Nothing better illustrates the firmness with which England holds her purpose than the fate of Aden.  This is the halfway station between England and her East Indian possessions.  It commands the Red Sea.  It is the best spot for a coal-depot in the East.  Properly defended, it is almost impregnable.  The wide-roving eye of mercantile England had long ago searched out and in fancy possessed it.  Hear what one of her own historians has said:—­“Eager eyes had long been turned toward this spot.”  To find an excuse, real or apparent, for its appropriation was the trouble.  The Sultan of Lahidge, its owner, was indeed little better than a freebooter.  But, though wild, lawless, and of piratical tendencies, he had for a long time the wisdom not to molest British traders.  In 1839, however, whether from ignorance of its nationality, or from recklessness, is uncertain, he seized and pillaged a native Madras boat sailing under British colors.  The East Indian government at once took advantage of the opportunity thus afforded.  An ambassador was sent to demand remuneration, and this remuneration was—­Aden.  The Sultan was at first disposed to accede to this demand, but soon kindling into rage, he attempted to lay violent hands upon the ambassador.  The reply was—­a fleet and a military force, which first cannonaded and then stormed the stronghold at the point of the bayonet.  So Aden passed into the hands which had been waiting for years to grasp it.  It is said by some writers that a compensation has been made to the Sultan; but the sum is not mentioned, nor the authority for so doubtful a statement given.

Hong Kong furnishes another illustration.  Most, no doubt, are familiar with the general outlines of the first Chinese War:  how England stormed, one after another, the ill-constructed and worse-defended Chinese forts, until the courage and insolence of the Lord of the Central Flowery Kingdom alike failed.  Why, now, did not England retain military possession of Canton, or some other important commercial town?  That would have given her much trouble and little profit.  She chose rather to retain only one sterile island of a few miles in diameter, whose possession would awaken nobody’s jealousy, but which would furnish a sufficient base for operations in any future wars.

One more example.  Until about the beginning of the present century, Ceylon and Cape Colony were Dutch possessions.  This is the history of their loss.  Soon after the French Revolution broke out, Holland, with the consent of a portion of her people, was incorporated, if not in name, yet in reality, into the French Empire.  During the long wars of Napoleon, she shared the fortunes of her master, and when continual defeats broke the power of both on the sea, her colonies were left defenceless.  Ceylon and Cape Colony fell into the hands of the English; but so, too, did Java, Sumatra, Borneo, Essequibo, Berbice, and, indeed, with but little exception, all her colonial possessions, East and West.  At the