364 



APPENDIX. 



extended as widely as under land communication could be 

 effected — further than under it could be supported. 



On the contrary, when a powerful nation has her war- 

 like strength afloat, and possesses naval superiority, inde- 

 pendent of being unassailable herself, every spot of the 

 world, wherever a wave can roll, is accessible to her 

 power and under her control. In a very short time she 

 can throw an irresistible force, unexhausted by marches, 

 and with every resource, upon any hostile point, the point 

 of attack being in her own choice, and unknown to the 

 enemy. In case of her dependent dominions being scat- 

 tered over the two hemispheres, her means of communi- 

 cation, and consequent power of defending these and 

 supporting authority, are more facile than what exists 

 between the seat of government of any ordinary sized 

 continental kingdom and its provinces. Were a popular 

 system of colonial government adopted, many islands 

 and inferior states would find it their interest to become 

 incorporated as part of the Empire. 



Note B. 



There is a law universal in nature, tending to render 

 every reproductive being the best possibly suited to it« 

 condition that its kind, or that organized matter, is sus- 

 ceptible of, which appears intended to model the physical 

 and mental or instinctive powers, to their highest per- 

 fection, and to continue them so. This law sustains the 

 lion in his strength, the hare in her swiftness, and the 



