THE EXPANSION OF ENGLAND 257 



representatives of the English idea ; that Sam Adams was a true 

 Englishman when England set a price upon his head, and George 

 "\A'ashington, hombarding the English arm}' out of Boston. England 

 lost America because England at that time had one of those spasms 

 of folly which she has once in about so often. 



There are two Englands, I have said — one that always stands for 

 that which is true and progressive and liberal, and the other which 

 is always kicking against the pricks and standing in the wa}' of pro- 

 gress. England has been one of the greatest of nations, the English 

 race one of the greatest races in the history of the world ; but from 

 the beginning down to this time England has again and again been 

 uj) to her knees in wickedness. Through the efforts, the energetic 

 criticism and rebukes of earnest Englishmen — such as, in our time, 

 Cobden, .John Bright, and Gladstone, Brj'^ce, and Morley — there has 

 alwa^'s been reaction from the foll.y and always hope of })rogress, and 

 so we trust it may prove toda}'. 



Freeman, the great English historian, toward the end of his life 

 wrote an essa}^ upon George Washington as the Expander of England. 

 It seemed to some of us here in America, at first, a rather startling 

 designation. AVe had not thought of him as an expander, Init rather 

 as a contractor, of England ; but the title was correct and the histo- 

 rian's insight true. George Washington was the expander of England 

 because he first taught England that her ]iower, that the English em- 

 l>ire, could grow only as England everywhere did justice, and that 

 everywhere when she did injustice and struck down the freedom and 

 the rights of men, there her empire was in danger. George Washing- 

 ton drastically taught England that lesson, though she did not learn 

 it immediately. He taught it to us, though it may take us time to 

 learn it. He was the expander of America, and in all the talk of the 

 expansion of the English race let us never think of this as coincident 

 sim])ly with the history of the British empire. We of English blood 

 here in America are as iY\x\y a part of the English race as Canada. 

 Our growth has been so great that ])erhaps we are today the more 

 ])f)werful part of the race. Our growth has been a i)art of English 

 expansion. That expansion here went on the faster through our 

 indej)endence. It is a question whether the independence of Canada 

 tomorrow might not mean the expansion of .England in that ({uarter 

 from that time on more rapidl}' and wholesomely than expansion has 

 gone on there in the last century. 



