THE EXPANSION OF ENGLAND 261 



of this century are the expansion of the British empire, which a cen- 

 tury ago had hardly begun at all ; the building up of this English 

 America, which a centur}^ ago was merely a little strip of land along 

 the coast, which has extended westward from the Atlantic to the 

 Rockies, to the Pacific Ocean, to the Orient, until it stands the com- 

 panion of the British empire; the industrial development of Ger- 

 many, which has taken place with amazing rapidity, and the immense 

 development of Russia. The great development of the British em- 

 pire, the real develoi)ment of the British empire, does not lie in the 

 fact that there are three hundred millions in India under her control. 

 It is that in Australia, in New Zealand, in Canada, are great nations 

 of Englishmen growing up strong, with ])()wer to stand on their own 

 feet, a masterful race of men, destined to occup}' those fresh, green 

 places of the earth. 



As to India, it is exceedingly doubtful whether she has been a source 

 of power at all to England, and not rather a source of weakness and 

 danger. No people can be kept permanently in leading strings. A 

 policy which leads to that is a policy which leads to ruin. More and 

 more India is being filled with educated men. They are anxious to 

 take a part in the great life of the.world. I talked with one the other 

 day from Calcutta. He said that it seemed to him that America 

 understood India better and was fitted to help her more than Eng- 

 land. An Englishman never looks at an Indian without looking 

 down. Americans seem to sj'mpathize with them and look them in 

 the face. He told me the story, so well known in its outlines, of the 

 great development of the Indian National Congress, and of those 

 various movements which are begetting in India a national self-con- 

 sciousness. The presence of England in India has doubtless been a 

 good tiling, on tbe whole. All the well educated Indians with whom 

 I have discussed it feel tliat. They say tliat this is what has opened 

 up tlie world to them, and that the unity which, along with whatever 

 wrongs, England has brought was necessary. But the I>ritish presence 

 there can have a true outcome oidy as it regards itself as a great school 

 and political training place for those millions of men. It is the 

 greatest proldem which ever confronted the English em})ire. It is 

 only as slie looks forward to self-government tliat India can fnre well 

 or England's rec/ime in India l)e true to the traditions of England itsd f. 

 French political philosophers used to say that there could never be 

 a large democracy, that tbe pul)lic spirit and unit}' neccssarv to a 

 republic could never extend over a large area. They said it because 

 they could not see what the develoinnents of the century would be* 



