Adams J.T. Empire on the Seven Seas. The British Empire 1784-1939
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EMPIRE
ON
THE
SEVEN
SEAS
PAT.
74
'
MAR
'1
'*'Hf
J
'
T
4
^H(^F
EMPIRE
ON THE
SEVEN SEAS
THE BRITISH EMPIRE
1784-1939
BY
James
Truslow Adams
CHARLES
SCRIBNER'S
SONS
-
NEW
YORK
CHARLES
SCRIBNER'S
SONS-LTD -LONDON
1940
SOUSTS
tlxe
XJnltcd
S>
tatties
of
PREFACE
IN
RECENT
centuries
the
greatest
political
factor
in
the
modern
world
has
been the
British
Empire.
This
is
particularly
true
of the
last
hundred and
fifty
years.
It is
not
merely
that the
Empire
rules
a
quarter
of
the
globe
territorially,
and
a
quarter
5OO,OOO,ooo--of
its
inhabitants. Its
trade
and
financial
influences
have
been
equally
important,
and
above
all its
political.
"The
Mother of
Parliaments"
in
London
has
brought
into
being
the
free
governments
in
all
quarters
of the earth
which
now
make
up
the
British
Commonwealth
of
Nations.
Its
story,
with
all
its
shadows,
is the
story
of the
steadily
increasing
freedom of the
individual
citizen
and
of
the
free
human
spirit.
The
volume
now
presented
opens
with the defeat of
the
Empire
against
a
European
world in
arms,
and the
loss
of
the colonies
which have
since
grown
into
the
United
States
of
America. The
loss
seemed
overwhelming
but
from
apparent
ruin
the British
built
up
a
still
greater empire,
the
greatest
the
world has
ever seen.
After
the
losses,
the frivolities
and
scandals of
the
earlier
Hano-
verian
rulers,
there
suddenly
and
unexpectedly
rose
the sun
of
the
Victorian
Era,
the
greatest
in
English
history
next to
the
Eliza-
bethan. A succession
of
statesmen,
such as
Lord
Palmerston,
Lord
Grey,
Russell,
Disraeli, Gladstone,
Salisbury
and
others,
not
only
brought
Britain
to
her
highest pinnacle
of
power
and
prestige,
but nursed
the
old
liberties
into the
forms of modern
democracy.
Crisis after
crisis,
national
and
international,
arose
and
were
met
in
the
age-old
muddling
way
but
conquered
in the end.
The scenes
and actors
constantly
shift.
France,
with
Napoleon
at
its
head,
was
the
first
great
menace
to
liberty
in
the
period.
In
the
crisis
of
the
world
today,
with
its ruthless
dictatorships,
no
PREFACE
previous
period
offers
a
closer
parallel
or a
more
interesting
com-
parison
than
the
Napoleonic.
For
twenty years
Britain
fought
on,
more
than
once
deserted
by every
Continental
Ally,
until
at
long
last
the
would-be
Dictator
of
Europe
was
carried
to
life
exile
on
a
British
battleship.
Problems
at
home
called for
revolution
but
there
was
none.
In-
stead,
in British
ways,
there
were
compromise,
conciliation,
and
such
great
Reform Bills
as those
of
1832
and
1867,
with
all
the
social
legislation
which followed.
Overseas,
the first
empire
had
been
lost
largely
because
of
inflexible ideas
as to
government.
There
followed
a
long
period
of
comparative
indifference
to
over-
seas
possessions,
together
with
the
ferment of
the new ideas of
imperial
reformers. In the
latter
part
of
the nineteenth
century
came
the
race
for
world
empire
which
can be
compared
only
with
that
of
the
Elizabethan
period
of
expansion
of
European popula-
tions
and
energies.
From
that
developed
the tensions which led
to
the
World War and
again
to
the war of
today.
At
present,
the
Empire
is
once
more
facing
fearful
odds,
per-
haps
the
greatest
crisis
in
its,
and
our,
history.
What
has
happened
in
the
conquests
made
by
Germany
and Russia
in the
past
year
or
so,
as
well as the
crushing
of freedom of
thought
and
speech
in
their
own
lands
for
some
years,
shows
all
too well what would
hap-
pen
to the world
if
the
ambitions
of
Hitler
and
Stalin
could be
achieved. Aided
by
France,
the
one
great
opponent
to the
coming
of
a
new
Dark
Age
to the soul
and
mind
of
man
is the
British
Empire,
Our
own fate is
more at
stake than
many
realize.
The
Hitler-Stalin
conquests
mean more
than
mere
annexations
of
ter-
ritory
and
population
in
the old sense.
They
mean
the
wiping
out
of freedom and
the
type
of western
civilization
which
Europe
and
America
have
slowly
achieved
during
centuries.
We in
America were
not
only
a
part
of the
British
Empire
for
a
longer
period
than we have
been
independent,
but
since
achiev-
ing
independence
our
history
touches that
of
the
Empire
at
almost
every point,
decade
by
decade.
The
greatest
Dominion in
the Em-
pire
is
our
next-door
neighbor,
our
younger
sister with
whom we
divide
almost the
whole of
the
North
American
continent
in
friend-
vi
PREFACE
liness
and
without
a
dollar
spent
for defense
along
a
boundary
of
some
5000
miles.
Whatever
may
be
the
feelings
of
any
individual
reader,
we
are
linked to
the
future
of the
Empire
as
to
that
of
no other
nation.
Its
history
and
destiny
have
a
deeply
intimate
relation
to
ourselves.
If,
in
a
world
tossing
on
the wild waves
of
chaos,
and
in
which
dis-
tance no
longer
means
safety,
we
ever
need
a
friend whose
ideals
of
life and
liberty
agree
with
ours,
whom
among
the
great
powers
can we turn
to
with
more
understanding
or more
hope
of
being
understood?
In
the
writing
of this volume
I
have
been
especially
indebted
to
the courteous
help
of Doctor Will
D.
Howe
of
Charles
Scrib-
ner's
Sons
and
Mr.
William
G.
Wilbur
of
Columbia
University
for
reading
the
manuscript
and
the
proof
and
offering
valuable
suggestions, although
obviously
they
are
not
responsible
for
any
errors
of
fact or
judgment,
which
are
my
own.
J.
T.
A,
Southport,
Connecticut,
March
i,
1940.
Vll
