30 Expansion and Peace 



In every instance the result proved that the ex 

 panding power was doing a duty to civilization far 

 greater and more important than could have been 

 done by any stationary power. Take the case of 

 France and Algiers. During the early decades of 

 the present century piracy of the most dreadful de 

 scription was rife on the Mediterranean, and thou 

 sands of civilized men were yearly dragged into 

 slavery by the Moorish pirates. A degrading 

 peace was purchased by the civilized powers by 

 the payment of tribute. Our own country was one 

 among the tributary nations which thus paid blood- 

 money to the Moslem bandits of the sea. We fought 

 occasional battles with them; and so, on a larger 

 scale, did the English. But peace did not follow, 

 because the country was not occupied. Our last 

 payment was made in 1830, and the reason it was 

 the last was because in that year the French con 

 quest of Algiers began. Foolish sentimentalists, 

 like those who wrote little poems in favor of the 

 Mahdists against the English, and who now write 

 little essays in favor of Aguinaldo against the Amer 

 icans, celebrated the Algerian freebooters as he 

 roes who were striving for liberty against the in 

 vading French. But the French continued to do 

 their work; France expanded over Algiers, and the 

 result was that piracy on the Mediterranean came to 

 an end, and Algiers has thriven as never before in 



