I shall not try to make you any extended address of mere thanks, still less of mere eulogy.  I prefer to speak, and I know you would prefer to have me speak, on matters of real concern to you, as to which I happen at this moment to possess some first-hand knowledge; for recently I traversed certain portions of the British Empire under conditions which made me intimately cognizant of their circumstances and needs.  I have just spent nearly a year in Africa.  While there I saw four British protectorates.  I grew heartily to respect the men whom I there met, settlers and military and civil officials; and it seems to me that the best service I can render them and you is very briefly to tell you how I was impressed by some of the things that I saw.  Your men in Africa are doing a great work for your Empire, and they are also doing a great work for civilization.  This fact and my sympathy for and belief in them are my reasons for speaking.  The people at home, whether in Europe or in America, who live softly, often fail fully to realize what is being done for them by the men who are actually engaged in the pioneer work of civilization abroad.  Of course, in any mass of men there are sure to be some who are weak or unworthy, and even those who are good are sure to make occasional mistakes—­that is as true of pioneers as of other men.  Nevertheless, the great fact in world history during the last century has been the spread of civilization over the world’s waste spaces.  The work is still going on; and the soldiers, the settlers, and the civic officials who are actually doing it are, as a whole, entitled to the heartiest respect and the fullest support from their brothers who remain at home.

At the outset, there is one point upon which I wish to insist with all possible emphasis.  The civilized nations who are conquering for civilization savage lands should work together in a spirit of hearty mutual good-will.  I listened with special interest to what Sir Joseph Dimsdale said about the blessing of peace and good-will among nations.  I agree with that in the abstract.  Let us show by our actions and our words in specific cases that we agree with it also in the concrete.  Ill-will between civilized nations is bad enough anywhere, but it is peculiarly harmful and contemptible when those actuated by it are engaged in the same task, a task of such far-reaching importance to the future of humanity, the task of subduing the savagery of wild man and wild nature, and of bringing abreast of our civilization those lands where there is an older civilization which has somehow gone crooked.  Mankind as a whole has benefited by the noteworthy success that has attended the French occupation of Algiers and Tunis, just as mankind as a whole has benefited by what England has done in India; and each nation should be glad of the other nation’s achievements.  In the same way, it is of interest to all civilized men that a similar success shall attend alike the Englishman