is too low to have scruples: no Englishman is high enough to be
free from their tyranny. But every Englishman is born with a
certain miraculous power that makes him master of the world. When
he wants a thing, he never tells himself that he wants it. He
waits patiently until there comes into his mind, no one knows
how, a burning conviction that it is his moral and religious duty
to conquer those who have got the thing he wants. Then he becomes
irresistible. Like the aristocrat, he does what pleases him and
grabs what he wants: like the shopkeeper, he pursues his purpose
with the industry and steadfastness that come from strong
religious conviction and deep sense of moral responsibility. He
is never at a loss for an effective moral attitude. As the great
champion of freedom and national independence, he conquers and
annexes half the world, and calls it Colonization. When he wants
a new market for his adulterated Manchester goods, he sends
a missionary to teach the natives the gospel of peace. The
natives kill the missionary: he flies to arms in defence of
Christianity; fights for it; conquers for it; and takes the
market as a reward from heaven. In defence of his island shores,
he puts a chaplain on board his ship; nails a flag with a cross
on it to his top-gallant mast; and sails to the ends of the
earth, sinking, burning and destroying all who dispute the empire
of the seas with him. He boasts that a slave is free the moment
his foot touches British soil; and he sells the children of his
poor at six years of age to work under the lash in his factories
for sixteen hours a day. He makes two revolutions, and then
declares war on our one in the name of law and order. There is
nothing so bad or so good that you will not find Englishmen doing
it; but you will never find an Englishman in the wrong. He does
everything on principle. He fights you on patriotic principles;