/\ v^--^.<\-a, V^"^'^Vto^«^^ V^^^^^/v'^'^* '^. .A^ -'a¥a^= %.c^ ^% IMPERIAL ENGLAND THE MACMILLAN COMPANY NEW YORK • BOSTON • CHICAGO • DALLAS ATLANTA • SAN FRANCISCO MACMILLAN & CO., Limited LONDON • BOMBAY • CALCUTTA MELBOURNE THE MACMILLAN CO. OF CANADA, Ltd. TORONTO IMPERIAL ENGLAND BY CECIL FAIRFIELD LAVELL AND CHARLES EDWARD PAYNE Professors of History, Grinnell College Il5eto gotit THE MACMILLAN COMPANY 1918 A.U rights reserved COPYKIQHT, 1918 bt the macmillan company Set up and electrotyped. Published July, 1918. TO THE MEN IN KHAKI PREFACE Never has there been a time when the British Empire and its history has had the significance for thinking Amer- icans that it has to-day. For, in the words of Sir Charles Dilke, " If the Enghsh race has a mission in the world it is surely this, to prevent peace on earth from depending on the verdict of a single man." In the days of Napo- leon England saved Europe and civilization from such a catastrophe. To-day, not only have millions of Britons taken the field against German autocracy, but the British navy, British finance, British industry, have made possible the heroic and sustained resistance of France and Belgium to the formidable power which threatens to overwhelm them. And to-day. It may be added, it Is the British fleet which makes possible the pouring of millions of Americans across the Atlantic resolved that government of, for and by the people shall not perish from the earth. But great as has been the significance of Britain in the war, she seems likely to be even more significant In the work of reconstruction that must follow. Through the leadership of Lloyd George, the Influence of organized labor, the encouragement and support of President Wil- V vi PREFACE son, Britain has more and more clearly defined her pur- poses along democratic lines until to-day the ofiicially announced aims of Britain and America are practically identical. These two countries will emerge from the conflict the least exhausted of all the combatants; they have the same hopes and plans for the future; and on them must now rest the main burden of making possible the realization of those ideals which Britons and Ameri- cans alike have accepted, — self-determination, the sanc- tity of treaties, the elimination of war, a League of Peace. Most significant of all, the British Empire constitutes in Itself a model that embodies these ideals, a model after which a world organization can be patterned. It is itself a world embracing almost all varieties of race and creed, almost every stage of culture and progress, almost every variety of conflicting economic interest, all bound together In a loose, elastic organization in which no part is ex- ploited for the benefit of another, in which each part can develop Its own peculiar character, in which every member has all the autonomy it Is capable of exercising, , and throughout which a spirit of justice and fair play prevails. The British Empire to-day is In great part a common- wealth of free, self-governing nations, bound together by ties of sentiment unaided by any elaborate machinery of government. It reaches Its decisions through no for- mal body, no autocratic sovereign or bureaucracy, but PREFACE vii through the negotiations and conferences of High Com- missioners and Prime Ministers. Yet this loose organ- ization under the leadership of the United Kingdom has succeeded in establishing the Pax Britannica throughout one quarter of the world, in impressing its members with a sense of just treatment, and in binding them to the Empire with ties of loyalty and affection which the shock of this war has served only to strengthen. If one quarter can be so organized for the establish- ment of peace, freedom, and justice, why not the whole? Of course the parallel does not hold at all points, for the British Empire was created by the conquests of a single dominant race. But it is sufficiently close to be not only an encouragement but a model, and the accumulated po- litical and legal experience of the British in building up this vast structure, the greatest political achievement of mankind, cannot but be of immense value. All that is needed is the desire, and after the war the desire will be present, dynamic in form and irresistible in proportions. The gigantic character of the struggle has brought home to the race the horror, folly and iniquity of war as they have never been realized before. Millions of women are asking why they should have had to lose their loved ones; millions of men will wonder why they should go through the rest of life maimed, weakened and shattered. These griefs and questions will constitute a soil on which may viii PREFACE be reared a stately structure of which the poets and philos- ophers and statesmen of all time have dreamed, a world commonwealth. But for such a commonwealth no ordinary pattern will serve. In proposing that British experience and British methods of organization should be utilized there is no desire to emulate Germany and impose the system or institutions of one country on any other. There has been far too much of national egoism already, and the world is paying the price. As Goethe once said, " Above the nations is humanity." Many nations, not excluding the German, have surpassed the British in many and various ways, and civilization is all the richer for it. But the British, following no preconceived plan, have found a way in which nations of infinite variety may yet combine in a friendly and harmonious federation. They have proved themselves the most politically minded and most politically gifted of all races, not only by making Britain the mother of Parliaments, but by the discovery that rigidity, uniformity and centralization do not supply the secrets of political union. In spite of many blunders and some crimes they have constructed the greatest and on the whole the most satisfactory political organization the world has yet known, and it is their offshoot, the United States, that has carried the federal idea to its fullest realization. Surely It is the better part of wisdom for PREFACE ix the world to utilize and profit by British experience and British success just as it has accepted the spiritual herit- age of the Hebrews, the culture of the Greeks, and the legal and political achievements of the Romans. Should this book give any of its readers a better under- standing of the forces, motives and aims that have made the British Empire possible and of the light that it throws on the problem of world organization, it will have an- swered the purpose of its authors. The chapters on the American Revolution and the Great War have been written by Mr. Payne. As the events of these two movements are familiar to American readers no attempt has been made to give a narrative account, but simply to discuss their significant aspects. The remainder of the book has been written by Mr. Lavell. The authors have, however, collaborated throughout, and are agreed in point of view and inter- pretation. C. F. L. C. E. P. Grinnell, Iowa, May 7, 1918. CONTENTS CHAPTER PAGE I The Laying of the Foundation i II The Coming of Sea-Power . . . . . . . i6 III The Opening of the East . . . . . . .33 IV The Great Duel With France 57 V Robert Clive and the Beginning of the Indian Empire 83 VI The American Revolution . 109 VII The Beginnings of Australia 137 VIII The Beginnings of South Africa 160 IX The Dominion of Canada ....... 192 X The Self-Governing Colonies of the South . 223 XI The Indian Empire 248 XII The Road to the East: Egypt 274 XIII Imperial Problems: The Case of Ireland . . 303 XIV The Effects of the Great War upon the Empire 335 XV A Balancing of Accounts 377 Suggestions for Reading 387 LIST OF MAPS FACING PAGE The America of Wolfe and Montcalm 67 Southern India in 175 i . . .91 Australasia, i 770-1840 140 Africa in 191 8: The Cape to Cairo Railroad . , .180 Canada in igi8: Provincial and Territorial Divi- sions 212 The Indian Empire 248 IMPERIAL BRITAIN THE LAYING OF THE FOUNDATION Twice since the Norman Conquest has the little coun- try of England been the center of an empire : once when Henry II of England was at the same time master of half France ; and now again when the Union Jack or the red ensign flies over cities and continents of which Henry Plantagenet never dreamed. Yet to use the same word to describe both of these empires seems unfortunate. In- deed, the use of the word " empire " is questionable In either case, — only to be sanctioned because we seem to have no other word that will quite answer the purpose. For " empire " is a Roman word. Its use seems to imply in some way absolute power, — the centralization which was so fundamentally characteristic of Rome. Yet the feudal empire of Henry II, so far from being centralized, was a mere bundle of separate lordships, thrown together by the accidents of conquest, marriage, and divorce. It was dashed to pieces in the reign of John, built again by Edward III, torn apart once more in the latter years of i2 IMPERIAL BRITAIN the fourteenth century, put together In a structure of sur- passing glory by Henry V, and finally destroyed in the reign of his son. Through it all, for these three hundred years, England's own well-being and growth were some- thing entirely apart from her connection with these other possessions of her king; the bond that united them had no root in national life. And If there Is more organic unity In the British Empire of to-day, — If there Is In It, Indeed, a very powerful and living organic unity, — yet there Is as little centralization as there was in the days of Henry II. So If we use the word " empire," as we must, let us at least remember that the old significance of the Roman word imperium has largely departed. The empire of Henry II was, we have said, the loose, feudal union of half France with England. But in It the English destiny or the English national character was scarcely Involved at all. It was not the genius of Eng- lishmen that built up the feudal empire ; It was feudal cus- tom and the ability of half a dozen men to whom the Eng- lish tongue was an abomination. To the Norman kings England was a mere appendage to their continental do- mains, valued only for her money and her archers. Eng- land's influence was not materially extended by the power of her rulers; she was rather Influenced by France than France by England. So that from the landing of the THE LAYING OF THE FOUNDATION 3 Jutes in 449 until the close of the Hundred Years' War in 1453, and of the Wars of the Roses in 1485, England was simply England, not even Great Britain, with no po- litical interest outside her borders except a feudal and dy- nastic interest which affected only a foreign king and his military aristocracy. Her trade was largely local, across the narrow seas. Her seamen were many and daring, it is true, but from the political point of view they were in the background. The sea-power and imperial ambitions of Venice and Genoa in the south, of the Hanseatic League in the north, stirred as yet neither jealousy nor emulation in the bosoms of the slow-moving islanders. But if the fifteenth century English were indifferent to seapower, little inclined to maritime enterprise, and quite without imperial ambitions, they and their fathers had un- wittingly laid a solid foundation for national greatness. By slow degrees, with many moments of discouragement and reaction, there had been crystallizing the potent ideals of liberty and nationality without which the England that we know, the free mother of free states, could never have existed. In the old days before the Norman Conquest villagers and townsmen had met in their town meetings to deal with town affairs, had elected representatives to meet with other townsmen of the " hundred," and to meet in the still larger " folkmoot " of the shire. That is to say, 4 IMPERIAL BRITAIN they had been accustomed to the idea and practice of rep- resentative government. The larger affairs of the king- dom as a whole were indeed in the hands of the lords who met in their Witanagemot, i.e., the assembly of the wise, the nobles and clerics of greater power and larger grasp of affairs than could be claimed by the humbler mer- chants, craftsmen and agriculturists who made up the great mass of the population. Government of the peo- ple was still a thing of the future ; but the germ of English liberty was clearly present in the England of Alfred and of Edward the Confessor. This germ was not only never smothered out by the Norman kings: it was positively encouraged. William the Conqueror, William Rufus, Henry I and Henry II saw clearly that the great obstacle to the realization of their ambitious plans for consolidation and centralization was not the people but the great lords. The kings, intent on power, the people, anxious for protection against brutal and lawless barons, had no vision of the possibili- ties of the future. They became allies only to avert a common danger, not to realize a national or democratic ideal. But between them they built up a steadily growing political unity and a steadily growing national conscious- ness, until at last the barons, seeing that they could not hold their own against the alliance of king and people. THE LAYING OF THE FOUNDATION 5 seized a golden opportunity to do a really great thing. For after the great Norman and Angevin kings came King John, enemy of lords and commons, enemy of God and man. The invincible alliance was broken by the blind wickedness of John; and the barons in sudden inspiration joined the troubled and oppressed people in wresting from the king the great charter. To them it was merely a winning move in their play for power. But the Charter signed at Runnymede In 12 15, feudal document as it was, saw the birth of the English nation. Only the birth, in- deed, not adolescence or conscious maturity. Yet Magna Carta was still an event of tremendous significance.^ And It was confirmed fifty years later when Simon de Mont- fort, Earl of Leicester and premier baron of England, called on the people for aid in his struggle against John's son, and summoned representatives of the towns to sit side by side with the lords in the first house of Commons. iThe following clauses of Magna Carta are the most famous: 12, No scutage or aid (feudal taxes) shall be imposed in our kingdom unless by the general council of our kingdom, etc., etc. 39. No freeman shall be taken or imprisoned or dispossessed or outlawed or banished or in any way destroyed . . . unless by the lawful judgment of his peers or by the law of the land. 60. All the aforesaid customs and liberties which we have granted to be holden in our kingdom, as much as it belongs to us, all people of our kingdom, as well clergy as laity, shall observe, as far as they are con- cerned, towards their dependents. Thus c. 12 laid down the principle, afterwards made definite and com- prehensive, that the king was to have no independent power to levy taxes; c. 39 asserted the personal liberty of free Englishmen; c. 60 illus- 6 IMPERIAL BRITAIN This first representative national assembly was, it is true, called by a rebel. Strictly speaking, it was illegal. But behind it was a force that could no longer be ignored. King and people had been invincible in restraining the law- less ferocity of the barons. Now the barons had been at least partly tamed, and barons and people were allied to restrain the lawlessness of the throne. The great king Edward I, still without any vision of the future and seeing only the advantage of town representation for taxing pur- poses, bowed to the inevitable. In 1295 he quietly fol- lowed the precedent created by de Montfort thirty years before, and thereafter the Parliament of England was composed of lords, knights, and representatives of the towns. Through the fourteenth century the national as- sembly, soon separated Into two houses — Lords and Commons — grew In power, tightened Its grasp on the two essential rights of legislation and taxation. Interfered at critical moments with even the administration, gave its support to the deposition of two kings, asserted the rights of the English Church against what seemed the undue claims of the Papacy, grappled with economic difficulties, and made Itself bit by bit the controlling power of the kingdom. The king was still the executive chief, and trates the fact that while it was the barons who compelled John to sign the Charter they were at least dimly aware that they were acting not only for themselves but for the people at large. THE LAYING OF THE FOUNDATION 7 able kings like Edward I, Edward III, and Henry V wielded a still potent scepter. But no king successfully- defied Parliament during the fourteenth and fifteenth cen- turies. The basis of English liberty seemed solidly laid. But while the towns were growing in wealth and conse- quence, and while merchants, craftsmen and sailors were developing economic security, intelligence, self-confi- dence, pride, imagination, courage, capacity to act to- gether, — all of the things that go to make up the stuff of self-government, — yet hitherto they had allowed the lords to assume the leadership. The alliance between them was tacit but firm, and it held against all shocks. But in the main it was recognized that in politics and war the lords were more efficient than the representatives of the towns, and they were allowed to take the initia- tive. The people were indeed but restless and indiffer- ent students of the great art of government. Their place in Parliament seemed often a burden rather than a privilege. As long as their individual rights were re- spected they were content to let others have the cares and responsibilities of guiding the ship of state. Then in the fifteenth century came the Wars of the Roses. The nobles, already decimated by the long war with France, dashed themselves to pieces in the conflict of fac- 8 IMPERIAL BRITAIN tlons.^ And when Henry VII came to the throne after his victory over Richard of York on Bosworth Field (1485) the Parliament faced a crisis of which it was quite unconscious. The House of Lords under the new ruler was filled with nobles of his creation. Only a fragment of the old baronage was left. The Commons at last had to stand on their own feet or lose their hard-won liberties. So the sixteenth century saw a national readjustment. The question that time had to answer was whether the English people had learned the lesson of self-govern- ment. And for a time it was diiSicult to see what the answer would be. Henry VII and Henry VIII were more absolute, apparently, than Henry II or Edward I or Henry V had ever been. The people, welcoming with relief an era of peace, looked placidly on while the king built up a great power on the ruins of feudal- ism. England seemed to be quietly becoming an absolute monarchy. But in reality the people were unconsciously adjusting themselves to the situation, showing little reali- zation of their danger and little disposition to take the initiative, but never relaxing their stubborn grip on essen- 1 The Hundred Years' War, in which the kings of England sought not only to regain and hold their old dominion over Normandy, Anjou and Aquitaine but to seize the crown of France, began about 1340 and ended when the French took Bordeaux in 1453. The Wars of the Roses, between the rival houses of York and Lancaster, began about 1460 and ended with the victory of Henry of Richmond at Bosworth in 1485. THE LAYING OF THE FOUNDATION 9 tials. Indeed even at the height of the Tudor despotism there were signs that the lessons of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries had not been utterly thrown away. Interest in national affairs was steadily growing stronger, quickened by the spread of Protestantism and the fear of Spain. And when the high-spirited Elizabeth came to the throne of her father, her brother and her sister, she faced a nation that was nearly ready to graduate after its long schooling. She found Parliament and people ready indeed to give her love and honor, willing to accord her much power in the exercise of her high duties, but un- yielding as iron when their cherished liberties were menaced. Again and again the proud Queen sought angrily to assert her independent sovereignty; again and again she had to bow before the courteous obstinacy of Parliament. When she died in 1603 the nation was well awake, uncertain of Its powers, unused to united action, unwilling to move other than slowly, cautiously, circum- spectly, but still pulsing with a new and vast consciousness of strength and with new, vague ambitions of dazzling splendor. For the sixteenth century had brought a steadily In- creasing responsiveness to the thrill of new intellectual life which was shaking Europe. The Renaissance in Italy had reached Its height before the century opened, lo IMPERIAL BRITAIN and had begun to send abroad impulses of spiritual quick- ening that soon reached England through men like Colet, Erasmus and Thomas More. At the same time there came other influences just as disturbing. There were rumors of the advancing power of the Turks, of the clos- ing up the old trade routes to Asia by way of Constanti- nople, Syria, and Egypt, and — far more amazing — the opening of a new route to the east by Diaz and Vasco da Gama around the Cape of Good Hope. Portugal leaped into fame and wealth with the commerce now made pos- sible by her navigators; Venice and Genoa faced slow ruin with the passing of the greatness of the Mediterranean highway; and all sea-faring peoples felt some stirring of the blood at the thought of the rich reward that had followed the enterprise of a handful of bold sailors. But eclipsing all other news came the tremendous tidings of the crossing of the Atlantic. All too late did Henry VII send out John and Sebastian Cabot to bring England some of the advantage of this short cut to India — as every one deemed was the significance of the discovery of Columbus. But no effort could make Newfoundland or Cape Breton or Labrador yield the rich spoil that soon flowed to Spain from the mines of Mexico and Peru. As Italy had led in the revival of learning, Portugal and Spain had led in the discovery of new worlds, and by the THE LAYING OF THE FOUNDATION ii time the bewildered minds of English statesmen and sailors had adjusted themselves to the vast changes wrought in a single generation, the chance of sharing in the trade of Asia or the wealth of America seemed for- ever lost. The fruits of the Renaissance could be learned. The dying torch of Italy could touch the eager lamp of England's genius, and inspire a burst of intel- lectual glory in the northern islands even more splendid than Florence herself had seen in the days of Lorenzo. But the fruits of maritime enterprise could not so easily be transferred. Spain and Portugal, first in the field, rejoiced and waxed fat in a flood of wealth out of all pro- portion to the energy expended. The peoples of the north seemed to be hopelessly left behind. It must be remembered that no one, up to the middle of the sixteenth century at any rate, had thought of planting a colony in our modern sense of the word. The possibility of such a development as was later seen in the English colonies of America, Australia or South Africa had not occurred to the wildest dreamer. The prize of Spain in her own eyes was not the opportunity to plant and develop new Spains overseas, but that of seizing a lucrative trade and exploiting a vast, helpless, and wealthy possession. And in this new territory competi- tion was by no means to be permitted. The custom fol- 12 IMPERIAL BRITAIN lowed by all European countries of making indefinitely large claims on the strength of sighting a single stretch of coast meant that Spain claimed the whole of the West Indies and Central and South America — with the sole exception of the Portuguese possession of Brazil — as one vast preserve. Not only was this whole territory an- nexed to the Spanish crown, but the wealth that came from it was a monopoly. Absurd as the idea seems to us, moreover, it was in accord with the notions of the time, and was accepted as right and normal by the Eng- lish themselves. But no body of law, and no power of custom could so cancel the primary instincts of human nature that sailors and traders of all nations would not look somewhat wistfully at the gigantic prize that was making Spain the wealthiest and most powerful state in Europe. Every new rumor of the riches of Mexico and Peru made it more certain that little excuse would be needed to bring eager adventurers to the Spanish Main to snatch such crumbs of the great feast as Providence, cunning, or force might give them. Marvelous tales came with every western breeze to draw men toward the horizon beyond which lay America. The inevitable conflict began early. In November, 15 19, Cortez entered the City of Mexico for the first time, and when the conquest was completed two great THE LAYING OF THE FOUNDATION 13 treasure ships were dispatched to Spain as an earnest of what was coming. France and Spain were at war just then, and a Florentine captain named Verazzani in the service of France captured those treasure ships near the Azores. So Europe learned at the same time both the fabulous wealth of Spanish America and the ease with which a share of it could be obtained. France ac- cordingly followed up Verazzani's success with some de- gree of vigor, but England still waited, — partly because her conservative instincts forbade her to make a new movement too hurriedly, and partly because during a great part of the sixteenth century she was Spain's ally. Then the Protestant revolution came to sow discord. The Marian persecution and the acute danger for a time that England might be made by Mary and Philip II a mere province of Spain awakened in the minds of Eng- lishmen an active hatred of the Spaniards. And with the accession of the Protestant Elizabeth in 1558 the two countries began definitely to drift into a relation in which a small cause might precipitate a bitter and relentless war. The English sailors began to do more than cast greedy looks toward the Spanish Main. Ship after ship crossed the Atlantic to defy the monopoly by securing some of the trade; and when traders were punished as smugglers and pirates their trade became after a time 14 IMPERIAL BRITAIN actual piracy, on the ancient principle that one may as well be hung for a sheep as a lamb. So national and racial a character did this unique kind of piracy assume, moreover, that an Englishman and a Spaniard came to regard one another as inevitable and invariable enemies, and the religious difference between them, aided by the Inquisition, added fierce fuel to their hatred. Yet for many years there was no open war. Neither Philip II nor Elizabeth wanted war, and both struggled against fate to preserve at least a nominal peace. War came only when Drake's great voyage of 1577-80 made it in- evitable. Elizabeth had then to choose between England and Spain, for peace and good-will with the one meant war with the other. So that in the third quarter of the sixteenth century England stood at the fork of the roads. Still far from anything like democracy, she had yet built a firm founda- tion for a free nationality that was rapidly becoming con- scious. The intellectual vigor that was to make the age of Elizabeth one of the most brilliant in the annals of literature was joined to a proud and exuberant patriotism. Less than a century later this new national spirit was to turn in fierce resentment against the monarchy that sought to chain it in the name of divine right, and in civil war and revolution was to end forever the debate between kingly THE LAYING OF THE FOUNDATION 15 power and national freedom. But Elizabeth's tact post- poned the conflict, and in her day the energy of English- men was turned not so much to politics as to literature and adventure. Indeed even the literature of the age was a literature of action, of romance, and of aspiration. Shakespeare and Drake alike are the Interpreters of an England unknown to Henry II and to de Montfort, a dynamic England which they had helped to make but which had grown far beyond their planning. She stood now at the threshold of a new era. Ahead of her lay the glory and the peril of empire. II THE COMING OF SEA-POWER When English sailors first began to feel the lure of the far horizon there were two enterprises that attracted them with peculiar power. One was the quest of the northwest passage to the Indies, and one was the trade of the Spanish Main. The former was to attract Eng- lish explorers for three centuries and was to immortalize some of the most notable names in the annals of British seamanship. The latter had all the fascination of ad- venture, conflict, and unguessable turns of chance. Be- tween them, they were the school of Elizabethan seamen. In the polar seas, the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean, Englishmen learned the lessons that were to stand them in good stead in 1588 and were ultimately to make them the first among sea-faring peoples. So that, roughly speaking, the reign of Elizabeth marks the beginning of England's sea-power; and if we open at random the pages of " Hakluyt's Voyages " we may obtain a glimpse into the training school. On the eighth of June, 1576, Martin Frobisher left 16 THE COMING OF SEA-POWER 17 Deptford with two small barks (25 and 20 tons), the Gabriel and the Michael, and a pinnace of 10 tons, to seek in the northwest a nearer passage to Cathay than by the Cape of Good Hope or the Straits of Magellan. On the nth of July "he had sight of a high and ragged land " — probably Greenland — " but durst not approach the same by reason of the great store of ice that lay along the coast and the great mists that troubled them not a little." Not far from here he lost the pinnace and was deserted by the Michael, but " notwithstanding these discomforts the worthy captain, although his mast was sprung and his topmast blown overboard with extreme foul weather, continued his course towards the northwest, knowing that the sea at length must needs have an end- ing." So he passed on and did at length sight two great forelands, with a great open passage between them, which he entered, and sailed above fifty leagues, believing that he had Asia on his right hand and America on his left. After some time " he went ashore and found signs where fire had been made. He saw mighty deer . . . which ran at him: and hardly he escaped with his life in a narrow way, where he was fain to use defense and policy to save his life. In this place he saw and per- ceived sundry token of the peoples resorting thither. And being ashore upon the top of a hill, he per- 1 8 IMPERIAL BRITAIN ceived a number of small things floating in the sea afar off, which he supposed to be porpoises, or seals, or some strange kind of fish; but coming nearer, he discovered them to be men in small boats made of leather." These were a troop of Esquimaux, who after nearly taking the captain himself, did some trading with the sailors and by treachery captured five of them. After this they kept away from the ships, but one was taken by a stratagem and brought back to England. So " with this new prey, which was a sufficient witness of the Captain's far and tedious travel towards the unknown parts of the world . . . the said Captain Frobisher returned homeward and arrived in England the second of October following. Thence he came to London, where he was highly com- mended of all men for his great and notable attempt, but specially famous for the great hope he brought of the passage to Cathay." Besides the unfortunate native there was by chance brought back a black stone — really Iron pyrites — which certain refiners pronounced to be rich In gold. Thereafter It was gold, not the northwest passage, which formed the chief attraction to the deso- late region of the north. In Frobisher's second voyage 200 tons and In the third 1,700 tons of the stuff were brought with great labor to England to the sore loss of those who had borne the expense of the enterprise. THE COMING OF SEA-POWER 19 But the interest of it all to us is not so much the success or ill success of these voyages. It is the persistent and purposeful daring, the awakening interest in a world wider than England, the determination against all obstacles to search the untried and immense posssibilities of the New World. Every sentence of the old sailor narratives as- sures us that the narrowness, the pettiness, the morbid in- terest in unreal things, of the Middle Ages have passed away. It is like breathing in a draught of fresh sea air to see again the little ships of England — struggling against the terrors and dangers of the north, stemming and striking great rocks of ice, compassed about with floes and bergs, and so driven by tempests against the crystal reefs that " planks of timber of more than three inches thick by the surging of the sea with the ice were shivered and cut in sunder." To these northern voyagers the elements themselves were the most formidable foes. But to the all-expecting imaginations of the Elizabethan mariners there was even more terror in the strange beasts and devils of the new seas. An iceberg was an iceberg — dangerous enough but avoidable. But what of the strange monster that Sir Humphrey Gilbert saw " swimming or rather slid- ing upon the water off the coast of Labrador, — a monster like a lion in shape, hair and color, which passed along 20 IMPERIAL BRITAIN turning his head to and fro, yawning and gaping wide with ugly demonstration of long teeth and glaring eyes, and which coming right against the ship sent forth a hor- rible voice, roaring and bellowing as doth a lion"? Might not this be the devil himself? And every voyager had to face beasts equally strange and equally invested with the halo of marvel that belonged to the newly dis- covered regions, — serpents with three heads, monsters in the shape and color of men who rose from the sea and might bring on many days of foul weather, and evil creatures such as the " monstrous venemous worme " en- countered by the companions of Hawkins, " with two heads and a body as bigge as a man's arme, whose blood made the sword that cut him asunder as black as ink." Fearsome tales, surely. And yet these encounters with beasts and devils are after all only incidents. Even the conflicts with storms, with heat, and with cold were not the epoch-making ones of the age, significant as they are of its spirit. The great battles of the English were with a power more cruel and far more hated than ice, heat, storms, or savage monsters. The fierce and withering grip of Spain and the Inquisition on the wealthiest part of the New World and on the empire of the sea still remained to be matched and shaken before England's introduction to her new future could be complete. THE COMING OF SEA-POWER 21 In the summer of 1568 John Hawkins, having accom- plished a profitable bit of trade in negroes with those of the Spaniards who were willing to defy their own law for the sake of profit, headed northwest from the Gulf of Mexico intending to make for England. It was his third voyage, and he was well known in both England and Spain. It had been his avowed practice to simply disregard the Spanish laws as to trade, and since his liv- ing merchandise was badly needed for heavy labor by the Spanish mine owners and planters, he had driven a profitable business. In dining with the Spanish ambassa- dor, after his second voyage, he had quite coolly declared his intention of visiting the African coast and the Indies again. And so he did; but as might be expected, this cool violation of Spanish law aroused Irritation at the court of Philip II, and orders were sent out to treat Hawkins as an open enemy If the opportunity occurred. Now It happened that on this very trip, as the English ships passed by the west end of Cuba, heavy storms came upon them and, being driven far into the Gulf and failing to find any other harbor, they took refuge In the port of Vera Cruz, guarded by the castle of San Juan de Ullua. Here to their surprise they found twelve ships — part of the annual silver fleet for Spain — which were await- ing there the rest of the fleet and Its armed convoy. 22 IMPERIAL BRITAIN Hawkins was a trader, not either a pirate or an enemy of the Spaniards. He did not touch the prize before him accordingly, but sent word of his arrival to the Spanish Council at Mexico, and asked permission to remain in the harbor to refit. But, says Hawkins, " the mes- sage being sent away the sixteenth of September at night, being the very day of our arrival, in the next morning, which was the seventeenth day of the same month, we saw open off the haven thirteen great ships. And under- standing them to be the fleet of Spain I sent immediately to advise the general of the fleet of my being there : giving him to understand that, before I would suffer them to enter the port, there should some orders of conditions pass between us for our safe being there, and maintenance of peace." Now the harbor was so guarded by an island that the English ships in possession could easily keep out an enemy five times as strong. But the English admiral was torn between two difficulties. If he prevented the Spanish fleet entering, they must inevitably be shipwrecked by the next storm from the north. In view of the peace exist- ing between the two countries — peace which Elizabeth was very anxious to maintain — such a disaster would be a very grave matter and would probably mean trouble from the Queen. On the other hand, if entrance were THE COMING OF SEA-POWER 23 permitted, there was the danger of treachery. At last Hawkins resolved on the more generous course, and giv- ing the Spaniards the benefit of the doubt he made a convention, exchanged hostages and allowed them to come in. All was apparently satisfactory for a time, and the Eng- hsh sailors set to work busily to repair their ships. It was Monday, the twentieth of September, when the Span- ish fleet entered the port. On Thursday morning the English noticed a suspicious shifting and embarking of men going on, and a stealthy clearing of the ships and arrangement of ordnance which was uncalled for on any peaceful pretext. Remonstrance first brought polite as- surances, but at last the mine was sprung. On all sides the English were attacked, and In most cases were taken utterly by surprise. The men on shore were nearly all killed at once without mercy. The largest of the Eng- lish ships was attacked by three Spaniards; each of the others was terribly outnumbered, and what with the odds and the surprise, and the Spanish command of great ordnance on shore, the English were barely able to hold their own. After an hour's fight three of the enemy's ships were burned and sunk, and the battle eased off somewhat; but then fire ships were sent down upon Haw- kins' battered vessels, and those that were able cut loose 24 IMPERIAL BRITAIN and put to sea as best they might, — two large ships, the Jesus and the Minion, the former of which was so in- jured that she had to be abandoned soon after, and the smaller Judith, commanded by Francis Drake. Of the sufferings of the crews of these, as without sufficient pro- visions, with battered and half rigged ships, they wan- dered in an unknown sea, we cannot speak here. Those who have access to " Hakluyt's Voyages " may read of them as told by two seamen, Phillips and Job Hartop, and by Hawkins himself in his narrative of this disastrous third voyage. But disastrous as the incident at San Juan de Ullua was to the English, it was — as has been well observed — even more disastrous to the Spaniards. For it brought them the bitter and undying enmity, not only of Hawkins, but also of the young captain of the Judith — Francis Drake. Let us now move forward a few years. In 1 5 7 1 Drake was in the West Indian seas engaged in real piracy on his own account. Ships were captured, treasure was seized and hidden, and investigations made into the operations by which the silver and gold of Peru was conveyed to Spain. He found that Panama was the focus on the Pacific side of the Isthmus, and that the treasure was thence carried across the mountain ridge to Nombre de Dios, where It was shipped home. In May, 1572, with THE COMING OF SEA-POWER 25 two ships and material for three pinnaces, the daring captain set sail from Plymouth to attack the richest spot on the Spanish Main. On reaching a group of islands near their destination he found that Nombre de Dios had recently been strongly fortified against a possible attack of the Maroons, — a formidable mixed negro and In- dian race, deadly enemies of the Spaniards and treated by them like wild beasts. But he resolved to try his fortune. With seventy-three men he attacked the town on its coast side, drove the redoubtable Spanish soldiery out of the opposite gate, refused to touch three hundred and sixty tons of silver that were ready to be shipped in order to devote undivided attention to the stores of pearls and gold, and finally withdrew from the panic-stricken town only when he himself fell wounded. In spite of remonstrances the sailors bore their commander back to the boats. On the way out of the bay a wine ship was captured, and with her cargo to console them for their retreat the English took up their quarters on the island where the town had its gardens and poultry yards. Here they rested and looked after the wounded while their leader formed new plans. With very little delay all necessary repairing was done, and the little squadron went on its way in search of more adventures. At Carthagena several prizes were 26 IMPERIAL BRITAIN taken, but the spread of the news from Nombre de Dios made surprises difficult, and Drake resolved to fall back on his little pinnaces and carry on his depredations on shore and up the rivers. For this it was necessary to learn the country, and establish firm alliance with the Ma- roons, which took time; so during the next month the rovers had to trust to their negro allies and an occasional ship for supplies, while they sustained various attacks from the Spaniards, and from a more dreaded foe — the yellow fever. Finally news came that a mule train was on its way from Panama to Carthagena with a great load of treasure. With eighteen men and a Maroon chief, named Pedro, with thirty negroes, Drake marched inland towards Panama. In four days they reached the lofty ridge from which Drake first looked upon the Pacific. There was a great tree there in which the Maroons had cut and made steps, and had built at the top a " bower where ten or twelve men might easily sit." Here the Maroon chief " took our captain by the hand and prayed him to follow him, if he was desirous to see at once the two seas. . . . After our captain had ascended to this bower with the chief . . . and having as it pleased God at that time by reason of the breeze a very fair day, had seen that sea of which he had heard such golden re- ports, he besought Almighty God of his goodness to give THE COMING OF SEA-POWER 27 him life and leave to sail once in an English ship in that sea. And then calling up the rest of our men he ac- quainted John Oxenham especially with this his petition and purpose, if it would please God to grant him that hap- piness; who understanding it presently protested that unless our captain did beat him from his company he would follow him by God's grace. Thus all, thoroughly satisfied with the sight of the seas, descended, and after our repast continued our ordinary march through the woods." These are only glimpses. They convey little Impres- sion of orderly sequence. But orderly sequence matters less in the age of Elizabeth than in most periods, simply because policy, statesmanship, the working out of care- fully laid plans play but a small part in the great achieve- ments of the time. It was an age primarily of individual initiative, of personality. The triumph of Burghley and the Queen lay not in the positive doing of things, not in constructive diplomacy, but In the preservation of peace, in giving England a chance to develop the tremendous energy that leaped within her. To understand this Eng- lish Renaissance — profitable and even fascinating as It Is to study the constant game of diplomacy that kept France and Spain balanced and steered England clear of the rocks and whirlpools of European politics for twenty-five 28 IMPERIAL BRITAIN years — it is beyond comparison more necessary to know the men of Elizabethan England as they were. So for our purpose these bits of real life are worth while, and we shall add one more. For it is written that at the end of this first buccaneering expedition Drake and his men turned at last homeward, " passing hard by Carthagena, in the sight of all the fleet, with a flag of St. George in the main-top of our frigate, with silk streamers and an- cients down to the water, sailing forward with a large wind." The impudence of this is emphasized by the fact that the adventurers were sailing home in captured Span- ish ships, their own having been destroyed in various ways during the year. " Within twenty-three days," runs on the narrative, " we passed from the Cape of Florida to the Isles of Scilly, and so arrived at Plymouth on Sunday about sermon-time, August 9, 1573. At what time the news of our Captain's return . . . did so pass over all the church, and surpass their minds with desire and de- light to see him that very few or none remained with the preacher, all hastening to see the evidences of God's love and blessing toward our gracious Queen and coun- try, by the fruit of our Captain's labor and success. Soli Deo Gloria." Are we to wonder then that when the great crescent of Spanish ships of war came slowly up the channel to chas- THE COMING OF SEA-POWER 29 tise the heretic islanders in the last week of July, 1588, they were watched by eyes that reflected little fear? All the famous leaders who had time and again smitten these same foes hip and thigh on the Spanish Main now sailed rejoicing out of port after port to do battle for England within sight of home, and stalwart sons of Devon and Kent who had followed Drake at Nombre de Dios or across the Pacific, who had raided African vil- lages and Spanish galleons under Hawkins, or sailed their little barks between the giant bergs of the Green- land coast with Davis and Frobisher, now went joyously forth, rejoicing that they were Englishmen, in sure con- fidence that the God who had guided them and given them courage on far away seas would nerve their arms once more against Spain. It was on Saturday, the twen- tieth of July, 1588, at daybreak, that the Armada sighted the coast of Cornwall. No fighting occurred that day, but in the night some sixty English ships sailed around to the rear of the great fleet to hover and swoop and sting as the Spaniards sailed slowly on toward Calais. Again and again during that week the English admiral, Lord Howard of EfSngham, closed in on the Spaniards for a fierce exchange of shots, but it was only to strike a few deadly blows and then draw away. " The enemy pur- sue me," wrote irritably the Duke of Medina Sidonia, the 30 IMPERIAL BRITAIN Spanish admiral. " They fire upon me most days from morning to nightfall; but they will not close and grapple. I have given them every opportunity. I have purposely left ships exposed to tempt them to board; but they de- cline to do It, and there is no remedy, for they are swift and we are slow." But well Howard knew that much as this running fight might damage and demoralize the Spanish fleet, the real death grapple was yet to come. On Friday, the twenty-sixth. Lord Henry Seymour, who had been waiting between Calais and Dover, joined his admiral, while the Spaniards cast anchor off Calais. And now the English captains were ready to strike. On Sun- day night fire ships were sent drifting down with an easy wind on the Spanish fleet. In a panic the great ships cut cables and put to sea, sailing on somewhat confusedly to form once more In a crescent off the Flemish town of Gravelines. And here, on Monday, July twenty-ninth, the English closed desperately with their enemies In the tremendous conflict that was to determine the Independ- ence of their country and the greatness of their race for ages to come. No new thing was it for the brave sailors of Drake and Hawkins to grapple with these lords of the Indies, these allies of the Inquisition, these proud devils who would treat London as they had treated Antwerp, THE COMING OF SEA-POWER 31 and valiantly did they fight that day for England. By the evening the Invincible Armada was in full flight toward the North Sea. Then tempests more cruel than the English fell fiercely upon the beaten fleet. Painfully, in dire confusion, the great galleons labored northwards, strewing the shores with wrecks and with the corpses of hapless men who had hoped to harry England as they had harried the Netherlands, and who had found instead a wild grave on the pitiless shore of northern Scotland. The defeat of the Armada did not settle the matter, of course. It saved England from invasion, perhaps from conquest, and was the most brilliant of the victories won by English gallantry and spirit over the discipline and the resources of Spain. But it by no means de- stroyed the sea-power of Spain. It is rather the specific point at which the beginning of her decline became evi- dent to those who, a few years or decades later, saw her star waning and that of England waxing brighter and more glorious. And its chief significance may be seen best by those who try to see It clearly in its setting. Not in that one battle, but in scores of fierce — often un- recorded — fights the world over did England give signs of her new vitality. And not alone in the joy and bitter- ness of warfare, but in the dawn of a new wonder, a new 32 IMPERIAL BRITAIN wish to face the mysteries of the world and of life, a new enthusiasm and a new power, did the countrymen of Raleigh and of Shakespere enter upon an era of adven- ture and of achievement beyond the dreams of Columbus or of Cortez. Ill THE OPENING OF THE EAST As it was during the reign of Elizabeth that the first steps were taken towards the founding of the English colonies in America, and the first English ship sailed across the Pacific, so it was while the great queen was still on the throne that a company of English merchants was authorized to enter upon competition with Portugal and Holland in the Eastern trade. Here as in America, England was late in the field, and before we endeavor to see something of the first feeble steps of the famous company " of Merchants of London trading into the East Indies," we must glance for a moment at their pred- ecessors. For many and daring as the explorers of the English race have been, there are few chapters in the story of the expansion of Europe whose first pages con- tain an English name. Our pride of race, amply justified as it is, must recognize that if the English race — Ameri- can, Canadian, Australian, or pure Yorkshire — has a cer- tain careless curiosity, a tenacity, an unwillingness to re- 33 34 IMPERIAL BRITAIN treat, and an inexhaustible determination to somehow reach the end aimed at, yet the exploring instinct in us is balanced and checked by our own virtues. The Eng- lishman seldom forgets the end in the means, or allows a dream to overcome his caution. When Henry VII of England refused to listen to the application of Columbus his caution was typical of his race. When John of Portu- gal did the same thing his decision was out of accord with a century of Portuguese enterprise. While Marco Polo was exploring the far realms of the Khan of Tartary England was laying the foundations of her parliamentary government. While the Portuguese sailors sent out by Henry the Navigator were creeping mile by mile down the coast of Africa, England was vainly trying to conquer France and settle vexed questions as to the kings who should reign over her. In the age of Elizabeth, Indeed, there was an outburst of chivalrous enthusiasm well rep- resented by such heroes as Raleigh and Humphrey Gil- bert. But In the main Englishmen need not be given credit for being the first to brush aside the dark veil of mystery that hid the outer world from the Europe of the Middle Ages. Rather do they merit the praise, — more practical, if less picturesque — of penetrating, settling, trading, building after the veil was lifted. The solid virtues of the trader and the pioneer look gray and un- THE OPENING OF THE EAST 35 romantic beside the glorious achievements of Columbus, of Vasco da Gama, and of Balboa. The high emotions of the man who dares to face absolute mystery and to peer over the edge of the known world into possible in- finity, are emotions that few Englishmen have felt. And yet it is no accident that while an Italian sailor under Spanish orders discovered America, and a Portuguese navigator first pierced the Indian Ocean by the Cape of Good Hope, yet Spanish supremacy has yielded to Anglo- Saxon in the western world and the Portuguese posses- sions in the East are a mere dot on the edge of the vast realm of British India. The discovery of America was practically a discovery of an unknown world. The voyage of Vasco da Gama In 1497-9 was the discovery of a new route to a world with which Europe has been In communication for ages. A thousand years before Portugal dreamed of a Cape route to India there was a steady and rich trade be- tween Europe and the East along three great highways, each marked by famous and wealthy merchant cities. One lay through Alexandria and the Red Sea to the In- dian Ocean. A second ran through Syria by way of Damascus and Palmyra to Bagdad and Persia. A third route was that by Constantinople, the Bosphorus, the Cau- casus and the Caspian, connecting with the caravans from 1,6 IMPERIAL BRITAIN Northern India, Bokhara, and Samarcand. The second of these had once been the greatest. It had fed the wealth of Tyre and Sidon and made possible the glory of Solomon. But the destruction of Tyre by Alexander had paved the way for the rise of Alexandria, and opulent as the Syrian cities remained for many ages, the Egyptian and the Bosphorus routes took thenceforward the greater part of the rich commerce between Asia and the Medi- terranean. From the side of Europe the Asiatic trade tended more and more after the fall of Rome to fall into the hands of the Italian coast cities. Long before Europe had fully aroused itself from the stupor and the chaos of the Empire's collapse, Venice and Genoa and Pisa were sending their galleys to the Levant and the increase of trade with the Orient that came during the Crusades meant more wealth for the Italian cities as well as for Constantinople and Alexandria. But early in the fif- teenth century a shadow that had already darkened Syria began to menace Constantinople and Egypt. In 1453 the triumphant Turks stood masters of the Bosphorus, and in 15 16 their empire included the valley of the Nile. In place of a Christian emperor and the civilized Arabs the three great roads to the East were in the hands of a wild and brutal race of fanatics, incapable of appreciat- ing or preserving the civilization of the lands they had THE OPENING OF THE EAST 37 conquered, and indifferent to the value of the trade routes of which they now became the lords. It was as if a wall of barbarism had suddenly intervened between Europe and Asia. Trade at once became difficult. The wealth of Venice and Genoa began a slow but sure de- cline. And the very century that saw with every decade a new awakening of conscious curiosity and interest in the world saw the western peoples confronted with a totally new problem that both stimulated their keenest interest and seemed to defy solution. There were three conceivable ways by which a fifteenth century European might think of reaching the Indies. One was the old threefold route already described, through the Mediterranean. One was straight across the Atlantic. One lay round the southern point of Africa. Of these the first was familiar enough, but was attended now with great difficulty and risk. The second was a mere dream until the voyages of Columbus and his suc- cessors, and then it proved to be not so much a new route to the East as the opening up of a hitherto undreamed of continent. That the third should ever have been a mys- tery seems strange now, but such it certainly was. The north coast of Africa and inland as far as the great desert, the valley of the Nile as far as the granite quarries of Syene, and a few hundred miles of the Atlantic coast. 38 IMPERIAL BRITAIN represented all that Romans or mediaeval Europeans knew of what was indeed to them a Dark Continent. To Portugal belongs the honor of throwing light on at least part of that darkness. Early in the fifteenth cen- tury King John I sent out an expedition which passed the traditional boundary of Cape Non. His son, grand- son on his mother's side of the English John of Gaunt, was the famous Henry the Navigator. Making his head- quarters on the rocky promontory of Sagres near Cape St. Vincent, he founded a school of navigation, gathered together all the geographical wisdom of his age and de- voted his learning and his vast wealth to the solving of the mystery of the African coast. His first expedition in 141 8 added Porto Santo and Madeira to the dominions of Portugal. In 1434 one of Prince Henry's little squad- rons headed boldly out to sea and passed for the first time the formidable headland of Cape Bojador. Thereafter before Spain was even a united state or the enterprise of Columbus thought of the ships of her little neighbor crept further south, explored the Gold Coast, discovered the mouth of the Congo, and finally in i486 under Bar- tholomew Diaz doubled the mighty cape that forms the turning point of Africa. Almost at the same time Pe- dro de Covilham by way of Naples, Cairo, the Red Sea and Aden penetrated to India on a voyage, so to speak, THE OPENING OF THE EAST 39 of inspection. After visiting many cities there he set out on his return voyage, touching at Sofala on the east coast of Africa and reaching practical certainty as to the feasi- bility of a Cape route to India. He never reached Por- tugal, but in 1490 he sent his king a report which not only supplemented that of Diaz, but definitely assured him " that the ships which sailed down the coast of Guinea might be sure of reaching the termination of the continent, by persisting in a course to the south ; and that when they should arrive in the eastern ocean their best direction must be to inquire for Sofala and the Island of the Moon." The end might already be anticipated. In 1494 Pope Alexander VI divided the East and West be- tween Spain and Portugal. And in July, 1497, Vasco da Gama sailed from the Tagus on the memorable voyage which ended in the harbor of Calicut on the Malabar coast of India, May 20, 1498. In a later study we shall try to see something of the physical and political character of India. It is enough for the present to say that the peninsula had not even the pretense of unity. The Malabar coast is a mere strip be- tween the Western Ghats and the sea, and though the ruler of Calicut was one of the most powerful of the coast rajahs, yet " Calicut and Cochin " (I quote here from Sir William Hunter) " were merely two among half a 40 IMPERIAL BRITAIN dozen patches of the Malabar strip: all Malabar had formed but one-eighth of the single kingdom of Kerala; and the entire kingdom of Kerala was only one of the fifty-six countries of India recognized by Hindu geogra- phy." So the stage on which the Portuguese were to act out their part in the endless drama of India was not a great one. And gallantly as they faced and drove from the field their Moorish rivals in the trade of the Malabar coast, nobly as they added deed after deed to their already brilliant record of chivalrous heroism, yet the dark hor- rors of the Goa Inquisition add a terribly black side to the story, and the great names of Vasco da Gama, Al- meida, and Albuquerque give place soon to others whose ruthless cruelties are redeemed by little of the high souled fearlessness and enterprise of the earlier days. For a time the Portuguese simply traded, only show- ing their prowess when some act of treachery provoked them, or when the rivalry of the Moors and their Egyp- tian allies culminated in a battle royal between Christian and Moslem like the sea fight off Diu in 1509. But there was at least one true empire builder among them, and if there had been more like him Portugal might have cre- ated a great and lasting dominion in the East. Even before he was made supreme representative of Portuguese authority In eastern waters, Affonso d' Albuquerque, left THE OPENING OF THE EAST 41 in 1507 in command of a squadron of six ships by Tristan da Cunha, conquered Socotra and imposed submission and payment of tribute on the Kingdom of Ormuz. And these were no barren triumphs of a mere fighter. The line of trade by which Portugal's Moslem competitors carried wealthy cargoes of Indian merchandise to meet the galleys of Venice in the ports of Egypt lay through the Red Sea. Socotra lay almost across their path, and the ships that might steer to the north and so avoid So- cotra, would have to pass by Ormuz. Moreover a hold over Ormuz meant control of the outlet of the Persian Gulf, and this carried with- it not only a rich source of trade, but a long step — perhaps a complete one — to- wards maritime supremacy in the Orient. These bold strokes were carried out against the will of practically all the great captain's associates. They even ventured to present to him a written remonstrance, not daring to protest by word of mouth from fear of his passionate temper. But he struck aside all opposition, built a strong fortress at Ormuz, besieged the port of Aden, captured Goa and held it as a point of vantage for the control of the Malabar coast, and in 15 11 seized the very center of the Mussulman trade further east by the conquest of Malacca. By 15 15 the Portuguese were lords of the whole ocean highway from the African coast north to the 42 IMPERIAL BRITAIN Persian Gulf and east to the Spice Islands. Glad should we be if it were possible to devote more time to the knightly Viceroy to whom this was chiefly due. Of a nobler type than either Cortez or Pizarro, he is rather to be compared in our minds with the great EngHshman of two centuries later — Clive. It is told of him that a bitter enemy, one who had been with him and had sought again and again to thwart him in his great enterprises, died in poverty at Cochin while Albuquerque was at the height of his greatness. " But Affonso d' Albuquerque forgot all that he had been guilty of towards himself and only held in memory that this man had been his companion in arms, and had helped him in all the troubles connected with the conquest of the kingdom of Ormuz like a cavalier, and ordered him to be buried at his expense with the usual display of torches, and himself accom- panied the body to the grave clad all in mourning." The first quarter of the sixteenth century, then, saw Portugal in practical possession of a monopoly of the trade of Southern Asia. The Italian cities had to be con- tent with that which still might be brought in a thin trickle by Moorish and Egyptian merchants through the Red Sea, or which came by the two more northerly routes — through Syria and through the Bosphorus. The glory of Lisbon surpassed the glory of Venice, and Lisbon her- THE OPENING OF THE EAST 43 self was almost equaled by Goa. Yet with the new spirit of intellectual life and enterprise that was stirring in Europe monopoly could not long prevail, — at least without a struggle. Even the treaty with Spain (the Treaty of Tordeslllas) , drawing a line between the two empires 370 leagues west of the Azores, ignored the fact that the earth was round, and before long the Portu- guese traders saw with consternation the little squadron of Magellan (a Portuguese, but in the service of Spain) come sailing across the Pacific to the Philippines and the Moluccas. Each of the indignant rivals could appeal with unanswerable force to the Papal Bull of 1493 and the Treaty of Tordeslllas ( 1494) , and though the matter was partly settled by the Convention of Saragossa in 1529 there remained much heartburning and frequent deadly quarrels. The two other possible competitors (before the revolt of the Netherlands from Spain) were France and Eng- land. But until late In the century both of these accepted as a thing accomplished the arrangements of 1493-4. One opening only was left by which the ambition and en- terprise of the two northern states might find a way to gain wealth and power overseas. The Treaty of Tor- deslllas forbade Intrusion from the west or south. Noth- ing was said about the north. Even before the voyage 44 IMPERIAL BRITAIN of Columbus the merchants of Bristol had sent ships out into the western ocean to seek a northwest passage to Asia, and after 1492 their efforts were redoubled. So in the closing years of the fifteenth century we see Spain believing herself to possess a southwestern passage to India, Portugal finally achieving the discovery of a south- eastern route, and England eagerly seeking one by the northwest. No one realized that the three might clash. " You wrote that a person like Columbus," says the King of Spain in a letter to his ambassador in England in 1496, " has come to England for the purpose of persuading the king to enter into an undertaking similar to that of the Indies, without prejudice to Spain or Portugal. He is quite at liberty." In May, 1497, accordingly, John Cabot sailed from England with the hope of reaching Asia by the north Atlantic. Late in June — first of Europeans unless we except Lief Ericsson — he sighted the mainland of North America somewhere on the coast of Newfoundland or Cape Breton Island; but he and England thought it was Asia, and voyage after voyage ended in vain explora- tions on the unpromising coasts of Newfoundland and Labrador in search of some sign of the way to Cathay. That America was not Asia was evident before many THE OPENING OF THE EAST 45 years, but there was left a chance of at least passing through by the north to the Pacific as Magellan had to the south. And not of a northwest passage only, but even of one by the northeast was there hope in those years of blind groping. In 1553 Sir Hugh Willoughby sailed — at the suggestion and under the protection of a company headed by Sebastian Cabot — for the discovery of Cathay, and " diverse other regions, dominions, is- lands, and places unknown," by the northeast route. Through the summer and fall of that year his three vessels coasted along the cheerless shores of Russia, until winter fell upon them. And there two years later the hapless captain and his seventy men were found sitting or lying as they had died, blocks of ice in the shape of men, Wil- loughby himself seated at his table with maps and papers before him, watching them with dead eyes that were as full and clear as when the fatal drowsiness had seized them two long arctic nights before. John Milton tells the whole weird story in his " History of Moscovia." More famous, doubtless, are the efforts of Humphrey Gilbert in the northwest, and the three voyages of Martin Frobisher of which we have already spoken. But none of these availed, and the memory of them only remains to illustrate to us the awakening energy of the people who 46 IMPERIAL BRITAIN were already — in Frobisher's time — matching strength with Spain on her own ground, and were soon to intrude on the eastern domain of Portugal. Four important events now have to be noted and kept in mind as bases of our next step forward into this subject of the opening of the East. First, the adoption by the English of the Protestant faith, carrying with it a new attitude of independence toward the Papal award of 1493. Second, the revolt of the Netherlands and the rapid rise of Holland as a maritime power. Third, the temporary union in 1580 of the crowns of Spain and Portugal. And fourth, the gradual growth and final bursting into flame of fierce hatred between Catholic Spain and Protestant England. Drake showed his countrymen with sufficient clearness that the northwest and northeast passages were not the only possible routes from England to India. The declining spirit and power of Portugal was already com- pelling her as the sixteenth century neared its close to give way in the East to the fierce courage and enterprise of the Dutch. And though the search for the northwest passage was not wholly put aside, yet the founding of the East India Company In 1600 proved that England had definitely decided to enter competition with Portugal and Holland in the Indian Ocean. We say " with Portugal and Holland," for we must re- THE OPENING OF THE EAST 47 member that the burst of new life in England in the age of Elizabeth was in a measure paralleled across the channel by the appearance of an independent, fiercely virile Hol- land. And the new Dutch national energy, like the Eng- lish, found part of its expression in maritime and com- mercial enterprise. The Dutch Barentz failed as com- pletely — though less tragically — as the English Wil- loughby in the attempt to reach Asia by the northeast; and the more gloriously their obstinate courage was re- warded by victories over their Spanish oppressors, the more -confidently did they turn to the hope of competing with Portugal in her own seas and by the Cape route. Two patriotic Dutchmen brought to their country the necessary Initial information. Cornelius Hunter, a resi- dent for many years of Lisbon, found out — by Inquiries so diligent that they brought him imprisonment at the hands of the suspicious Portuguese — all that could be learned at the capital. And his facts were supplemented by the observations of John Huyghen van LInschoten of Haarlem, who from 1583 to 1589 lived at Goa, the Portuguese capital of the Indies, in the train of the Arch- bishop. His accounts of India and of the routes to the East were published by the special license of the Dutch States-General, and In 1595 a squadron of four ships was sent out under Cornelius Houtman. Avoiding the penin- 48 IMPERIAL BRITAIN sula of India he sailed on to the Island of Java, made a treaty with the king of Bantam, and returned home In triumph. Between 1595 and 1601 fifteen Dutch expedi- tions followed In the footsteps of Houtman or penetrated the Pacific by the Straits of Magellan, 'and In 1602 was formed the Dutch East India Company. But LInschoten's " Voyage to the East Indies " was translated Into English In 1598, and the splendor of the prize — " great provinces, puissant cities, and unmeasur- able Islands " — was held up to the eager eyes of the countrymen of Gresham and Hawkins. "I do not doubt," runs the preface, " but yet I do most heartily pray and wish that this poor Translation may work In our English nation a further desire and Increase of honor over all countries of the world by means of our Wodden Walles." It was a wish abundantly fulfilled. LInschot- en's work only reenforced the Impression already made by the marvels told by an English traveler, Ralph Fitch, who visited Ormuz In 1583, was taken thence as a pris- oner to Goa; journeyed after his release to the court of the Mogul Emperor Akbar (where he saw a deplorable number of heathen temples and Idols ; " some be like a cow, some like a monkey, some like peacocks, and some like the devil ") , then farther east still to Bengal, Burmah and Malacca. In 1591 he returned to England with a THE OPENING OF THE EAST 49 complete account of the wealth of the Indian trade and the weakness of the Portuguese hold on it. So the inter- est awakened by Fitch, renewed by Linschoten, and stim- ulated by every rumor of the decline of the Portuguese monopoly and the success of the Dutch in Java, Sumatra and Ceylon, was at last focused on a definite undertaking. On September 22, 1599, an assembly of London merchants met in Founders' Flail to consider the situation. The projects for a route by either northeast or northwest, though not wholly put aside, seemed unlikely to come to anything. The Muscovy Company, which had tried since 1554 to carry on trade by an overland route through Russia, was fast realizing that the journey was too long and too expensive for profitable traffic. And the Levant Company, which had been competing with the Mediter- ranean merchants on their own ground with some success, was finding Turkish Insolence, the greed of the Barbary pirates, and the Spanish hold on the Straits of Gibraltar so vexatious and disastrous that any relief might well be welcomed. It Is not surprising, therefore, that two of the most prominent men in the assembly of London merchants In Founders' Hall were among the founders of the Levant Company. Already, earlier in 1599, they had sent to the court of the Great Mogul one John Mildenhall, a merchant of London, to make preliminary so IMPERIAL ENGLAND negotiations for the opening up of trade with India with renewed energy and by the Cape route. And now after some days of discussion the assembly subscribed £30,133 for an initial voyage and formally requested the Queen to grant them " a privilege In succession and to incor- porate them in a company, for that the trade to the Indies being so far remote from hence, cannot be traded but in a joint and a united stock." For diplomatic reasons the consent of the government was delayed, but at last it was Intimated to the leaders of the enterprise that all was well. At once a committee was appointed to arrange for the voyage. A warship of 600 tons — built to serve as a privateer and owned by the Earl of Cumberland ^ — with three smaller ships and a pinnace were purchased and fitted out with speed, the committee providing a barrel of beer daily for the workmen so that " they leave not their work to run to the alehouse." More than double the original capital was subscribed. And on December 31, 1600, a charter from Queen Elizabeth constituted the adventurers into " one body complete and politick, in deed and in name, by the name of the Governor and Company of Merchants of London trading Into the East Indies," the purposes of the undertaking being " the Honor of our Nation, the Wealth of our People, the Increase of our Navigation, and the THE OPENING OF THE EAST 51 advancement of lawful traffic to the benefit of our Com- monwealth." The charter secured to the Company for fifteen years an exclusive right to trade in all seas and countries beyond the Cape and Straits of Magellan except such as may be in the actual possession of any Christian prince " in amity with the Queen," with the necessary powers of discipline, by-laws, and defense. Thus appro- priately, in the closing years of great Elizabeth, was formed that most famous of all merchant companies, des- tined after a century and a half of trade to stand suddenly in dazzing splendor before the world as the conqueror of the Carnatic, of Bengal, then of all India. Before we turn to the early struggles of the company in the East, it would be a pity not to quote the quaint, Puritanical, Elizabethan regulations issued by the Direc- tors to their servants. At each factory, as a trading post was called, the members of the staff were to live and eat together, to meet daily for prayers, and to be in at a cer- tain hour of night. They must be brotherly one to an- other ("no brabbles "), cleanly of person, respectful to superior officers and to the preacher, and careful as to their health. Blasphemy, gambling, drinking, and ban- queting are sternly denounced. And all these instruc- tions are given in a kindly, albeit an uncompromising tone, in minutes and in letters in which a strictly business detail 52 IMPERIAL BRITAIN might be followed by a grave warning against the evils of gluttony. Take these sentences from a letter of 1610. " And because there is no means more prevalent to strengthen and confirm the ways of the godly in righteous- ness than the spirit of God which is the guide into all good motions, and no aim more pregnant to support and up- hold the sinner from falling into wickedness than the grace of God. ... we exhort you in the fear of God to be very careful to assemble together your whole family (i.e., all the employees of the post) every morning and evening, and to join together in all humility with hearty prayer to Almighty God for his merciful protection." " Settle such modest and sober government in your own household that neither amongst themselves there be con- tentious quarrels or other occasions of strife." " Com- port yourselves both in your habit and housekeeping in such comely and convenient manner as neither may dis- parage our business nor be accounted too excessive in expenses." This admirable advice was accompanied, moreover, with goodly aids to spiritual and intellectual re- freshment. " For the better comfort and recreation of such of our factors as are residing in the Indies we have sent the works of that worthy servant of Christ Mr. Wil- liam Perkins, together with Foxe's ' Book of Martyrs ' and Mr. Hackluit's voyages to recreate their spirits with THE OPENING OF THE EAST 53 variety of history." What could be better, surely? One's heart goes out across the three centuries to these stalwart old London merchants who so studiously chose their words in the quaintly phrased dispatches. The old letter books of the Company are yellow and musty now, and yet life comes back to them quickly enough as we read words throbbing with the same spirit that we know so well in colonial New England, the spirit of indomitable Puritan strength and conviction and unshakable purpose. These founders of the East India Company were men who might have been the fathers or the neighbors of those who, a few years later, settled Plymouth and Boston. The first ten years of the new undertaking were years of doubtful fortune. Not only was each voyage itself long and hazardous, not only was it no easy matter to take from England commodities that could be profitably exchanged for the silks and calicoes and spices of Asia, but suspicious and powerful enemies awaited with deadly intent each Enghsh ship that ventured into the Indian Ocean. On the coast of India the Portuguese still held the field, not in the old-time strength that had been theirs before the dead hand of Spain had fallen upon them, and before the cruel poison of the Inquisition had sapped their life, but still with gallant determination to defend what was left of the heritage bequeathed to them by Da 54 IMPERIAL BRITAIN Gama and Albuquerque. And farther east, at Malacca and on the coast of Java the Dutch watchfully held the control of the trade to the Spice Islands. Behind both of these European rivals lay the native princes, and little as they might love the masterful aliens who bullied them into trade and curtailed their independence, yet they were scarcely likely to risk cruel displeasure and vengeance by giving favor to the insignificant late comers. The first distinct conflict on the Malabar coast came In the fall of 1611, near Surat. Sir Henry Middleton with three English ships found a Portuguese squadron of twenty armed vessels lying across the mouth of the river by which the city had to be reached. Their commander, with courtesy, but with decision, Informed the English captain that unless he bore letters from the King of Spain or his Viceroy he must forbid entrance. To which Mid- dleton naturally responded that he came not to inter- fere with any rights of the Portuguese but to open up trade with the Great Mogul, in whose cities he had as good a right to trade as any adventurer in Christendom. But the Englishman's insistence availed little against his rival's positive orders, and a more definite step became necessary when supplies began to run short and scurvy to break out. Three ships seemed scarcely likely to break a blockade maintained by twenty, yet seamanship availed THE OPENING OF THE EAST 55 much in the shoals of that dangerous coast, and the attack that came as the English stood in toward shore was beaten off so fiercely that the attitude of the natives was deter- mined as it was by Clive's defense of Arcot nearly a cen- tury and a half later. The sight of a prize taken trium- phantly by the little force of the English under the very eyes of a six times stronger enemy convinced the discern- ing Indians that the hostility of the Portuguese was less dangerous than that of the new arrivals, and trade was opened at once. If doubt still remained, it was removed by the great fight off Swally, near Surat, in December, 1 61 2. Four Portuguese galleons, aided by twenty-six small galleys — useful for quick movement in the shal- low water — tried to capture Thomas Best, commanding the Company's ship Red Dragon and a smaller vessel that he had with him. Day after day the armada re- newed the attack, ashamed to give up the contest, and yet forced again and again to cease their onset and flee from these savage sons of the men who had fought under Drake and Howard; until at last, with sore loss in men and ships, the remainder of the squadron sailed away south to Goa, and the Mogul's soldiers who had gathered on the shore to witness the fight knew that the star of Portugal in India had set. To Best, himself, exactly a year later (December, 16 13), was given the imperial decree which ^6 IMPERIAL BRITAIN established an English factory at Surat, — the first definite foothold in India of the future masters of Delhi. The victory over the Portuguese came none too soon. For disaster followed disaster in the Spice Islands, until in 1623 the Dutch seized the Company's representatives at Amboyna, tortured and executed ten of them, and drove their rivals from the field. It was indeed the great age of Holland. This business of Amboyna was mur- derous and shameful enough, but in the main the Dutch won In the far East because the eastern trade was to them a national enterprise, Into which they threw their full strength at a time when their country was filled with the spirit of an heroic age. So they held their own in the Spice Islands, and the English returned to India, not knowing that their place of retreat held for them a des- tiny Immeasurably greater than any petty bargain with the Dutch could have brought them in the Moluccas. Each company — Dutch and English — now held to its own field, and the defeated Portuguese clung, angry and disconsolate, to a Goa shorn of its splendor, nursing great memories of the time when their heroic captains had achieved for Europe the opening of the East. One act In the great drama of India was over. IV THE GREAT DUEL WITH FRANCE When Philip II sent his invincible Armada to invade England in 1588 he was unquestionably lord of the most powerful monarchy in Christendom. A century before, Spain was hardly beginning to be ranked as a great power. A century after, she had yielded her primacy to France. It was long, indeed, before England realized that the adversary with whom she had grappled so fiercely on the Spanish Main and in the fight off Gravelines was ceasing to be dangerous. For Spain's decline was a grad- ual one. The wealth of Mexico and South America made her for generations the richest state in Europe, — richest, that is to say, in wealth immediately available for purposes of conquest and aggrandizement. We see now clearly enough that gold and silver are by no means the surest source of national prosperity. We know that the very use of the shiploads of bullion that came year after year from i\merica meant a squandering of resources as absolute as the hewing down of a vast area of timber 57 58 IMPERIAL BRITAIN without thought of replanting. As each tree might be made an immediate source of revenue, so might each ingot of gold or silver; but as the destruction of the forest leaves a barren waste of stumps, so the draining of the Indies meant ultimate exhaustion of the supply, and worse still, the moral degeneration of the spendthrift who draws on his capital and awakens too late from the illusion that has destroyed him. All this is clear enough now, and needs little wisdom to point the moral. But during the first half of the seventeenth century Spain's gold still made her formidable, and if her fleets were yielding place to those of Holland and England, yet her naval power was not to be despised, and her soldiers were still esteemed the best equipped and the best disciplined in Europe. France was her great rival, as in the days of Charles V, but the relative strength of the combatants was no longer what it had been when the giant power of the lord of Austria, Spain, the Netherlands and the Indies struck down Francis I at Pavia. During the period when the might of Spain was at its zenith — i.e., during a great part of the sixteenth century — France lay almost power- less, torn in twain by the fierce religious wars of which St. Bartholomew was only the most terrible incident. But at last in 1598, when Spain, ruined by the bigotry of THE GREAT DUEL WITH FRANCE 59 Philip II and the deceptive wealth of the Indies, was well on the road to hopeless decline, her rival stood united and strong with the vigor of a healthy patriotic reaction against the disunion of the past fifty years. Under Henry of Navarre France entered upon a new era. There are few periods to which a Frenchman untainted by extreme republicanism can look back with more patri- otic satisfaction than the seventeenth century. It was not an age of developing liberty. On the contrary it saw the steady decrease of national influence on the govern- ment, and the rise of a monarchy more absolutely cen- tralized and more perfectly organized than Europe had seen since the best days of Rome. But at the same time, under the strong, wise rule of men like Henry IV and his great co-worker Sully, the two famous Cardinals, Riche- lieu and Mazarin, and that master brain of all the minis- ters of Louis XIV, Jean-Baptiste Colbert, France grew and waxed prosperous, while her power in arms at length overshadowed that of Spain herself. The peace that closed the Thirty Years' War in Germany (1648) was in effect a diplomatic triumph for France and a blow to Spain. Already on the field of Rocroi (1643) Conde had anticipated by force of arms the victory planned by the cunning brains of Richelieu and Mazarin, and in those fateful five years the military greatness of Spain sank 6o IMPERIAL BRITAIN beyond hope of resurrection. Henceforward her destiny tended more and more to be merged into that of her rival, until in the eighteenth century the alliance between the countries north and south of the Pyrenees was a famihar and permanent fact in the diplomacy of Europe, — an aUiance, moreover, in which France was the controUing factor. Only fitfully and ineffectually did Spain ever again assert a claim to the glory that had been hers before the Inquisition cowed her into spiritual torpor, and her ill- gotten wealth destroyed her manhood. But France grew more formidable with every decade. Louis XIV, with all his faults, had two virtues which, joined to a never satisfied ambition and a limitless vanity, seemed likely for a time to make him master of Europe: he had im- mense industry and the keenest of eyes in the selection of able ministers. " Louis XIV," says Macaulay in one of his most Macaulayesque passages, " was not a great gen- eral. He was not a great legislator. But he was, in one sense of the word, a great king. . . . His was a talisman which extorted the obedience of the proudest and mightiest spirits. The haughty and turbulent war- riors whose contests had agitated France during his minor- ity yielded to the irresistible spell, and like the gigantic slaves of the ring and lamp of Aladdin, labored to deco- rate and aggrandize a master whom they could have THE GREAT DUEL WITH FRANCE 6i crushed. . . . The arms of Turenne were the terror of Europe. The policy of Colbert was the strength of France. But in their foreign successes and their internal prosperity the people saw only the greatness and wisdom of Louis." Now all the power, all the genius at the disposal of this proud lord of France, all the resources of his vast realm, were turned to the realization of two great schemes. With Colbert steadily building up the wealth of the country, nursing its industry and commerce and organizing its finances, with Louvois, Conde, Turenne, and Vauban rapidly fashioning armies, building fortifica- tions, gathering and perfecting all the equipment of war, or hurling a blow with sure stroke against some startled enemy, — the king himself regarded wealth and mili- tary power simply as means by which he could in Europe extend his dominions to the Rhine, and in America build up a colony that might mean more to France in days to come than Mexico and Peru with all their wealth had ever meant to Spain. The former would mean suprem- acy in Europe ; the latter might well mean in time suprem- acy in the world. Opposition to the first would come from the Netherlands, the German states along the fron- tier, and Austria, all of whom were threatened with par- tial or complete conquest and the dangerous neighbor- 62 IMPERIAL BRITAIN hood of a vast and expanding military power. To these might be added England, if she could spare time and en- ergy from her absorbing problems at home to attend to affairs across the Channel. In the New World, Ger- many, Holland and Austria were interested not at all. There the ambition of Louis was confronted only by the colonies of England. But behind the colonies stood the mother country, and events might well bring about such a situation that Great Britain would perforce have to arouse herself to a stern conflict or submit to a second place or none at all on the sea and In America. Such then was the situation when England at last ended her long period of struggle, doubt, and heart-burning In the effort to reconcile her well-loved principles of mon- archy with her fundamental liberties. One stage of the conflict had carried her Into republicanism, an end not de- sired and not maintained. The next crisis, that of 1688, had a happier and more stable outcome. The departure of James II and the coming of William III Inaugurated the limited monarchy of England as we know It, and the country could once more turn with a free mind to prob- lems other than those of Parliaments and kingly prerog- atives. Here then stood one such problem In full sight. The growth of France had already awakened the jealousy and anxiety of thoughtfuMeaders of all parties. When 1 THE GREAT DUEL WITH FRANCE 63 William of Orange was invited to take the throne, the Englishmen who sent for him knew perfectly well that they were negotiating with the man who, as the chief magistrate of the United Provinces of the Netherlands, was the bitterest and ablest of all the enemies of France. His accession to the throne of England meant at once the formation of a Grand Alliance against the ambition of Louis in which the island kingdom took the first place. So was opened in 1689 that second Hundred Years' War, as Seeley has called it, which began as an effort to restore and maintain the balance of power but which became finally a gigantic duel for empire in three continents, only ending at last on the field of Waterloo. For a systematic study of the conflict in its European phases we have no time just now, necessary as it may be occasionally to revert to single situations that were world- wide in their significance. Rather must we turn now definitely to America, where the most momentous part of the great struggle was to be fought out. Nowhere else in the world were the two rivals face to face in quite such an uncompromising way. Beginning their colonial ex- perience on the same continent at almost the same time, they developed there, each colony after the manner of the race it represented. In the one grew up stalwart citizens and men of affairs like Franklin and Washington. 64 IMPERIAL BRITAIN We of English speech know them well, for they are of our own blood. In the other were men of an even more pic- turesque type, perhaps, a type at any rate less familiar to us, — knightly heroes like Champlain, Frontenac and La Salle, who, if they failed in their effort to plant a faith- ful and powerful image of old France in the New World, left us nevertheless a deathless memory of courage and constancy. Between the two peoples grew up a mortal enmity. Almost from the very infancy of the two col- onies New France and New England gripped throats and fought savagely for life and power. Even in so vast a continent neither was content to own a rival or a pos- sible superior. So supreme was the long struggle and so momentous the issue that no true American, no true Englishman has vulgarized it by a word of contempt for the conquered. No annals written by an American his- torian are so fascinating, so vitalized by living sym- pathy, as the familiar narratives that tell us the heroic tales of the Jesuit mission among the Hurons, of Cham- plain's voyage up the Ottawa, of wild grapples with an irreconcilable, ever watchful enemy, of the perils and ro- mance of Ville Marie, of the self-sacrifice, the gallant courage, the loyal endurance of the brave race whom in no unequal fight our fathers fought and conquered. And in our memories of the last great conflict between the two THE GREAT DUEL WITH FRANCE 65 races in America, when all our pride of blood is stirred by the glorious deeds of English and Americans fighting and winning side by side, and when we treasure every word and every movement of the conqueror of Quebec, the countrymen of Parkman have yet surely rewritten for Montcalm the noble line of Juvenal, — Fictrix causa dels placuit, victa Catoni. Queen Elizabeth and most of her paladins were dead before the first permanent colony was planted by English- men in a new world. The son of Mary Stuart was on the throne, Ignoble son of a brilliant mother, and if Shake- speare and Ben Jonson and Bacon still continued the liter- ary glory of the Elizabethan age, Raleigh alone remained of that chivalrous group of courtiers and men of action who left to the duller, grayer ages that followed a mem- ory so full of magic life and color. It was his colony that at last In 1606 took root In the land he had named Virginia, — took root and waxed strong and manfully asserted its right to manage Its own affairs before It was twenty years old. The settlers represented divers and complex motives, — thirst for actual gold, the wealth that might come from a northwest passage If, as was thought, the Western Ocean were only a little distance away, and the more practical belief that a good trade could be built up with the products of the soil. Englishmen too saw 66 IMPERIAL BRITAIN the advantage of buying from a colony what had hereto- fore been Imported from foreign states. " What com- modities soever," wrote one enthusiast, " Spalne, France, Italy, or these parts doe yield to us In wines of all sorts, In oyles, In flax. In rosens. In pitch, franklnsense, coorans, sugers, and such like, these partes doe abound with the growth of them all." And If the dearth of gold mines and the fading of the dream of a near-by Western Sea caused the abandonment of some of the early visions, if there were many dark years of misery and discourage- ment, yet on the whole the colony grew and prospered, and even though tobacco might take the place of " oyles and franklnsense " a good thriving traffic sprang up never- theless, and the colony forged gallantly ahead In spite of Spanish Intrigues, settlers of doubtful morals, vexatious laws and troubles with the Indians. For back of all the struggles and anxieties of those years there was hope, nay a certainty, that a great future awaited the little colony if only she could win her way through these first hard years. " Be not gulled," wrote Governor Dale in vigor- ous words to England, " with the clamorous reports of bad people. Believe Caleb and Joshua. ... I have seen the best countries of Europe; I protest unto you before the living God — put them all together, this country will be equivalent unto them, it being inhabitant with good THE AMERICA OF WOLFE AND MONTCALM THE GREAT DUEL WITH FRANCE 67 people." And the same hope strengthened the courage of those stouthearted and worthy Englishmen who prayed " that merciful and tender God who is both easie and glad to be entreated, that it would please Him to bless and water these feeble beginnings, and that as He is wonder- ful in all His workes, so to nourish this graine of seed that it may spread till the people of this earth admire the greatness and seeke the shade and fruits thereof." ^ Fourteen years after the founding of Jamestown and many hundreds of miles to the northeast, in a little ship coasting anxiously along a rocky shore, there gathered one December day in 1620 a group of grave men to put their names to a solemn covenant: In the name of God, amen ; we, whose names are under- written, the loyal subjects of our dread sovereign King James, . . . having undertaken, for the glory of God and advancement of the Christian faith, and honor of our king and country, a voyage to plant the first colony in the northern parts of Vir- ginia, do by these presents, solemnly and mutually, in the pres- ence of God and of one another covenant and combine our- selves together into a civil body politic, for our better ordering and preservation and furthering of the ends aforesaid ; and by virtue hereof to enact, constitute and frame such just and equal laws, ordinances, acts, constitutions, and offices, from time to time, as shall be thought most meet and convenient for the gen- eral good of the colony. Unto which we promise all due sub- mission and obedience. 1 Brown, " Genesis of the United States," Vol. I. '68 IMPERIAL BRITAIN In this spirit was founded the colony of Plymouth, and in this spirit another group of Puritans founded Bos- ton ten years later. In this spirit did little bands of men go forth from Massachusetts from time to time to found what we now know as the other states of New England. And the same soberness of mind, the same depth of re- sponsibility, the same grave independence of spirit per- meates every act and every utterance of these strong- souled founders of this new Puritan England. Freedom, (not Rousseau's freedom, but the self-restrained liberty of Englishmen), responsibility, caution, courage of con- viction, — all the typical English virtues of the sterner kind are found in these exiles. Broad minded and broad hearted kindliness, joy in the beauty and pleasures of the world were doubtless lacking; these virtues of the milder, more joyous, more generous type would be found more readily in the homes of Maryland and Virginia. For Heaven turned to the Cavalier a brighter counte- nance than to the Puritan. To the earnest citizen of Plymouth or Boston in those days this earthly life was a grave business, to be lightened doubtless for the younger spirits by some godly mirth and by the natural sentiments of life — Jonathan Edwards himself was no Hildebrand, nor was Cotton Mather a St. Bernard — but grave in the main nevertheless, with the commandments of the Lord, THE GREAT DUEL WITH FRANCE 69 the brevity and responsibilities of life, and the fear of Hell to be kept constantly in mind. Yet the reversion to Old Testament standards which was the bane of Pu- ritanism, and which was implied in Cotton's motto for his code of laws — " Jehovah is our Judge, Jehovah is our Lawgiver, Jehovah is our King; He will save us " — was ever balanced in the sagacious minds of the ruling spirits of the little commonwealth by the steadying influence of their race traditions. " Our government," declared the Massachusetts General Court in 1646, "is framed ac- cording to our Charter and the fundamental and common laws of England, and carried on according to the same (taking the words of eternal truth and righteousness along with them, as that rule by which all kingdoms and jurisdictions must render account of every act and admin- istration at the last day "). So on these two foundation stones, the fundamental laws of England and " eternal truth and righteousness " did these earnest fellow coun- trymen of Hampden and Eliot try to begin the building of a structure that might endure. Such then in essential characteristics were the English colonists in America in the seventeenth century. The whole tendency of their life and growth was in the direc- tion of greater freedom, greater independence, the more complete realization of the principles of Magna Charta 70 IMPERIAL BRITAIN and the Petition of Right, and this was substantially as true of Virginia as of Massachusetts. So with great va- riety, but with this solid basis of individual liberty and self-respect underlying all, the colonies of New England and the South grew until they had absorbed and more or less Anglicized the Dutch of New York, the Swedes of Delaware, and the Germans of Pennsylvania, and had occupied the Atlantic coast from Maine to Florida. By the middle of the eighteenth century their population num- bered over a million and a half, one fourth of whom were negro slaves, scattered along the coast and spread- ing Inland in rapidly decreasing density to the edge of the AUeghenies. Most of the people were farmers. The only cities of any size were Philadelphia, Boston, New York and Charleston, — the largest being Philadelphia, with a population of about 25,000. Of the thirteen col- onies, three were governed according to a charter (Mass- achusetts, Connecticut, and Rhode Island), three were held by a proprietor, (Pennsylvania, Maryland, and Del- aware), and seven were controlled directly by the Crown (Virginia, the Carolinas, New York, New Hampshire, New Jersey, and Georgia), but the government of them all was practically Identical, for in all there was a governor and a representative assembly, and In all the assembly held the reins of power almost as completely as does the THE GREAT DUEL WITH FRANCE 71 House of Commons In modern England. Apart from commercial regulation — vexatious, but more or less taken for granted — there was little interference of any kind from England. In nearly every practical respect the American colonies, first fruits of the expansion of England, were free and independent states. And now what of the expansion of France ? Less than thirty years after the death of Columbus, Jacques Cartier of St. Malo crossed the Atlantic to the beautiful country where he was to plant the banner of the lilies. Into the Gulf of St. Lawrence and up the glorious river the Breton sailor guided his little ship until he saw outlined before him that cape which can never be forgotten by him who once sees It, — outlines bold and defiant as Gibraltar, yet softened by touches of green to a beauty utterly unlike the hard, uncompromising grimness of the Mediterranean fortress. On still he sailed until he came to the Island that lies at the mouth of the Ottawa, and here, six hun- dred miles from the sea, checked In his progress by the Lachlne rapids, he decided to turn back. Where a great city now stands Cartier found the walled town of Hoch- elaga, and there the friendly Indians received the white men, implored their touch for the aged and sick, and guided them to the top of the mountain named by Its dis- coverer Mount Royal. It Is not impossible even now, 72 liMPERIAL BRITAIN looking down from the green heights over the busy city with its chimneys and its steeples and its muffled rattle and hum, to think of it as the eager Frenchman saw it, — a vast expanse of foliage, broken by the fields of maize, by the long houses of the Indians, and by the silver flood of the St. Lawrence, then more green beyond, until the dis- tant forest melted in a line of blue hills away off to the south. It was the first survey of New France, a hundred years before the valiant Maisonneuve founded Montreal. But the time was not ripe for permanent settlement, and Cartier, like Roberval and de la Roche who came after him, was only an opener of the way to others. Evil times came then to France, and as Catholic and Huguenot tore at each other's throats, little thought was given to the lands over seas. But the close of the century brought Henry of Navarre and peace, and in the return of national life and vigor that came then, there arose once more an Interest in the domains across the Atlantic, — domains that still awaited the hero brave enough and staunch enough to break the bonds of savagery and build a Christian state in the western continent. Courage and endurance beyond the common the task surely demanded, but a man was found equal to the need. In the spring of 1608, Samuel de Champlain, Father of New France, entered the Gulf of St. Lawrence with a commission from THE GREAT DUEL WITH FRANCE 73 King Henry. Sailing past the mouth of the Saguenay, past the Isle of Bacchus, past the beautiful falls of Mont- morency, he came to the rugged cliff where Cartier had visited the Indian city of Stadacona. Five years before, he had sailed through the narrow passage between Que- bec and the Heights of Levi on to Hochelaga, but now he landed, and here on the low slope between cliff and river were built the rude huts and walls of the capital of New France. Champlain at first scarcely realized the acute questions of diplomacy and statesmanship hidden in the leafy wil- derness of Canada, and as they began to arise he had to decide them with less knowledge of the savage politics of America than we have of innermost Africa, His fate- ful alliance with the Algonquins and Hurons against the Iroquois might have been undertaken less promptly had he been aware of the power and ferocity of the great Confederacy. But in the main we associate the name of the founder of Quebec with simple manliness and cour- age, with justice and exhaustless patience in dealing both with his restless companions and his savage allies. Un- der his fostering care the little colony took root, sent out explorers and missionaries, and made Its Influence felt as far west as Lake Huron and the boundaries of the Iroquois country. Under him, too, purity and uniform- 74 IMPERIAL BRITAIN ity of faith was secured by the exclusion of all heretics. So the contrast with the English colonies was made com- plete. The one was Catholic; the other Protestant. The one made alliances with the Indians and sought to create a league which might secure the friendship of all the Canadian tribes and the destruction of the Iroquois; the other held sternly aloof from savage entanglements, and later on only half-heartedly accepted the alliance even of the Six Nations. New France neglected agriculture, threw her energy into the fur trade, penetrated the in- terior, planted trading posts and forts at countless strate- gic points, and trusted to the mother country for pro- visions and for a market; New England sent out explorers rarely and with hesitation, paid but indifferent attention to the fur trade, cleared the land, cultivated the soil and depended on the home Island for the conveniences of life, not its necessaries. In her own way, then, reflect- ing old France In her faith, her boldness, her high-hearted enterprise, her chivalry, her contempt for the Philistine virtues of the Massachusetts farmer or the Virginia planter, Canada grew and ever took a firmer grip on the soil which she was winning by the heroism of her pioneers and watering with the blood of her martyrs. One other element in the situation, and this a funda- mental one, must be noted now, before we come to the THE GREAT DUEL WITH FRANCE 75 definite conflict between the two races. We have already seen the democratic spirit, the determined individuahsm of the English colonies. They reflected and continued, as was inevitable, the deepest tendencies of their race. In just such measure was New France the reflection of the society and the monarchy — then at the height of their glory — which yet bore in them the seeds of death, and were to perish in ghastly ruin only a century after the great deeds of Frontenac and La Salle. In the new world as in the old were found seigneurs and vassals. In the new world as In the old was popular Initiative held sternly down. As Richelieu and Colbert labored to build France Into a military despotism, effective and benevolent, but absolutely centralized, so did their representatives make Canada a military unit, reflecting the centralization, the social divisions of the mother land. The States-General, the ancient representative assembly of France, had met last In 1 614. It was not to be summoned again until the eve of the Revolution. But Count Frontenac, great- est of all the governors of New France, thought it best to summon a miniature States-General at Quebec, and did so in the autumn of 1672. His admonition on the sub- ject from Colbert suflUcIently shows the attitude of the government at home : 76 IMPERIAL BRITAIN " The assembling and division of all the inhabitants into three orders or estates which you have done for the purpose of having them take the oath of fidelity, may have been productive of good just then. But it is well for you to observe that you are always to follow, in the government and management of that country, the forms in force here; and as our kings have considered it for a long time advantageous to their service not to assemble the States-General of their kingdom, with a view perhaps to abolish insensibly that ancient form, you likewise ought rarely, or (to speak more correctly) never, give that form to the corporate body of the inhabitants of that country." That is to say, autocracy was to prevail in the new world as in the old. Even the relics of feudalism, while in form they were to be transplanted over the seas, were yet to be subordinated more completely to the central authority. Lords and vassals alike were to form part of a political and military machine such as Colbert was striving with all the force of his genius to create in France. At home the prejudices and privileges of ages, the sus- picion and wealth of a great middle class, the jealousy and power of the Church and the nobility made absolute centralization impossible. In America there were no such obstacles. As De Tocqueville acutely remarked, the system of Louis XIV in its merits and its defects may be best studied not in France but In Canada. Old France was divided for purposes of administration into thirty-five generalites or intendances, each cared for THE GREAT DUEL WITH FRANCE 77 by a governor — as the military head of the district — and an Intendant, whose duties covered every conceivable interest in which a paternal government can possibly interfere with its children. So it was in Canada. New France was simply made an Ideal generallte. Her gov- ernor protected her from the Indians, and marshaled her resources for the great duel with the English. The In- tendant nursed the fur trade, collected and disbursed the revenues, and watched over the material welfare of the colony. The genius and alms of Colbert were Ideally re- flected In the great Intendant Talon. The potential evils and corruption of the system were illustrated by the In- famous Bigot. But In any case, for good or evil, Can- ada was the faithful copy of a military despotism — united, energetic, high-spirited, but utterly lacking In the abundant life, the reserve force, the Individual initiative, the possibilities of Indefinite and Irresistible expansion that lay In the divided, quarrelsome, but Independent and liberty-loving colonies to the south. Long before King William formed the Grand Alli- ance against Louis XIV the coming war between New France and New England was foreseen by the keen-eyed rulers of Quebec. For a brief period about the middle of the seventeenth century the destruction of the Hurons (1648) and the increased danger from the Iroquois after 78 IMPERIAL BRITAIN they began to purchase arms from the Dutch on the Hudson caused exploration to languish. But during Talon's tenure of the office of Intendant fur-traders and explorers crept farther and farther west until they could bring news of the copper mines of Lake Superior, and beheved themselves to be not more than three hundred leagues from the Vermilion Sea, or fifteen hundred from China. Interested as the Intendant was in trade and its extension, his reports are more than commercial bulletins. Already the design was taking shape at Quebec to pene- trate west and south until connection might be made with the Gulf of Mexico. Eleven years before the great voyage of La Salle, Daumont de Saint Lusson, with due formality of hymns, the planting of a cross, and the fix- ing of a plate engraved with the arms of France, took formal possession at Sault Ste. Marie of the Great West: In the name of the Most High, Mighty, and Redoubted Mon- arch, Louis, Fourteenth of that name. Most Christian King of France and of Navarre, I take possession of this place, Sainte Marie du Saut, as also of Lakes Huron and Superior, the Island of Manitoulin, and all countries, lakes, rivers, and streams con- tiguous and adjacent thereto, — both those vv^hich have been discovered and those which may be discovered hereafter, in all their length and breadth, bounded on the one side by the seas of the North and of the West, and on the other by the South Sea, etc. etc. THE GREAT DUEL WITH FRANCE 79 And these were no mere high sounding words. The voyages of JoHet, Marquette and La Salle confirmed the foresight of Talon. The Great Lakes and the Missis- sippi valley were annexed by virtue not of chance discov- ery but of keen statesmanship and heroic enterprise. And with the administration of Frontenac began in ear- nest the building of the chain of fortresses which was to hem In the English and secure for France three-quarters of the American continent. When the seventeenth century closed the war was well begun. In 1690 the English had made their second ^ at- tempt to take Quebec, and had been foiled by the fiery courage of Frontenac. All along the frontier blazing villages and roving war parties told of the beginning of the bitter fight for supremacy between two races who had thrown away the thought of compromise. And not merely the main Issue but the strategy of the war soon became clear. The Interior of North America was ac- cessible by a very few clearly marked paths. There were two great waterways, the St. Lawrence and the Missis- sippi. Both were In the hands of France. There was a third river, the Hudson, which reached at least part of the way into the interior and which was controlled by the ^ The first was the successful one of Kirke in 1629, resulting in a brief English occupation of the fortress. It was restored to France by treaty. 8o IMPERIAL BRITAIN English. From its headwaters one could cross easily to Lake George and Lake Champlain, or penetrate the woods by a well-known Indian road to Lake Ontario. But the Lake Champlain route was blocked by Crown Point and TIconderoga. If the English did succeed in reaching Lake Ontario and building Oswego there, they were still prevented from further progress by Fort Frontenac and Fort Niagara at the two ends of the lake. Still another highway remained. From Virginia and Pennsylvania one could take a straight road through the Blue Ridge and the Alleghenies along the passes now marked by the Baltimore and Ohio and the Pennsylvania railroads, connect with the Ohio, and so reach the Mis- sissippi and the West. Here indeed Dinwiddle and Washington with their Virginians almost thrust a wedge Into the French line. But the energy of the leaders was 111 supported by the cautious and jealous colonists. A sharp passage of arms left the French triumphant, and just where the full flood of the Ohio begins Duquesne planted in 1754 the fort which he hoped would prove the final bar to the western expansion of the English. So here lay the situation: Quebec, TIconderoga, Frontenac, Niagara, Duquesne, represented so many locked gate- ways. Before English expansion would be possible these must be forced. Sixty or seventy thousand Frenchmen THE GREAT DUEL WITH FRANCE 8i were seeking to restrain within the limits of the Atlantic seaboard twenty times their number of Englishmen. Unit, skillful leadership, military spirit, and the alliance of countless Indian tribes gave France first possession of the field and an advantage throughout that almost count- erbalanced her rival's weight of numbers. And so mat- ters stood when the final death grapple began with Braddock's march in 1755. In one sense we have just begun our story, and yet here we close it. To tell the details of the first blunders and failures, and then tell how William Pitt came to power with his dauntless courage, his gift of inspiring others to glorious achievements; how his commanders came out to replace men of the stamp of Braddock and Loudon; how after two terrible years of frontier war during which bushrangers burned and ravaged and the colonists lost even the vantage points they had gained the tide began to turn; how Forbes and Howe, Amherst and Wolfe broke barrier after barrier; how there came at last that glorious and terrible September morning in 1759 when the dying Wolfe heard the cries of victory ringing in his ears that sounded the knell of France's empire In the New World — to tell all this would be only to repeat what may be learned in any school book. We have tried rather to see what was the issue of the conflict, what were 82 IMPERIAL BRITAIN the ideals of the combatants, what it meant to the world that the expansion of the French race in America should be checked and that of the English permitted to go on in full tide. Not that the duel with France was over with the fall of Quebec. The defeated power was able to strike a fierce blow at the victor twenty years later, and for a moment in the day of Napoleon there was a possi- bility once more of a French Louisiana. Yet the critical years of the conflict were those that lay between Wash- ington's skirmish at Great Meadows and the Battle of the Plains of Abraham. Then it was that the vast conti- nent for which Spaniard and Frenchman and Englishman had dreamed and fought and suffered passed irrevocably to the restless, stubborn, free-born countrymen of Raleigh and the Pilgrim Fathers. ROBERT CLIVE AND THE BEGINNING OF THE INDIAN EMPIRE Before we go any farther it may be as well to note one general characteristic of British expansion that might escape a critic who regards the empire only in its present aspect. This is the lack of conscious construction, the lack, so to speak, of any imperial architect. The Ger- man writers and orators who see Britain as a sinister. Machiavellian robber-state that has acquired domains the world over by craft and brute force have in mind the politic foresight by which the Great Elector, Frederick II, and Bismarck consolidated Brandenburg and East Prus- sia, acquired Silesia, divided Poland, annexed Schleswig- Holsteln, Alsace-Lorraine and Hanover, creating a great state that might be nucleus and leader of a German em- pire. To a Prussian, state action Is the obvious means of state expansion, and to him it might seem absurd to speak of the British Empire as a sort of colossal acci- dent, — as absurd as If we were to speak of Cologne Cathedral as a chance heap of stones. Yet if the word 83 84 IMPERIAL BRITAIN " accident " would seem not quite accurate it is at least true to say that the empire is less like a structure than like an organism, less like a city than a forest, its seeds falling, dying, sprouting, as heedlessly as the acorns or the pine-cones. It grew, in the main, simply by inner force and vitality. It was planned as little as the present extent of the American republic was planned by the set- tlers of Plymouth and Jamestown or even by Washing- ton and his comrades. Only in comparatively recent times has the British Empire become so far conscious of itself as to develop a policy which might be termed im- perialism. And only within the last generation has there appeared a rational Imperial patriotism as evidence that the empire Is a living unit, created not by its rulers but by the " iron hands and patient hearts " of a free people and slowly welded by them Into a world-wide nation. It is true, of course, that in British as in American expansion intense rivalry, momentary or local ambitions, have developed at certain times a lust for conquest which might be called " Imperialism," an outburst of warlike or acquisitive spirit such as occurs Inevitably — for good or ill — In the lives of peoples as In the lives of individuals. But these have been Immediate reactions to a definite sit- uation, with little or no conscious relation to any compre- hensive plan. Only now and then. In brief prophetic BEGINNING OF THE INDIAN EMPIRE 85 flashes, did some statesman or thinker lilce William Pitt have a momentary vision of the possible outcome. In the main soldiers, statesmen, sailors, merchants, adventurers, farmers or missionaries were intent each on his own problem. The victories of Wolfe had no apparent rela- tion to those of Clive ; the farmers who cleared their land and sowed their seed in Ontario recked little of their brethren in New South Wales or Cape Colony; Living- stone followed the course of the Zambesi with no thought of the fur-trading pioneers of British Columbia; and James Cook sailed along the coast of Australia unaware of the Boston tea-party and the blunders of Lord North on the other side of the world. Never was there any one brain guiding them all. Indeed when the home gov- ernment did interfere it was as a rule to check expansion or to make blunders in ignorant moments of caution or equally ignorant moments of excitement. So that the heroes of British expansion have not been statesmen of the Frederick or Bismarck type, but the men of action, the Wolfes, Clives, and Livingstones, cooperating with traders, missionaries and home-seekers. Let us repeat then that even when statesmen did assert any significant control, take some definite action towards empire, conquering, annexing, or regulating, it was in- variably to solve some specific problem, to avert some 86 IMPERIAL BRITAIN specific danger. Even these cases are rare and are in- finitely unimportant compared with the slow action of the millions of traders and settlers. But they have their part in the great drama and mlist not be ignored. So in the age of Elizabeth English sailors and English statesmen struck anywhere and in any way at the power of Spain, and founded Virginia partly to " put a byt in the anchent enemy's mouth." So again in the age of Chatham came the great conflict with France and the conquest of Canada. So once more in the second half of the nineteenth century the rapid advance of Russia in central Asia led to a " Forward Policy " and to con- quests in Asia which might not otherwise have been dreamed of. And yet it remains true as a general prin- ciple that the empire was not created by policy or statecraft; that only when it was practically completed did England or the world become conscious of what it meant; and that if we wish to see just how It came to be and reason from actual facts we must put aside the large generalizations of recent years. Many of the fictions in regard to imperialism disappear if we study the work and motives and problems of such pioneers as Cook or Clive or Livingstone, and see how easily, how insensibly step led to step and problem to problem until all at once where a little trading post had stood, where a little BEGINNING OF THE INDIAN EMPIRE 87 ship had cast anchor, where a solitary missionary had toiled and preached, there arose an empire. Towards the close of the year 1744 Robert Clive landed at Madras as a clerk in the service of the East India Company. He was not quite twenty years of age, and he had so far shown little aptitude for anything but mischief. Essentially a lover of action, restless in times of quiet, only calm In the midst of excitement and turmoil, he was ill adapted for the office life designed for him by his father, and the boy was practically con- sidered a failure at home when he took passage for India. He himself welcomed the change with the thoughtless joy of a restless mind. To stay in England meant in- tolerable monotony and drudgery. India was seen through the haze of distance, and its remoteness, its fabled glories, and the element of wildness, uncertainty and possible danger associated with the East, all formed an attraction not to be resisted. But sad indeed was the disappointment of the eager lad when he reached his destination and settled down to his duties there. His office work was as dreary In Madras as in London or Liverpool, with Infinitely less opportunity for relief. 'He accepted It with the quiet of despair, attempted suicide once. It Is said, and only found a measure of solace in the library of a kindly superior. 88 IMPERIAL BRITAIN Two years passed before relief came, — a relief that was the only possible one to this mind that reveled in the shock and storm of war and rusted in the quiet of peace. The war of the Austrian Succession begun by Frederick's Invasion of Silesia In 1740 had involved England and France In the first quarrel that the two rivals had known since the days of Marlborough. A French squadron appeared off Madras and compelled the town's surrender. Clive with a few others escaped capture and so avoided the necessity of giving their parole not to bear arms during the remainder of the war. The arrival of an English fleet made the conflict in the East a fairly equal one, and at last in the tempest of battle the young clerk found his vocation and won his spurs. When the Treaty of Alx-la-Chapelle closed the war in 1748 Clive went back to his desk with a new hope and a new Interest In life. For to one of his penetration it was evident that In India the struggle was far from ended. Rather was It barely started. Affairs were brewing in that year of the Treaty that boded stormy times in the days to come, and It would be strange indeed if some vague dreams did not flit through Clive's mind of the glory that would be his when the cloud should break. BEGINNING OF THE INDIAN EMPIRE 89 Now let us glance for a moment at the map. One may- think of India as shaped like a great, irregular kite, with an area almost equal to European Russia and a population of about three hundred millions. Its greatest distance from north to south and from east to west is about nineteen hundred miles. So much for the figures that we need to get our first bearings. Guarding the great curve of the north runs the vast double range of snow-capped mountains, the highest in the world, whose diverse names we group for convenience under the Inclu- sive one of Himalaya. From them run the famous rivers, the Ganges, the Indus, the Brahmaputra, which have made the plains of northern India one of the most fertile and populous regions In the world. Fertile, populous, wealthy, — therefore fair spoil for the robber and the soldier of fortune, and so the story of these river plains is one of terror and ruin, — a record that would, one might think, dye the soil red from Lahore to Delhi and from Delhi to Calcutta. South of the plains runs Irregu- larly from east to west a line of hills which we may con- veniently, if not quite accurately, group under the name properly attached to the western part of the range, the Vindhya Hills. Here begins a rugged and irregular tableland extending south to Cape Comorin and bounded 90 IMPERIAL BRITAIN on the east and west by the Ghats, — a Hindu word sig- nifying steps. This is the Deccan.i On the west (Mala- bar) side the great landing stairs leave only a narrow strip of coast, dotted with cities like Cochin, Calicut or greatest of all, Bombay, — cities whose merchants for hundreds of years have traded the products of India for the rich cargoes brought from Arabia, Persia, Africa and Europe. On the eastern side the edge of the hill country is more irregular, and one great curve Inland of the Eastern Ghats has left the great plain — the Carnatic — which has been world-famous ever since Macaulay wrote his essay on Clive. Here, in 1748, were situated the English Company's Fort St. George, at Madras, and a rival French post a little farther south at Pondi- cherry. And the governor of Pondicherry was the astute and daring Dupleix. India was in a state closely bordering on anarchy. More than two hundred years before (1526) a valiant descendant of Tamerlane, already conqueror of Samar- cand and Cabul, invaded the Punjab and defeated the Afghan ruler of Delhi In the battle of Panipat. Under the able rule of Akbar, Shah Jehan, and Aurungzeb, the 1 The Deccan does not, strictly, include Mysore, Travancore, Cochin or the strip of coast between the Western Ghats and the sea, nor does it now include the Carnatic as it practically did in the time of Clive. BENGAL ^ c Madras yFt.St.George Pondicherry (Fr.) ^ Karikal (Fr.) -^ flP Caps Comorin Indian ocean SOUTHERN INDIA IN 1751 BEGINNING OF THE INDIAN EMPIRE 91 power of the Mogul emperors became practically supreme in India. But for the welding of the peninsula into one permanently united state the constructive genius of the Moguls was inadequate, and with the death of Aurungzeb in 1707 the colossal structure began to fall apart. When Clive landed at Madras the Emperor at Delhi was still nominally supreme lord of India. But the great Hindu confederacy of the Mahrattas was dominant and still ris- ing In the west; the princes of Rajputana were practically Independent; and the Mohammedan governors of provinces, great and small, were more and more each year Ignoring their supposed master and busily strength- ening their own power. Of these new sovereigns the most powerful was doubtless the Nizam of Hyderabad, Subahdar of the Deccan, and among the subordinate chiefs who owned the suprem,acy of the Nizam the greatest was the Nawab of the Carnatic, whose capital, Arcot, was about seventy miles from Madras. The orig- inal franchises of the Europeans had been obtained, of course, from the Emperor at Delhi. But It was to the local prince, the Nawab of Arcot, that both Madras and Pondlcherry paid tribute and owed the respect due to the practical lord of the soil on which they were permitted to trade. So It was this potentate who felt called upon to Interfere when his English and French tenants fell to 92 IMPERIAL BRITAIN blows, and who when the French took Madras sent ten thousand troops to eject the French garrison. On the banks of the river Adyar near St, Thome this army was met and wholly defeated by two hundred and thirty Frenchmen and seven hundred sepoys sent out by Dupleix, — and thus decisively did the French governor learn his first lesson in conquest. Dupleix was both ambitious and resolute, but he had need of great caution, for his resources were lamentably small and he had no reason to expect aid from France. Yet a tactful application of the Roman motto. Divide et Impera, " divide and rule," was by no means unknown in the annals of the Portuguese and French in India. To use diamond to cut diamond, to divide the native forces, to throw himself on the weaker side, and so conquer by means of the natives themselves while yet holding the balance of power was an experiment too obvious not to occur to the quick mind of Dupleix. And a golden op- portunity came almost before he had begun to seek it. In May, 1748, Nizam-ul-Mulk, Subahdar of the Deccan, died, leaving his great dominion to his second son. But a rival appeared in the person of one of the late Subah- dar's grandsons, Muzaffar Jang, who further associated with himself a claimant to the subordinate throne of the Carnatic in the person of one Chanda Sahib. Now i BEGINNING OF THE INDIAN EMPIRE 93 Chanda Sahib knew something of the value that would accrue from an aUiance with the formidable alien traders, and it was no difficult matter for Dupleix to come to an understanding with the two pretenders. With the help of French troops a blow was struck, ruthless and decisive. The ruling Nawab was defeated and killed, and Chanda Sahib stood Nawab of the Carnatic. In December, 1750, the plot was completed, and with the proclamation of Muzaffar Jang at Hyderabad the plan of action devised and guided throughout by Dupleix seemed to be consummated. He practically ruled both in Hyderabad and in Arcot through nominees of his own. And thus matters stood at the beginning of the year 1751. In the meantime the English at Madras looked on at all these doings with some perturbation of spirit. They were not in the councils of the wily Frenchman and could not wholly see the drift of his connection with the intriguing princes. But they understood enough to see that it was not to their advantage that Chanda Sahib's accession to the sovereignty of the Carnatic should go unchallenged, that the prince on whom they were dependent should be the puppet of their declared enemy. So they did the one thing that seemed possible under the circumstances. Hesitatingly adopting the 94 IMPERIAL BRITAIN methods of Dupleix, they gave their support to a rival candidate, Mohammed Ali, son of Chanda Sahib's dead predecessor. But no man guided affairs at Madras with the craft and energy of the watchful Dupleix. The aid sent to Mohammed Ali was rendered almost useless by the hesitation, the nervous uncertainty, the Irresolu- tion of the men who sent it, — men good and worthy, but inadequate to a crisis such as this. The officers placed in command of such troops as were dispatched were of less than ordinary capacity. And by the time that Chanda Sahib's ally Muzaffar Jang saw himself safely installed on the throne of Nizam-ul-Mulk, Mohammed Ali and his few adherents were being closely besieged by the victorious Nawab In the fortress of Trichinopoly. The English soldiers and sepoys who were with him were as discouraged and hopeless as their chief. It seemed a matter not of years or months, but of weeks when France should be as supreme In southern India as the Dutch in Java, and the English traders expelled from Madras as they had been a century and a quarter before from the Spice Islands. Cllve had been away from Madras on special service. He returned early In 175 1, finding matters In the lament- able state just sketched. His record now justified Mr. Saunders, the newly arrived governor. In giving him a BEGINNING OF THE INDIAN EMPIRE 95 commission as captain, and he bade farewell with en- thusiasm to his old civilian life. In July he was com- missioned with a brother officer to take a detachment of reenforcements to Trichinopoly and to return at once with a report on the situation. This he did, and his report was as bad as It well could be. The whole force of Chanda Sahib lay before the doomed fortress, and no one among the besiegers or besieged doubted the out- come. But the young officer who laid these dismal facts before the authorities at Madras was far from hopeless. As the Romans had compelled Carthage to recall the ter- rible Hannibal from Italy by carrying the war Into Africa, so Cllve proposed to relieve Trichinopoly by attacking Arcot, Chanda Sahib's capital. Mr. Saunders embraced the plan with enthusiasm. He had only three hundred and fifty English soldiers at his disposal, but two hundred of them he entrusted to Clive, and on the 26th of August, 1751, the young captain set out on the enterprise that was to m^ke his name a house- hold word In every county In England before he was a year older. He had with him the two hundred raw English soldiers, three hundred sepoys and three small field pieces. As he approached Arcot he learned that the garrison was composed of one thousand two hundred native soldiers, and found out what he could of the nature I 96 IMPERIAL BRITAIN and plan of the fortifications. Then pushing on he reached his destination on the 31st in a fierce storm, captured the fort without the loss of a man, strengthened it for defense and within the next week made two suc- cessful flying attacks on bodies of the enemy that were lying within striking distance. Then he devoted himself to further securing his position, had some eighteen- pounder guns sent him from Madras and prepared for a siege. Already much had been done. All those chiefs who had been lukewarm in their allegiance to Chanda Sahib or who had been wavering between the rival princes at- tached a significance to Clive's feat of arms which would have seemed to a casual observer altogether exaggerated. Their desire was, as a matter of fact, to range themselves with the winning side. Until the capture of Arcot this seemed to be beyond question the side of Dupleix and Chanda Sahib. But now this sign of a new boldness and enterprise in the hitherto inactive and irresolute Eng- lish, this appearance of a leader whose achievement was appraised at its full value by the acute minds of the Oriental warriors made a change in the whole situation. Some decided that this was indeed the turn of the tide. The powerful Sultan of Mysore declared at once for BEGINNING OF THE INDIAN EMPIRE 97 Mohammed Ali, and with him went prince after prince in the very neighborhood of Trichinopoly. Chanda Sahib saw the danger. A large force was sent north to join the troops that were gathering in the vicinity of Arcot under Raja Sahib, the Nawab's son, and on the 23rd of September an army of about ten thousand men laid siege to the fortress garrisoned by the little band of Enghshmen and sepoys under Clive. Ill supplied with either ammunition or food, the defenders stood their ground and beat back attack after attack with a tenacity, a steady resourcefulness that soon turned the eyes of every statesman and fighting man in India to the mud walls of Arcot. At last after a siege of fifty days Raja Sahib realized that he must conquer at once or accept defeat. For every day of failure weakened the allegiance of Chanda Sahib's supporters and made new allies for his rival, and word came that the renowned Morari Rao, most dreaded of Mahratta chieftains, had decided to march south with ten thousand of the best cavalry in India to relieve Arcot. The 14th of November was the day of the festival of Moharrum,^ sacred to every Mohammedan in India as 1 See Kipling's story " On the City Wall " for a picturesque description of this festival and of the fierce emotions which it awakens even in our own day. 98 IMPERIAL BRITAIN the anniversary of the death of Hosein, son of AH, com- panion and friend of the Prophet of God. It was the time above all others when the soldiers of Raja Sahib might be trusted to fight against the unbelievers with the mad fanaticism, the impetuous, self-forgetful valor that had made the followers of Mohammed masters of Arabia, Egypt, Syria, and Persia less than ten years after the death of their prophet. A breach had been made in the walls, and stimulating the zeal of his men to a transport of religious fury not to be understood by the colder minds of the West, the attacking chief hurled his men against the ramparts manned by the weary little band commanded and inspired to herosim by Clive. But the wild ferocity of the Mohammedan was met by the calm fatalism of the Hindu braced and strengthened by the stern resolution of the English and the genius of their leader. There was an hour of fighting too tremendous, too devastating to last. Then the furious wave of at- tack swept sullenly back, and in the darkness of night the whole force of the defeated prince began a retreat which meant not only the ruin of a petty sovereign, but the col- lapse of all the ambitious plans of Dupleix for a French empire in India. Within a year from the capture of Arcot, Chanda Sahib was dead, Mohammed Ali was Nawab of the Carnatic, and the English council at BEGINNING OF THE INDIAN ExMPIRE 99 Madras held the balance of power in India south of the Vindhya Hills. In order to entirely catch the spirit of all these doings we should, perhaps, approach their study after a careful preliminary reading of the Arabian Nights. If we could see the world for a little through the eyes of one of those whimsical, despotic, alternately generous and fiendish caliphs and sultans who awed, attracted, repelled and wholly fascinated our minds in childhood, and who still exercise something of their old dominion over the imag- ination of some of us, we could better appreciate perhaps the problems of a restless, impetuous English youth dropped with little preparation into a cobweb of Asiatic intrigue. Little as our minds may take to that atmos- phere of subtlety, treachery and cruelty out of a fairy tale, it is yet instructive. And as we shift our scene now to Bengal we must prepare for a little more of that murky air of terror and deceit which we associate — unfairly, in a sense, but not unnaturally, with Asia. Only perhaps we may move more quickly, endeavoring simply to put into clear light the swift succession of events by which the foundations of the British Empire in India were laid. All through we may see this or that Englishman, — Clive, Hastings, or later on, Cornwallis, Wellesley, Dalhousie, Lawrence and the rest — try for a time in bewildered loo IMPERIAL BRITAIN puzzlement to understand the intrigues and adjust himself to the point of view of this world so fundamentally dif- ferent from England, and then more or less suddenly according to temperament break abruptly away from it all and in impatient wrath cut the tangled knot with his sword. As a matter of fact two utterly different ethical and political systems were seeking adjustment. In the long run the speculative and devious-minded Indian bows down in amazed awe before the man who dares to act. In intrigue few sons of the West can cope with the Asiatic. When they try, even when they succeed, as both Clive and Hastings did, it is partly because even the subtlety of India is lulled to a certain carelessness by the comparative artlessness and straight-forwardness of the European, and the result, successful at the time, undermines the very thing which is the strength of England in the East. Nine times out of ten she has refused to touch the tor- tuous diplomacy of enemies or allies, and has pursued her even way, doing her best to understand the point of view of her associates but above all things adhering to her spoken and written word. Sometimes an English leader has added too much obstinacy to his native honesty, some- times he has failed to cut his way out of the web sur- rounding him in time, sometimes he has erred in the BEGINNING OF THE INDIAN EMPIRE loi opposite direction and resorted to force when patience would have served as well to dissipate an intrigue, and sometimes his placid confidence and his inability to read the signs about him have brought ruinous disaster and suffering. But in the main England's policy in India has been successful not in so far as she has learned the subtlety of her aUies or her enemies there but in so far as she has adhered to her own best traditions of honesty. And those whom she has conquered have fallen primarily because they would not understand that ill faith — that traditional weapon of Asiatic diplomacy — meant in their dealings with England a swift and deadly reward. The East India Company had been formed for trade and trade alone. Trade requires above all things security and good faith. When these vanished the traders became their own policemen. And to police India meant con- quest. Early in 1756 the English traders at Calcutta heard of the beginning of another war with France. Remem- bering the formidable activity of their enemies in the eastern seas a decade before, they proceeded to fortify the city, for the Nawab of Bengal was as unable to protect his European tenants at Calcutta as the Nawab of the Carnatic had been to protect Madras in 1745-6. But the Nawab of Bengal unfortunately did not realize his help- I02 IMPERIAL BRITAIN lessness, or rather the unreliable character of his over- lordship. He was a young man utterly spoiled by ab- solute power and degraded by dissipation beyond the capacity to reason or investigate. He issued an angry order for the destruction of the English fortifications. The order was not obeyed. In a fit of passionate energy the young Nawab, Suraj-u-Dowlah, seized the English trading post near his capital and marched on Calcutta. Utterly unprepared for defense, the city held out for four days, and then all the English residents who could get away fled in boats to such ships as could be reached in the river Hugli. But one hundred and forty-five Eng- lishmen and one lady fell into the hands of the angry prince. These were questioned without avail In regard to the treasure which he believed to be hidden somewhere about the company's offices, and then were ordered to be safely guarded for the night. Not by his orders, though no one was punished later on, the one hundred and forty-six unhappy captives were thrust into a room about twenty feet long by fourteen wide, with two small grated windows. It was a hot summer night, the 20th of June, in a city abandoned in summer to-day by every European who can possibly leave, almost intolerable un- der the best of conditions. The horror of the Black BEGINNING OF THE INDIAN EMPIRE 103 Hole of Calcutta is best undescribed. Twenty-two men and the one woman survived till morning. On that very day, June 20, 1756, Clive landed at Madras from a brief stay in England. As soon as the news of the Calcutta disaster arrived he was commis- sioned to go to Bengal at once with a small but adequate force to take such action as might be necessary. He soon compelled the Nawab to withdraw and to make such amends as could be made, but this was obviously in- sufficient. Clive was a soldier by instinct. Statecraft puzzled him, and yet the same directness of thought, the same capacity to see the essential thing and to estimate possibilities that guided him on the field of battle helped him now to deal with Suraj-u-Dowlah. He took some months to consider the situation and to attend to an in- finite number of details, but by the coming of spring he had reached his decision. Scarcely a week had passed without some new proof of the Nawab's treacherous, shifty, altogether unreliable character. At home, from a seat in Parliament or in his own study, Clive or any one else might have argued on many grounds for non- interference. He might have maintained that if the company's servants chose to trade in Bengal they must accept the risk. On the spot, however, it may be ques- I04 IMPERIAL BRITAIN tioned whether such reasoning ever occurred to him. It must be remembered that the Nawab and his emperor at Delhi were themselves foreign invaders, no more Hindus than Clive himself. They ruled by right of force, as did every Mohammedan prince in India. When Suraj-u-Dowlah exerted that force to wantonly destroy a settlement whose rights were based on formal charter, he placed himself beyond the pale of every law but that of self-preservation. His excesses had made him many enemies among his own chiefs, and Clive simply followed the line partly indicated by Dupleix. He suggested to an injured lord, an uncle of the Nawab, that his claims to the throne would be supported by the company. In- trigue, conspiracy, and counter-conspiracy gave place at last to war. And on the field of Plassey, June 26, 1757, Clive with three thousand men utterly crushed the great army of Suraj-u-Dowlah. As six years before he had stood master of the Carnatic, so now — actually if not nominally — he was lord of Bengal. Clive had solved his problem in his soldier's way, — the only way that seemed to him a satisfactory and per- manent one. Yet clear and keen as was the mind of the great Englishman it may be questioned whether he at once saw that if Plassey had cut one knot it had presented for untanglement a puzzle beyond comparison more em- BEGINNING OF THE INDIAN EMPIRE 105 barrassing. We must remember that he by no means intended to conquer Bengal, much less begin the conquest of India. Dupleix had dreamed of an Indian Empire. Clive was simply the servant of the Company. From his point of view the victory of Plassey represented partly a measure of self-defense, and partly the punishment of a faithless and cruel despot administered by way of warn- ing to others, and as a safeguard for the future. With a new Nawab on the throne who thoroughly understood the reason for his predecessor's humiliation, there might be reasonable ground for supposing that all would be well. And all might have been well if Clive had re- mained, simply because every one, including the Nawab himself, knew that he was in the nature of the case su- preme. But in February, 1760, the victor of Plassey left for England and a situation developed so true to human nature that with the accustomed arrogance of those who come after the event we marvel that Clive himself did not foresee it. Here was a prince burdened with the full responsibility of government, yet paying what was practically tribute to a company of foreign traders at whose very nod he trembled. Here, on the other hand, was a group of Englishmen who by their own might and steadfastness had struck down an army that outnumbered their own twenty times, had deposed a ruler and set up io6 IMPERIAL BRITAIN another in his place. The name of power and Its re- sponsibilities on the one hand, without the fact; actual supreme power on the other hand without Its burdens. Moreover, no law, no treaty, could have made the sit- uation essentially more tolerable. Nothing could blot out the memory of Plassey. And as long as Plassey was re- membered so long would every man In Bengal know that in the long run It was more dangerous to anger the English than to disobey the Nawab. To please a servant of the company was to win the favor -of the lords of the soil, — lords by the unanswerable argument of fact, to remain lords until by fact, not by foolish and meaning- less decrees, they were deposed. Few men of any race can stand the terrible gift of power without responsibil- ity. In the five years between Cllve's departure in 1760 and his return in 1765, the men at Calcutta who with- stood temptation, are obscured, alas, by the lurid light that has held up that shameful period as the worst In the annals of the English in India. Only when crime brought Its reward of disaster, only when the maddened chiefs turned savagely on their op- pressors and threatened for a time the destruction of all the Enghsh in Bengal, did the directors at home reahze the situation and send out to Calcutta the one man who could cope with It. In fierce anger and with an iron hand BEGINNING OF THE INDIAN EMPIRE 107 Clive came to cleanse the foulness and to remedy the evils of which he was in a measure the innocent cause. And the fundamental remedy that he found, carried to com- pletion a little later by Warren Hastings, was — annexa- tion. Not annexation in the sense of a wanton seizure of power, but simply the acceptance of responsibility where power already existed. And so the East India Company — like the Nawabs, in nominal subjection to the Mogul Emperor — became sovereign ruler of seventy million Asiatics. How a little later Warren Hastings, who was a clerk in Bengal when Suraj-u-Dowlah made his tiger leap on Calcutta, became Governor General of the company's possessions in India, how he organized them and sought to protect them without further conquests, how he saw that war would mean victory, victory power, and power expansion, and so sought by every means to build up buf- fer states that would protect his own frontiers, how this fell to the ground and how Hastings found that in Benares and in Rohilcund and in the Carnatic he had — so to speak — to make war in order to avoid it, and how at last Cornwallis and Wellesley accepted the inevitable, disobeyed the company's orders and deliberately fought and conquered, — all this is a long and strange tale, a tale of conquest achieved in direct contravention of orders io8 IMPERIAL BRITAIN from home. We have seen the beginning of it. Some will blame Clive for what he did and some will not. But at least we may know that it was not from lust of empire, not from unholy ambition, that he fought and won, but be- cause of strange and puzzling tangles of circumstance, tangles which he did not create, so that he was com- pelled to do something and tried to do what was best. History has placed his name beside that of the great soldier who died at the gates of Quebec two years after Plassey. But Wolfe knew that he was conquering Can- ada. Cllve could hardly have dreamed that he was laying the foundation of an Indian Empire. VI THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION Though it had encountered great obstacles and over- come great difficulties, though it had been largely uncon- scious and carried on chiefly by private initiative, never- theless British colonial development had been thus far uniformly successful. In the second half of the eight- eenth century, however, the bubble of expansion burst and Great Britain lost the most valuable of all her possessions. With the removal of the fear of French aggression on the north after 1763, French statesmen had freely predicted that the North American colonies would soon break the ties which bound them to the mother country. Within twenty years these predictions were fulfilled and there came into being a new Anglo-Saxon nation, destined to outstrip its parent In population and military resources, and to lead the world In the organization of free Institu- tions, the realization of democratic ideals, and the devel- opment of the federal Idea. In the years from 1689 to 1760 the population of the 109 no IMPERIAL BRITAIN colonies had multiplied eightfold [being In the latter year one and one-half million], and the growth of mate- rial prosperity had been equally rapid. The conquest of a wilderness and the aid rendered In the French wars had developed a spirit of self-confidence and achievement that had soon found expression In a demand for greater rights and a larger measure of self-direction. In the constantly growing conflicts between the colonial assemblies and the royal governors, the former through the control of the purse had steadily gained the day until the latter were reduced to mere figure-heads and the colonies were to all intents and purposes self-governing. Freedom from con- trol of King and Parliament, however, did not mean equality within the colonies themselves, for these, like England herself, were aristocracies, based on wealth and social position. Their privileged classes through travel, education abroad, and commerce were in close contact with England. They " spake the tongue that Shakespeare spake, the faith and morals held that Milton held." They prided themselves on their knowledge of English literature, on their familiarity with English social life, on the maintenance In America of English class distinctions. They were in fact miniature Englands. Nevertheless America was a land of opportunity far more than was England and this was bound to be true so THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION iii long as large quantities of free land existed. Those who resented social inequality and chafed under economic oppression could always move into the back country, where there were no large estates, no class distinctions, no slavery. Here every man worked with his own hands and thought himself as good as every other man. The " back country " too was the asylum for a large foreign immigration of Scotch, Scotch-Irish, Germans and Hugue- nots. So large was the movement that in 1775 one-fifth of the entire population was non-English. Cheap land, easy naturalization, and the absence of the religious jeal- ousies prevalent in New England, drew them into the Shenandoah Valley and the lands west of the Alleghenies. In these regions schools were few and churches scarce, but the active life, the contact with nature, and the religious fervor which had carried them hither, produced a primi- tive society in which most of the elemental virtues and some of the elemental vices prevailed but which, on the whole, was sound, natural, and invigorating. Here American Democracy was born and radicalism flourished. Here were reared men like Patrick Henry and Thomas Jefferson, who were to carry the Revolution to a success- ful Issue, and men like Daniel Boone and George Rogers Clark, who were to explore and conquer the great hinter- land that lay beyond. Conflicts between such rude primi- 112 IMPERIAL BRITAIN tlve communities and the aristocracies of the coast were inevitable, but were by no means incompatible, as events were to prove, with united action against an outsider should occasion demand. In fact, the frontier settlements were a potent factor in developing a spirit of nationality. Lines of communica- tion ran north and south, and the shifting population, the intermingling of races, creeds, and shades of thought, tended to break down prejudice and provincialism and to make men conscious of their fundamental likenesses rather than of their superficial differences. Political views, re- ligious beliefs, colonial rivalries, class distinctions, all went Into the crucible from which emerged a sense of common interests, common aims, common dangers. To this developing spirit of nationality a number of other Influences contributed, and among them the wave of religious emotionalism known as the " Great Awakening " must not be overlooked. It had Its beginning in the Northampton sermons of Jonathan Edwards and in the years 1734-44 swept throughout the colonies. " Vital religion," as it was called, brought division within creeds, bridged barriers between sects, bound together men of the same views In different colonies and thus played its part in developing unity of feeling. At the same time the constantly improved means of communication by travel THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION 113 and through correspondence, after the establishment of the General Post Office (1710), made the relationship be- tween the colonies and the back country more regular and more intimate. This made possible the wider circulation of the newspapers of Philadelphia, New York, Boston, and Charleston, making men realize that they were con- fronting the same problems and had much the same inter- ests all the way from Massachusetts to the Carolinas. Added to all this, was the experience of a general cooper- ative movement afforded by the French and Indian Wars. Through them the colonists became conscious of their power, proud of their achievements, and aware of the inferiority of the British in handling purely American problems. On the other hand the arrogance and conde- scension of the British officers deeply irritated and wounded many a proud provincial and made him forget his colonial jealousy in the deeper sense of a common separ- ation from Englishmen. After 1763 American politics became distinctly more aggressive in character and much of the moral energy and emotional intensity which had caused the " Great Awakening " now passed into politics. In this transformation the influence of Princeton Col- lege was most significant. Founded in 1 746 by men inter- ested in the " Great Awakening," it was fortunate enough to secure a great president in 1768, in the person of the 114 IMPERIAL BRITAIN Scotchman, John Witherspoon, later a signer of the Decla- ration of Independence. Under him was afforded a lib- eral training in politics and thought and in the years pre- ceding the Revolution, many a young man both from the North and the South caught the inspiration and went out to instill a deeper interest in history and politics and pro- mote the cause of freedom and democracy. Even in conservative New England the old Puritan Theocracy was slowly democratized, the layman assumed a larger part in church affairs and true religion came to be associ- ated with good citizenship. It was the new spirit that led John Adams to write that " a more equal liberty than has prevailed in other parts of the earth must be established in America." This new Americanism was most completely repre- sented in the many-sided Franklin. Shrewd, practical and worldly wise, " he was," says a recent writer, " as old as the century and touched it at every point. . . . He was the first American; the very personification of that native sense of destiny and high mission in the world, and that good-natured tolerance for the half-spent people of Europe, which is the American spirit." ^ He was the product of a country where " law and custom were most 1 Becker, " Beginnings of the American People " — the most suggestive of all shorter accounts of the Revolution. THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION 115 in accord with the philosopher's ideal society, where the world of Rousseau's imagination was most nearly ideal- ized." That the new spirit of nationalism was not incompatible with continued membership in the British Empire has been demonstrated by the later history of Canada, Austraha, and South Africa, which by a process of evolution have gained what America had to gain by revolution. Such a relationship, however, could only be maintained by tactful, just and generous treatment on the part of the mother country. But never was England less likely to be true to her best traditions. The generous enthusiasms of the Renaissance and the moral force of Puritanism had spent themselves and had left the England of Magna Charta and the Glorious Revolution, cynical, corrupt, materialis- tic, and artificial. Almost a hundred years of uninter- rupted power had demoralized the Whig party and broken it into self-seeking factions. On the throne sat the Ger- man, George III, stupid, narrow, and obstinate. Deter- mined to rule as well as reign, he played off faction against faction and by means of patronage, pensions, and bribery came to control the House of Commons. Owing to the secrecy of its proceedings that body was completely cut off from public opinion, so much so that a reformer of the time could write, " This House is not representative of ii6 IMPERIAL BRITAIN the people of Great Britain. It is made up of nominal boroughs, of ruined and exterminated towns, of noble families, of wealthy individuals, of foreign potentates." George III greatly influenced events until 1770 and from that date until the close of the war was virtually prime minister. The English historian, J. R. Green, there- fore, exaggerates but little when he declares that " the shame of the darkest hour of English history lies wholly at his door." In the struggle that now arose between authority and freedom, George and his ministers based their cause on narrowly legalistic grounds, on statutes and precedents. To the Americans, on the other hand, the issue was pri- marily a moral one. Their point of view was expressed by Franklin, who wrote in 1755, " British subjects, by re- moving to America, cultivating a wilderness, extending the domain, and increasing the wealth, commerce, and power of the mother country, at the hazard of their lives and their fortunes, ought not, and in fact do not thereby lose their native rights." The " ought " played a larger and larger part in the American case as it developed between the year of the Stamp Act (1765) and the Declaration of Independ- ence (1776) . The issue then cannot be stated merely in terms of taxes and duties; of the conflicting interests of THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION 117 American smugglers and British merchants; of the ambi- tions of American demagogues or the tactical blunders of British statesmen. It was deeper and more fundamental, it was a resurgence of the eternal conflict between author- ity and freedom, and the same conflict was being waged within the mother country and within the colonies them- selves. It cannot be too strongly emphasized that this was not a struggle between two peoples but rather be- tween two principles, each of which was held by a party in each country. The reactionary party, the party of royal prerogative and vested privilege, was represented in Great Britain by George III and the Tories, entrenched in the House of Commons. In America it was repre- sented by the Loyalists, who constituted perhaps one-third of the total population. Twenty-five thousand of these were at one time in the British Army, and it is even charged that at times there were more Americans under the British flag than under the American. The Liberal forces, standing for the reform of existing institutions and the granting of a larger share In government to the people, were led in England by such outstanding figures as Pitt, Charles James Fox, and Barre, while in America they stood not only for resistance to Parliamentary tax-^ ation but also for the democratization of America itself. It Is hardly likely that the dispute with Great Britain would ii8 IMPERIAL BRITAIN have ended in war had matters been left entirely to the commercial and landed aristocracies who had hitherto controlled colonial affairs. The issue was pressed with constantly growing determination by the radicals of the back country and the small farmers and artisans of the original settlements. Led by Jefferson and Patrick Henry of Virginia and the Adamses of Massachusetts, these ele- ments, while pushing the country into war with Great Britain on the queston of taxation, were at the same time struggling for the overthrow of the old colonial consti- tutions and the securing of a larger voice in colonial affairs. Then, as now, the West was the home of Radicalism and Progressivism. The immediate causes of the Revolution grew out of the French and Indian Wars, when the eyes of English states- men were opened to the inability of the colonies to com- bine in their own defense against the Indians, to the illicit trade carried on in violation of the Navigation Acts, and to the absence of any feeling of Imperial responsibility. Trade with the Indian and settlement upon his lands had been carried on with the injustice that usually charac- terizes the treatment of primitive peoples. Resenting his wrongs and spurred on by the French, the Indian had re- peatedly resorted to violence with all the horrors of sav- age warfare, and all signs seemed to point to an even THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION 119 greater upheaval in the near future. The Colonial legis- latures had invariably failed to rise above local prejudices and cooperate in an adequate system of defense and they now seemed unable to realize the impending danger. The Navigation Laws had sought to secure monopoly of American trade for the mother country. But all through the eighteenth century a highly profitable trade had been carried on with the Spanish and French West Indies by a system of smuggling which had made many a New England merchant enormously rich. In fact, the colonies could only hope to balance their heavy indebt- edness to England, due to excess of imports over exports, by selling to the French and Spanish their lumber, fish, and food products. In exchange they received sugar and molasses, manufactured the latter into rum, which in turn was used In the African slave trade. Even Loyalists like Bernard and Hutchinson believed that this trade was essential to the prosperity of the colonies and beneficial to the mother country as well, while English customs officials had winked at the trade to such an extent that the revenue service cost more to maintain than it yielded. Unfortu- nately the Government saw in the situation only the laxity of administration and resolved to put an end to the trade. In the course of the seven years' war the public debt of England had accumulated to $ 140,000,000 and the cost of I20 IMPERIAL BRITAIN maintaining the army and navy had risen from $70,000 to $350,000. As part of these burdens had been incurred in the interest of the colonies it was felt to be only just that they should share them and contribute to the organ- ization and defense of the Empire. That the view of the Government was here sound and just no one can now deny, but their irritation over other points made it diffi- cult to deeply impress the colonists with either the fact or the necessity of acting upon it. The assemblies had repeatedly failed to overcome their jealousies and agree upon a plan for raising such a fund. Grenville's (Prime Minister) policy then was to ad- vance English commercial interests by enforcing trade regulations, to raise revenue in America for the defense of America and to protect the Indian and secure his friend- ship. To carry out this policy the following measures were enacted: (i) The Sugar Act ( 1764) to divert the trade with the French and Spanish West Indies to the British sugar islands; (2) A law forbidding the colonial legislatures to issue paper money as legal tender; (3) A Proclamation ( 1763) reserving all lands west of the Alle- ghenies to the Indians, forbidding governors to make grants there and withdrawing those already made; (4) The Mutiny Act requiring the colonists to provide utensils and provisions for the British garrisons; (5) The Stamp THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION 121 Act requiring revenue stamps on legal documents, licenses, etc. The legality of only one of these, the Stamp Act, is really questionable and much may be said in defense of the British view, but the acts were neither wise nor expedient and failed to take into account either the preju- dices or opinions of the colonists. The most oppressive was doubtless the attempt to regulate West Indian trade. In doing so, England was but following the custom of all colonial powers In regarding colonies as existing for the economic welfare of the mother country, but a true grasp of economic conditions would have made clear the im- mense and essential value of the Spanish and French Indian trade both to the mother country and colonies. There had doubtless been an excessive use of the privi- lege of Issuing paper money. Such Is always the case where there is a large debtor class, and both English and American creditors had suffered In consequence thereby. But the act was entirely too sweeping and utterly failed to distinguish between the uses and abuses of paper money. Justice required that the Indian be protected and the Gov- ernment even planned to open the western lands for white settlement after Indian claims had been justly disposed of, but, strange to say, failed to announce the fact and to the colonists it looked as if the great prize had been arbl- 122 IMPERIAL BRITAIN trarily torn from their grasp. It was only just that the colonies should contribute to the defense of the Empire, and a statesman like Pitt could have appealed to them as Englishmen and made them feel some sense of imperial responsibility where a narrow legalist like GrenvUle only aroused Irritation. Each of the acts alienated some por- tion of the population, and, taken as a whole, they seemed to constitute a comprehensive plan for the destruction of the material prosperity of the colonies and the overthrow of their liberties. The Stamp Act was by no means the most Injurious but, coming last, It became the focus of all the pent-up indignation aroused by the preceding legislation. Fur- thermore It violated what was considered the well-estab- lished principle of English liberty that there should be no taxation without representation. American leaders were prompt to take advantage of this fact and while admit- ting the right of Parliament to regulate trade made a distinction between external and Internal taxation. The Massachusetts Assembly declared " Prohibitions of trade are neither equitable nor just; but the power of taxation Is the grand barrier of British liberty. If that Is once broken down all Is lost." This point of view was ac- cepted by all the colonies and " no taxation without rep- resentation " became the rallying cry of the storm of THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION 123 opposition that now burst forth. Everywhere the law was ignored, courts suspended, and mobs prevented the sale of the stamps. In this opposition the colonists were encouraged by the support of the ablest of the English statesmen, who felt that English liberties were indirectly threatened. The great jurist Lord Camden, the greatest of English politi- cal philosophers, Edmund Burke, and the generous, high- minded Fox, all espoused the American cause. But most gratifying of all was it, that the greatest of English states- men, the great Commoner, Pitt, ranged himself on their side. He accepted the American distinction between in- ternal and external taxation and declared " this kingdom has no right to lay a tax on the Colonies. . . . Sir, I rejoice that America has resisted. Three millions of people so dead to all feelings of liberty as voluntarily to submit to be slaves would have been fit instruments to make slaves of the rest." The opposition aroused in England and America, re- enforced by the petitions of English merchants whose trade had been seriously affected by the American policy of non-importation agreements, finally induced Parlia- ment to repeal the act March 18, 1766. An accompany- ing Declaratory Act, however, asserted the right of Par- liament to bind the colonies in all cases whatsoever. In 124 IMPERIAL BRITAIN America the repeal was received with rejoicing; popular discontent subsided, and It is unlikely that further mis- understanding would have arisen had it not been for the fact that defeat rankled in the mind of George III. The opportunity he wanted came when Pitt's clouded mind made necessary his withdrawal from public affairs. Backed by the King, Charles Townshend (Chancellor of the Exchequer) accepted the colonial distinction between internal and external taxation and secured the passage of the Tea Act which placed a duty on the importation of tea, glass, lead, paper, etc. A Restraining Act suspended the New York Assembly until it provided for British troops according to the Mutiny Act and a Board of Com- missioners was established In America for the better en- forcement of the Trade Acts. The Assembly of Massachusetts was dissolved because of a quarrel with Its governor and British troops were stationed In Boston. These acts intensified old irritation and the opposition In America began to pass more and more into the hands of the radicals. The old distinction between internal and external taxation was abandoned and the cry of " no taxation without representation " soon gave way to " no legislation without representation." Non-Importation agreements again seriously impaired British Trade and a vigorous educational campaign, car- THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION 125 ried on by pamphleteers, kept alive the public resentment. Meanwhile the gulf between radicals and moderates be- came wider and wider and many of the latter were re- luctantly compelled to become loyalists. Though extremely injurious to the colonists them- selves the non-importation agreements sufficiently im- paired British trade to persuade Lord North in 1770 to withdraw all of the duties save that on tea which was retained for principle's sake. Again all was quiet for a period of years. But in 1773 the Government which had just saved the East India Company from bankruptcy, granted the Company the right to export all tea stored in English warehouses free from all duties save three pence in America. The measure seems to have been solely In the interest of the Company and Its directors were as- sured by many American merchants that the move would arouse no opposition since the Company could undersell tea smuggled from Holland. The colonists, however. Indignantly rejected the temp- tation and everywhere refused to allow the unloading of the tea. In Boston Governor Hutchinson refused to grant return papers until the cargoes should be discharged and the refusal precipitated the famous Boston Tea Party. George III was In high glee and wrote his min- ister: "The die Is cast; the colonies must either tri- 126 IMPERIAL BRITAIN umph or submit. ... If we take the resolute part they will undoubtedly be very meek." His resolution found expression in an act closing the Boston port, remodeling the Massachusetts charter by giving the nomination of judges and choice of counsel to crown and governor, quartering troops on the people, and providing for trial in England of those who in sup- pression of riot, might commit capital offenses. The " meekness " of Massachusetts expressed itself In the calHng out of the state militia and in general defiance of the new laws. The other colonies espoused her cause and all sent delegates to a Congress which assembled in Philadelphia September 4, 1774. The action of this body was extremely moderate and conciliation was still possible. Pitt realized the situation and said: "Per- haps a fatal desire to take advantage of this guilty tumult of the Bostonians, in order to crush the spirit of liberty among the Americans In general, has taken possession of the heart of the government. If that mad and cruel measure should be pushed, one need not be a prophet to say, England has seen her best days. America disfran- chised, and her charter mutilated, may, I forebode, re- sist; and the cause become general on that vast continent." After advising with Franklin, he proposed repealing the late acts, guaranteeing the security of Colonial Charters, THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION 127 abandoning the right to tax, and recalling the troops, while leaving to a colonial assembly the determination of America's contribution to the public debt. His pro- posals were rejected by Lords and Commons and the civil war began which was to result in the Independence of America. Chatham himself struggled to the last against it. As late as 1778, while England was rejoicing over Howe's victory, he declared: "You cannot conquer America. If I were an American as I am an Englishman, while a foreign troop was landed In my country I would never lay down my arms — never, never, never." The plan he suggested at this time was a kind of federal union of Great Britain and the colonies, leaving the colonies the management of their Internal affairs and simply binding them to the Empire by loyalty and affection. This is the line along which the Empire has since developed and it Is a remarkable evidence of Pitt's foresight and states- manship that he should have suggested It at this time. His wisdom was not shared by the Government and his plan was rejected. In the matter of the recognition of American Inde- pendence, however, the patriot blinded the statesman. By April, 1778, Burke, Rockingham, and Fox, the best brains of the Whig party, favored such recognition but 128 IMPERIAL BRITAIN Pitt died protesting against it. In his seventieth year, racked with pain, on crutches, and led by his son, he made his last visit to the House and spoke these memorable words : " I thank God that I have been enabled to come here this day to perform my duty, I am old and infirm — have one foot, more than one foot, in the grave — I have risen from my bed, to stand up in the cause of my country — perhaps never again to speak in this House. . . . My Lords," he broke forth, " I rejoice that the grave has not closed upon me ; that I am still alive to lift up my voice against the dismemberment of this ancient and most noble monarchy ! Shall this great kingdom now fall prostrate before the House of Bourbon? If we must fall, let us fall like men ! " In America as early as 1774 radicals like Patrick Henry and Samuel Adams desired Independence, but the feeling was by no means general and it took two years of agitation and the hard logic of events to bring the ma- jority to it. The non-intercourse policy had injured the colonies more than England and there was a desire to make good the losses by trade with other nations. " But no state will trade or treat with us," said Richard Henry Lee, " so long as we consider ourselves subjects of Great Britain." On April 6, 1776, American ports were opened to the world and on June 7, 1776, Lee, acting on THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION 129 instructions from the Virginia Assembly, moved " that these united colonies are, and of right ought to be, free and independent states. . . ." Debated at length, the resolution was finally accepted, though reluctantly, by many who saw no other course but submission. Many others equally conscientious could not go to such lengths and definitely passed into the camp of the Loyalists. Published to the world July 4, 1776, the Declaration of Independence, though perhaps rhetorical, nevertheless expresses the basic principles of democracy, principles which no one who has faith in humanity can seriously question, and principles for which the world Is to-day (191 8) sacrificing blood and treasure as it has never sacrificed them before. Between the Declaration of Independence and its real- ization seven long years were to elapse, years in which there was to emerge much of the sordid and the ignoble but more of the noble and the genuine. Many who started the struggle grew faint-hearted, faltered and even deserted the cause, but all the more honor to the stout- hearted and the high-minded who carried It to a success- ful issue. America may, on the whole, be justly proud of this first chapter of her national history. It is not the purpose of this chapter to go Into the mil- itary events of the struggle but merely to point out a 130 IMPERIAL BRITAIN number of factors that contributed to final victory. First among these should be placed the character, fortitude, poise and wisdom of Washington. He is indeed the " Father of his Country." Never cast down by defeat, free from personal ambition, steadfast in his devotion, sublime in his patience, his soul was " like a Star, and dwelt apart." Short term enlistments, wholesale deser- tions, the jealousies of generals, colonial rivalries, the bickerings of Congress, continual lack of supplies and equipment, and the treason of Arnold are but a few of the trials and disappointments that would have crushed a less indomitable spirit. He never showed to better advantage than in ad- versity. After the defeat of Long Island and the retreat through New Jersey, when his army was reduced to a mere remnant and the cause seemed utterly lost, he un- expectedly turned, recrossed the Delaware amidst the snow and ice of a winter night, surprised the enemy at Trenton on Christmas morning and captured a thousand prisoners. This brilliant and masterly stroke was prob- ably the most important single event of the war as it put new heart into the American army and made possible the continuation of the war. Again in the grim, dark days at Valley Forge in the winter of 1778, when hunger, cold and neglect brought despair to the stoutest hearts THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION 131 it was the spirit and example of Washington that pre- vented the total collapse of the cause. He served his country well in war and in peace, and like Alfred the Great, his moral grandeur in both has been a priceless heritage to his people. If the leadership of Washington was the biggest factor In America's final success, the incapacity of the British generals contributed almost as much. The immense dis- tance and the consequent difficulties of transportation, the vast extent and character of the country to be con- quered, the opposition of her own best minds, and the country's lack of heart In the struggle, making necessary the use of hired German troops, all made the task of England difficult at best. The incompetency of her gen- erals made It impossible. It Is difficult to see, too, how success could have been attained without the aid of France. Through the efforts of Franklin, whose personality and fame as a scientist and philosopher made him a great favorite at the French court, the French Government had given America sub- stantial aid in money and supplies even before the battle of Saratoga. After this event, French agents In London in- formed their Government that the colonies were about to combine with England In an attack on the French West Indies as the price of their own independence. It 132 IMPERIAL BRITAIN was probably to frustrate such a move that the French Government agreed on February 6, 1778, to a defensive- offensive alliance.^ Whatever may have been the mo- tives of the Government, It must be said, however, that the French nation as a whole was moved by a generous enthusiasm for a people struggling for liberty. French troops and the French navy were of but little Immediate value, but French money financed the war until 178 1 when the French army and the French fleet made possible Washington's final victory at Yorktown. One other military event must not be overlooked on account of its bearing on the final peace negotiations. All through the struggle backwoods settlements had been among the stoutest supporters of the war. Their com- panies of sharpshooters, made up of trappers and hunters of the type of Daniel Boone, had rendered Invaluable service to Gates, Washington, and Greene and no com- mand in the American army was more feared than were Morgan's daring riflemen. Their own homes, however, were constantly subject to Indian attack and this seemed likely to continue so long as the British held VIncennes and Detroit. Moreover English possession of these points made It unlikely that, even If Independence were 1 Prof. Van Tyne of Michigan University bases this on new material discovered in the Paris Archives. THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION 133 acknowledged, the boundaries of the new nation would ex- tend beyond the Alleghenies. Moved by these facts, George Rogers Clark, famous as trapper, hunter, and In- dian fighter, secured the secret approval of Patrick Henry, Governor of Virginia, for an attempt to destroy British power in the Northwest. In the spring of 1778, with a force of only 150 men Clark floated down the Ohio, built a fort at Louisville, surprised and captured several minor points in Illinois and in the winter of 1779 began a perilous march against Vincennes, where the British Commander, General Ham- ilton, the " Hair Buyer," had recently arrived. The little band pushed Its way 170 miles through bogs and flooded lowlands, suffering untold hardships for lack of fire and tents. At one time the food gave out, but for- tune sent them a deer and a few days later an Indian canoe filled with food. To reach Vincennes it was nec- essary to wade up to their necks in water but, nothing daunted, they pushed on and surprised and captured the fort, Clark wished also to attack Detroit but was never given the necessary support. Nevertheless the expedi- tion had momentous results for It not only relieved the western settlements from further attack, but influenced England to cede the western country at the close of the 134 IMPERIAL BRITAIN war, and thus made possible further expansion into the Mississippi valley. " It's all over," cried Lord North, when he heard the news of Yorktown. George III would have continued the conflict, but England was now at war with France, Spain, and Holland, and threatened by the powers of the north. The nation Itself had been alienated by the attempt to establish the personal rule of the monarch and now put the Whig party into power against his will. The new Government immediately entered into negotia- tions with the colonies. The eagerness of the English ambassadors for an immediate peace, the skill of Frank- lin and the sturdy determination of Adams and Jay, made it possible for America to secure far better terms than could have been expected. During the negotiations it unfortunately seemed, though without justification, that France did not Intend the United States to have the West- ern Country. Having secured the consent of England on this point, Adams and Jay, much against Franklin's will, Insisted on violating instructions, and made peace without the knowledge and consent of their ally. Regrettable as are the circumstances, the result made possible the future greatness of the nation, giving it a strong motive for closer union and room for a normal and healthy expan- sion. THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION 135 England made a determined effort to secure restora- tion of property and rights of citizenship to the Loyalists who had so faithfully served her cause but it was all in vain. Regarded by the colonists as traitors to their country, they have since come to be recognized as men who sacrified all for principle's sake. Many of them, perhaps a majority, were men of character, culture, and ability and America suffered a distinct loss when they left the country. It is estimated that about 100,000 of them settled in various parts of Canada and the West Indies, and became known as United Empire Loyalists. It is to the credit of England that she sought to alleviate their hard lot by distributing among them and their heirs be- tween three and four million pounds. Thus the British Empire through the folly of its rulers and the devotion of the colonists to the principles of British freedom, was rent in twain. The old colonial policy of exploitation, the policy not only of England but of France, Spain, and Holland, had failed. The majority of Englishmen, disappointed and disillusioned, came to believe that retention of colonies could not be permanent and that the break-up of empires was inevi- table. The devotion of thousands of Loyalists, in spite of mistreatment, failed to teach them the power of senti- ment in the formation of empire. They failed to draw 136 IMPERIAL BRITAIN the logical conclusion that generous and just treatment would have made such sentiment so powerful as to be in- dissoluble. For generations it was held that as ripe fruit falls from the tree so colonies would in course of time fall away from the mother country. The fallacy of this conclusion, time and experience were to demonstrate, for liberalism was yet to come into its own and Britain was yet to be the founder of a mighty empire. Moreover, In spite of separation, Britain still speaks through America. As Sir Charles Dilke has said, " In America the peoples of the world are being fused to- gether, but they are run into an English mold. Alfred's laws and Chaucer's tongue are theirs whether they would or no. There are men who say that Britain in her age will claim the glory of having planted greater Englands across the seas. They fail to perceive that she has done more than found plantations of her own — that she has Imposed her Institutions upon the offshoots of Germany, of Ireland, of Scandinavia, and of Spain. Through America, England Is speaking to the world." VII THE BEGINNINGS OF AUSTRALIA From the triumphs of Wolfe, of Clive and of Wash- ington, from the achievements of statesmen on whom rested the destinies of great nations, from the din of battle and the heat of passion, we turn to a page of his- tory that is strangely free from the dramatic crises of war and politics. In the story of Australia the Intrigues of diplomats and the roar of guns have no place. For here is a wealthy and powerful self-governing com- munity that has never once had to defend its existence against invader or rival. The great island continent of of the South Seas is the one part of the world in which Britain's claim was the first one entered and in which that claim was never disputed. By the middle of the eighteenth century England's rule extended in Asia over only the cities of Madras, Bombay, and Calcutta; in America over the Atlantic states, Acadia, and the Hudson's Bay Territory; and in Africa over an ill-defined strip on the Gold Coast. That is to say, there 137 138 IMPERIAL BRITAIN was practically no empire except in America, and the British provinces there were divided, quarrelsome, and barely able to hold their own against a watchful and for- midable foe. Thirteen years later Canada had changed hands, and Clive had laid the basis of the British Empire in India. Twenty years after the Peace of Paris the Atlantic states were independent. But before England had forgotten the triumphs of Wolfe and Clive, and before she had realized that her first and most prosper- ous colonies were irretrievably severed from her rule, a second new world was being found, a new field on which to atone for her failure. For between the critical years of the Stamp Act and the surrender of Yorktown James Cook had done his work and had fallen in the far-off Pacific. In the spring of 1768, the year in which the British House of Commons entered the second stage of Its hu- miliating struggle with Wilkes, the year after Town- shend's Revenue Act, the year before the appearance of the Letters of Junius, — In this year of the brewing of great things, the Royal Society represented to George III the desirability of watching from the South Seas the transit of Venus across the sun's surface. Happy it is for human nature that at such a time some men could be found to think of such a thing, and — still more THE BEGINNING OF AUSTRALIA 139 strange — that the king could attend to the society's prayer and see that an expedition was equipped. The little ship Endeavour was fitted out, trained scientists were commissioned to accompany her, and James Cook, a lieutenant of the navy, was placed in command. James Cook was one of the last men in the world to be thought of as the conscious, fire-eating imperialist of the editorial or the political speech. He had risen from modest sta- tion by pure force of merit, until his reputation was as- sured as the best navigator In His Majesty's navy, and one of the wisest and clearest-headed men In the service. He had been with Wolfe at Quebec and had sailed In many seas, but he was not yet the Captain Cook whose name has been familiar to six generations of English- men as the pioneer of Britain In the South Pacific, Mod- est, practical, keen-eyed, a born sailor, and gifted with the imagination and the temperament of a scientist, he was to be one of the little band of famous men whose names are made immortal In the last ten years of life. When he sailed from Plymouth on a bright August day in 1768 he was entering all unknowing on the voyage that was to place his name with those of Drake and An- son, or even with the perhaps greater one of Vasco da Gama. On the third of June, 1769, the astronomical observa- I40 IMPERIAL BRITAIN tions that were the prime object of the expedition were satisfactorily accomplished at the island of Tahiti. These watchings of the heavens need no comment, and we may assume without investigation that they answered their purpose. So friendly were the relations of the islanders and the Europeans that the descriptions of the place handed down read like extracts from Sydney's " Arcadia." To Cook and his companions as to many others after them it became the spot in the Pacific to be welcomed above all others, though it was not destined to become part of the Empire. But another task awaited the voyagers which suited the daring spirit of Cook better than the observation of planets or the lazy pleasures of Tahiti. Not for long could he endure the dreamy life, the enervating ease of this lotus island, and as the sum- mer neared its height sailors and scientists were awakened to action by their commander. The ship was soon in trim for a new voyage. She was headed south and west; Venus and Tahiti were forgotten; and all eyes were turned to the far horizon beyond which lay the mysterious Terra Australis. Away to the south and stretching to the Pole, men believed, lay this southern continent. Sail- ors had sighted capes or mountains or stretches of coast, and from their scattered observations the puzzled geog- raphers at home made on their maps a vague stretch of Honolnli^ ^^ HA.WAIIAN IS. / TR D I A J^ "^Melbourne TASMANIA ^^ OCEAN Whs. Etfa. uo., w.r: , l -^ ^ AT SEA /.- y».^ I |Jc4jro\ ' E G Y P\TN / SAHARA TimbaktOc S.t.Paul deioandaf ^■