independence of the Black Sea; and I fear that there is every chance that this incompetence will be sealed by our ultimately acknowledging these direct claims of the United States, which, both as regards principle and practical results, are fraught with the utmost danger to this country.  Gentlemen, don’t suppose, because I counsel firmness and decision at the right moment, that I am of that school of statesmen who are favorable to a turbulent and aggressive diplomacy.  I have resisted it during a great part of my life.  I am not unaware that the relations of England to Europe have undergone a vast change during the century that has just elapsed.  The relations of England to Europe are not the same as they were in the days of Lord Chatham or Frederick the Great.  The Queen of England has become the sovereign of the most powerful of Oriental States.  On the other side of the globe there are now establishments belonging to her, teeming with wealth and population, which will, in due time, exercise their influence over the distribution of power.  The old establishments of this country, now the United States of America, throw their lengthening shades over the Atlantic, which mix with European waters.  These are vast and novel elements in the distribution of power.  I acknowledge that the policy of England with respect to Europe should be policy of reserve, but proud reserve; and in answer to those statesmen—­those mistaken statesmen who have intimated the decay of the power of England and the decline of its resources, I express here my confident conviction that there never was a moment in our history when the power of England was so great and her resources so vast and inexhaustible.

And yet, gentlemen, it is not merely our fleets and armies, our powerful artillery, our accumulated capital, and our unlimited credit on which I so much depend, as upon that unbroken spirit of her people, which I believe was never prouder of the imperial country to which they belong.  Gentlemen, it is to that spirit that I above all things trust.  I look upon the people of Lancashire as fairly representative of the people of England.  I think the manner in which they have invited me here, locally a stranger, to receive the expression of their cordial sympathy, and only because they recognize some effort on my part to maintain the greatness of their country, is evidence of the spirit of the land.  I must express to you again my deep sense of the generous manner in which you have welcomed me, and in which you have permitted me to express to you my views upon public affairs.  Proud of your confidence, and encouraged by your sympathy, I now deliver to you, as my last words, the cause of the Tory party, of the English constitution, and of the British empire.

THE VENERABLE BEDE (672-735)