iS 77 *J National Wealth and Public Debt. 213 
acknowledged by other nations is conspicuous from the 
importance attached by them to her counsel and advice in 
political affairs. Wealth in individuals always has, and 
always will, command respedt from its poorer neighbours, 
and what is true in individuals also holds good with regard 
to nations. At no time, probably, has the influence of 
England been more proved than recently. England is not 
only the greatest European power, but as an Eastern 
power, also, she holds a higher position than any hitherto 
recorded in history. The Macedonian and Roman Empires 
of old were small compared with that of Great Britain of 
the present day, and, so far as can be at present seen, her 
power and influence seem rather destined to increase than 
to diminish, whilst English is not only cultivated by other 
nations to an extent far beyond all past experience with 
regard to the Latin language, — formerly the most popular 
of tongues, — but it has been calculated that, at the present 
rate at which it is being spread, English will, a hundred 
years hence, be spoken by greater numbers than, according 
to the most reliable estimates, there are now people existing 
upon the face of the earth. 
A glance at a telegraph map of the world will at once 
show how almost all the submarine cables connedt British 
possessions, extending from New Zealand through Australia, 
the Straits Settlements, India, Aden, Malta, Gibraltar, to 
England, Ireland, and thence across the Atlantic to New- 
foundland and Canada, by which all our most important 
possessions are placed in telegraphic communication with 
each other, whilst branch lines provide means of communi- 
cation with other British territories and with most parts of 
the civilised world. These cables are all British property ; 
and as they are required chiefly for commercial purposes, 
they are very properly possessed by that nation which 
claims the largest part of the commerce of the world. 
