Vlll PREFACE. 



shall thus find why their descendants are to-day so brave, suc- 

 cessful, energetic and prosperous in the lands which they 

 have colonised ; and why they are so pre-eminently skilled in 

 the art of self-government. 



We find that a long stretch of coast is not sufficient, though 

 necessary, to make the population of a country a seafaring 

 nation. When the Romans invaded Britain, the Brits had no 

 fleet to oppose them. We do not until a later period meet 

 with that love of the sea which is so characteristically 

 English : not before the gradual absorption of the earlier 

 inhabitants by a blue-eyed and yellow-haired seafaring people 

 who succeeded in planting themselves and their language in 

 the country. 



To the numerous warlike and ocean-loving tribes of the 

 North, the ancestors of the English-speaking people, we must 

 look for the transformation that took place in Britain. In 

 their descendants we recognise to this day many of the very 

 same traits of character which these old Northmen possessed, 

 as will be seen on the perusal of this work. 



Britain, after a continuous immigration which lasted several 

 hundred years, became the most powerful colony of the 

 Northern tribes, several of the chiefs of the latter claiming to 

 o\\u a great part of England in the seventh and eighth cen- 

 turies. At last the time came when the land of the emigrants 

 waxed more powerful, more populous than the mother-country, 

 and asserted her independence ; and to-day the people of 

 England, as they look over the broad Atlantic, may discern a 

 similar process which is taking place in the New World. 



The impartial mind which rises above the prejudice of 

 nationality must acknowledge that no country will leave a 

 more glorious impress upon the history of the world than 

 England. Her work cannot be undone; should she to-day 

 sink beneath the seas which bathe her shores, her record will 

 for ever stand brilliantly illuminated on the page of history. 

 The great states which she has founded, which have inherited 

 her tongue, and which are destined to play a most important 

 part in the future of civilisation, will be witnesses of the 

 mighty work she has accomplished. They will look back with 

 pride to the progenitors of their race who lived in the glorious 



