Memoirs of John Adams Dix; comp. by his son, Morgan Dix.

1845-1853.] GIGANTIC EXTENSION OF ENGLISH RULE. 219
She has discussed the policy of passing Persia and making
the Tigris her western boundary in Asia. One stride more
would place her upon the shores of the Mediterranean, and
her armies would no longer find their way to India by the
circumnavigation of Africa. Indeed, she has now, for all
government purposes of communication, except the transportation of troops and munitions of war, a direct intercourse
with the East. Her steamers of the largest class run from
England to Alexandria; from Alexandria there is a watercommunication with Cairo-some sixty miles; from Cairo it
is but eight hours overland to Suez, at the head of the Red
Sea; from Suez her steamers of the largest class run to Aden,
a military station of hers at the mouth of the Red Sea; from
Aden to Ceylon, and from Ceylon to China. She is not
merely conquering her way back from Hindostan. She has
raised her standaid beyond it. She has entered the confines
of the Celestial Empire. She has gained a permanent foothold within it; and who that knows her can believe that pretexts wrill long be wanting to extend her dominion there?
Though it is for commerce mainly that she is thus adding
to the number and extent of her dependencies, it is not for
commerce alone. The love of power and extended empire
is one of the efficient principles of her gigantic efforts and
movements. No island, however remote, no rock, however
barren, on which the Cross of St. George has once been unfurled, is ever willingly relinquished, no matter how expensive or inconvenient it may be to maintain it. She may be
said literally to encircle the globe by an unbroken chain of
dependencies. Nor is it by peaceful means that she is thus
extending herself. She propagates commerce, as Mohammedanism propagated religion, by fire and sword. If she negotiates, it is with fleets and armies at the side of her ambassadors, in order, to use the language of her diplomacy, 'to give
force to their representations.' She is essentially and eminently a military power, unequalled on the sea and unsurpassed on the land. Happily, the civilization which distin