Publisher's Synopsis
This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1887 edition. Excerpt: ... No. IV. By F. H. Turnock, Of Winnipeg (manitoba). (" Civis Romanus Sum") HEN we look back into the past and note the present con V V dition of the various empires that have from time to time held the foremost positions in the world's history, we are tempted to ask ourselves the question, What position will the British Empire occupy one hundred years hence? Is she, as some pessimists would have us believe, destined within that period to meet the fate that has befallen so many mighty empires, to disappear like Assyria and Persia, or decline like Spain? or will she, as we hope, continue to hold, if anything, in a greater degree than at present, the proud position which so becomes her, of leader of civilization, the mother of commerce and the seas, to which, as in Joseph's dream, all her contemporaries shall bow and make obeisance? We believe that the solution of this question rests mainly with the present generation, and that the action of her subjects for the next quarter of a century will decide whether she is still to pursue her onward course, or whether the summit of her greatness has been reached and the period of her decadence is at hand. Those historic empires seemed in their day as prosperous as the British Empire appears now, --yet they fell; and, as history repeats itself, it is not improbable that the empire which is to-day the most exalted, may to-morrow be humbled in the dust. However, the page of history is spread open before us, and it is for us to examine into the circumstances which operated in causing the downfall of these nations, and apply the conclusions we arrive at to our own. If we find we are suffering from the same weaknesses that undermined their strength, let us at once seek to remedy them, lest a like evil come...