (>|)iiii()n. It iiiak(>s and iiiiiiiiikcs an administration in an lioiir. U|)<»n tiiis f'eiiturc Lelilanc, u Frenclinian, wriu-s: " I'uhlie ()|>iniiin in Knulandl Woo to iiini who (k'lii's it! TluTt' will he invoked ajriiinst liini no test of law ; lu'loro no court will lie he taken ; there will he started aii;ainst him no police officers oi- ^•endarmes; hut he will run the risk of dyinrogress has been least disturbed by the power of the privileged classes, by the influence of peculiar sects, or by the violence of arbitrary rulers." The same writer forcibly illustrates the reliance of the aristocracy on the people, and a(Uls that it naturally followed that the people imbibed that tone of indei)endence and that lofty bearing of which our civil and i)()litical institutions are the consequence, rather than the cause. It is to this, and not to any fanciful peculiarity of race, that we owe the steady and enterprising spirit, for which the inhabi- h ' 15 tiuitw of this islsuid hiivo long been ronmrknhle. It is tins which has ciiiihiod lis to baffle all the arts of oi)])irssion and to maintain for centuries liberties which no other nation has ever possessed. The Rev. J. Jialdwin IJrown, one of England's greatest preachers, uses the following language: "Parallel with tliis stands the fighting ])ower of the race. (Jod grant that we may never have to use it; but it is there, and it is well for the world that it is there, the power to hold against all comers the empire which we have won. Of old, at Crecy and Agin- court, our sohliery made them a name of I'cnown. In recent times, the wars of Marlborough and W(!llington, Jnkerman and India, perpetuate oui" fame. jNlarshal Jiugeaiid, no mean judge, is rej)orte(l to have said, 'The English infantry is the finest in the world; but then, thank God, there is so little of it.' It is well for us, as well as for the world, that there is so little of it. We might be temi)ted to become that pest of civilization — a military nation devoted to military glory. "As it is, we have just force enough to hold our own, and a repu- tation of power which will make the greatest military empire dis- posed to think many times before ranging us in the ranks of its foes, as was when in the Franco-Prussian war Belgium was as safe as London under our shield. -'- '^ * "lint altogether more precious to us than our power to win and to hold emj)ire is the ])ower to rule our subjects. This, also, among the great gifts of Providence, has not been withheld. We have under our sway the widest em])irc, in point of extent and })o])uIation, which is known to history. Speaking roughly, about one-third of the human race scattered over the four continents is subject to the sceptre of our Queen." " 'Tho power whoso ling is never furl'd, Wliosc morning drum bouts round tlio world.' " Lecky, the great historian and ])hil()so})er, says of the Anglo- Saxon race : " That the great source of their national virtues is their sense of duty, the ])ower of pursuing a course which they believe to be right, independently of all considerations of sympathy or favor, of enthusiasm or success. Other nations have far surpassed them in many qualities that are beautiful, and in some that are great. "It is tlie merit of the Anglo-Saxon race that beyond all others it has produced men of the stamp of a Washington or a Ilamixlen ; men careless indeed for glory, but very careful of honor; who made the su])reme magnitude of moral rectitude the guiding principles of their lives; who proved in the most trying circumstances that no allurements of and)iti(m and no storms of ])asHion could cause them to (loviiitc •'ic hair's brcjidtli f'n»iii the courso tliov believed to be their (hity. The uiiweiirieil, unostentatious, and inj^iorious crusade of Knghmd a^'ainst shivery may |)rol)ably be re<:ar(h'd as anion<^ the three or four perfeetly virtuous acts recorded in the history of nations." Time will not permit me to make copious extracts from American writers and statesmen. \ select from a paper pul)lished in Califor- nia an article lieaded Jiuasla vs. Eiujland, December 20, 1874: " En- hlood to thp farthest extremities of the Jiritish Emj)ire, oi- enters her palaces and manufactories, or walks along her docks, or travels the world, the exclamation is still, Great anil miglity England! Her power seems omnipotent. Hershii)s circle the pole and ' })ut a girdle round the earth.' Her cannons look into every harhor and her commerce flows to every nation. She has a word to say in every l)art of the habitahle globe. Scarcely a nation projects an out'vard scheme without looking up to hehold the aspect which England will assume towards it. Possessing the energy and valor of her Saxon and Norman ancestors, she has remained unconciuered, unbroken, amid the changes that have ended the history of other nations. Like her own island, that sits iirm and tramjuil in the ocean that rolls around it, she has stood amid the ages of man and the over- throw of enii)ires. A nation thus steadily advancing ovei" every obstacle that checks the progress or breaks the strength of other governments, making every world-tunudt in which to swell its tri- umj)hal march, vmst possess not only great resources, but great skill ti> manage them." Emerson, in his book on England, says: "The culture of tlie day, the thouglit and aims of men, are Eng- lish thoughts and aims. A nation considerable for a thousand years 10 wiiuio K;;l)('rt, it has in the liisl (•ciitiiiics ul»taiiittl llif asci'iidiiiil. mihI Htaiupfd (lie kiiuwlcd^fc. activity, and powrr nC mankind with its ini|iicss. 'riitisi' \vli(» resist it do nut feel it or ol»cy it less. 'I'lic Uussian ill his snows is ainiin;x to he Knj.disli. Tlu' |>ia('tit opposed to the Kni;lish for the most \vhoh'sni, that nmdc it |i(»ssil)h> to found the present Ivepuhlic. Had they sprung from other powers, they mi^dit have heen sachMed with a coneorchit, a military ostahlishment, (»r worse. They did not spoliate lOnjjjhmd, hut they became joint owners of her Anji;h)-Saxon ener^fy, her hiws, and her literature. You nil romemher the eulojjy of Daniel Wehster : " Enjiihind is a p(»wer to which, tin- purposes of forei<;n concpiest and sid)juji;ation, Rome, in the hei;^ht of her j^lory, is not to he co-i- pared ; a power which has dotted over the surface of tlu; whole jrlohe with her |)ossessions and military posts, whose morninj; drum heal followinjjj the sun and keupinj; company with the hours, circles the earth (hiily with one continuous and unbroken strain of the martial airs of England." It has heen said that when the (Jods made up the languages, they held a council, and, to the best of their ability, suited tiie different nations witli a language; when, as they su})posed, they had made all the languages needed, they found the English was forgotten, and, as it was dinner-time, they took a few words out of all the existing lan- guages and mixed them together and gave them to the English. Some one said : " Fate jumbled tlioiii toiijother, God knows how, Wliatcvcr they were, they're true-born English now." " Greek's u harp wo love to hour, Latin is a trumpet clear, Spanish like an organ swells, Italian rings its bridal bells, France with many a frolic mien Tunes her sprightly violin. Loud the German rolls his drum, When Kussia's clashing cymbals come, But Britains sons may well rejoice, For English is the human voice." Tlic respect and regard for the British Constitution in American jurisjn-udence is no mean testimony to its sterling merit. I »vill cite but a single instance, because of the distinguished character of the person Avho, before so august assembly as the United States Supreme 21 ( 'uiirl, iiivi>l<«'«| the iiiithnrify <»f' Kiij^'lisli dcci.-^ioiis with Hirer and ar;^iiiiuiit tin ('l(M|ii('iit as liix luuiic has hccoiia; illiistriuiis. It was on a (/iH'slioii of hiilmiH corjHin jirisiiij,' diirin;^ the h\\v civil war, when certain civilians were incarcerated upon the liiidin^'M (»(' a eoiirt-niartial. T\w attention of'the Court was called to recent Kn^- lish decisions, l(» some »»t' which i will hrieily allude. Lieutenant Frve, in 174.'?, was imprisoned hy a court-martial; an order of arrest was issuecl from a civil trihuual; it was not respecte»l, and the members of the court-martial passed resolutions in relerence thereto. Lord Chief Justice Wills arrested them all; they then ma(l(' a suhmisslve apolojjy. When this waa read in open court the Lord Chief Justice directed that it he recorded in the I{emend>ran(!e office, that the present and future a;;es may know that whosoever set themselves up in opposition to the law, or think themselves ahove the law, will in the end lind themselves mistaken. The orator (pioted the cases of the Karl of Leicester of l'?22, of Sir Thomas Durrell of Um, the ^reat Bill of Rights of KIMM, and remarked that since that time no Kin