192 THROUGH THREEFOLD TENSION 



The general international harmony and cor 

 diality that pervaded the English-speaking world 

 at the beginning of the sixties was destined to 

 disappear for more than a decade through the 

 conditions produced by the Civil War in the 

 United States. Before considering the unfortu 

 nate effects of that convulsion, let us note the 

 salient features of the English-speaking world at 

 this period, as compared with what the term 

 had denoted at the date of the Treaty of Ghent, 

 forty-six years in the past. 



In numbers the United Kingdom no longer 

 stood first. With 10,000,000 more inhabitants 

 than in 1814, its 29,000,000 fell short by 2,000,- 

 ooo of the population of the United States. 

 British North America showed a sixfold increase 

 to 3,000,000, of whom all but 500,000 were in 

 Canada. Among the scattered dependencies 

 of Britain the vast spaces of Australia were be 

 ginning to fill up through the thirst for gold, 

 and some half-million settlers were shaping the 

 foundations of a new English-speaking com 

 monwealth. In none of these chief groups, how 

 ever, was there such uniformity of English 

 speech as to prophesy complete social and po 

 litical concord. The brogue of the Irish Celt, the 

 barbarous dialect of the African slave, and the 



