CONCLUSION.

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CHAPTER VI.
CONCLUSION.

[F we are to believe the teachings of history, a
maritime Empire is an unstable thing, and this
warning has often been applied to the British
Empire. In applying it, however, one is apt to
forget that the British Empire of the present day
has little in common with those Empires of the
past. A fundamental difference exists, created by
Great Britain herself, who by precept and example
has taught the world to attach an entirely new
significance to the word colony. The mediaval
conception of a colony was one of the strictly
guarded preserves which existed simply and solely
to be squeezed to provide a rapacious parent with
the uttermost drop of sustenance or profit. After
a time, evil chance or the effects of this parasitic
battening process would cripple the parent power,
and as a natural result the component parts of the
Empire were either filched away or drifted off to
independence and increased prosperity. So died
the maritime Empires of the past. There was a
time when Britain's older colonies were fulfilling
this same function. But as the Empire increased
in size and became the home of hardy, thriving,
independent offshoots of the British race, it became