in the world; Russia, France, and Germany are leagued against us.  Austria cannot and will not help us, Italy temporises in reply to our advances, says neither ‘yes’ nor ‘no,’ and seeks an opportunity of allying herself with France and wresting the remainder of the Italian territories from Austria and of aggrandising herself at the expense of our colonies.  Yet, whenever England has stood alone, she has always stood in the halo of glory and power.  Let us trust in our own right hand and in the loyalty of our colonies, who are ready to come to our aid with money and men, and whom, after our victory, we will repay with all those good gifts that His Majesty’s Government can dispense.”

“Our colonies!” the Minister of the Board of Trade intervened.  “You are right, they are ready to make sacrifices.  Only I am afraid that those sacrifices which the Right Honourable the Minister for the Colonies demands of them will be too great, and that, having regard to the tendency of the modern imperialism of our Government, they will not believe in those rewards that are to be dangled before their eyes.”

“My lord,” replied the last speaker, “I am considered an agitator, and am accused of being responsible for the present perilous position of England.  Well, I will accept that responsibility.  Never in the world’s history did a statesman entertain great plans without exposing his country to certain risks.  I remind you how Bismarck, after the war of 1866 had been fought to a successful issue, said that the old women would have beaten him to death with cudgels had the Prussian army been defeated.  But it was not defeated, and he stood before them as a man who had united Germany and made Prussia great.  He exposed Prussia to the greatest risks, in that by his agitation he made almost the whole world Prussia’s enemy, declared war upon Austria and upon the whole of South Germany, and forced the latter eventually to engage in the war against France.  England at that time pursued the luckless policy of observing and waiting for an opportunity, merely because no agitator conducted its policy.  Had England in 1866 declared war against Prussia, Germany would not to-day be so powerful as to be able to wage war upon us.  Since those days, profound changes have taken place in England itself, and entirely owing to the growth of the German power.  Since the fall of Napoleon, we have not troubled ourselves sufficiently about events upon the Continent, but in our proud self-assurance have thought ourselves so powerful, that we only needed to influence the decisions of foreign governments, in order to pursue our own lines of policy.  But this self-assurance suffered a severe shock in the events of 1866 and 1870, and England has, and rightly enough, become nervous.  The Englishman down to that period despised the forward policy of the Continental powers.  This is no longer the case, but, on the other hand patriotic tendencies are at work even in England itself, which are branded