And in thus remaining one, before half a century is over it will change the face of the world. As two hundred millions of Englishmen fill the valley of the Mississippi, as fifty millions of Englishmen assert their lordship over Australasia, this vast power will tell through Britain on the old world of Europe, whose nations will have shrunk into insignificance before it. What the issues of such a world-wide change may be, not even the wildest dreamer would dare to dream. But one issue is inevitable. In the centuries that lie before us, the primacy of the world will lie with the English people. English institutions, English speech, English thought, will become the main features of the political, the social, and the intellectual life of mankind. NOTES AND QUESTIONS =Biography.= John Richard Green (1837-1883) was born at Oxford, England. In his early life he entered the ministry and became not only an eloquent preacher, but an effective worker among his parishioners. Ill health caused him to resign and devote his time entirely to writing. He was a noted English historian, the author of _A History of the English People_ and _The Making of England_. His vivid imagination enabled him to picture the life of the people and to make history interesting and popular. =Discussion.= 1. What do you think of the reasoning in the first paragraph? 2. What victory was there in the political defeat of the British government? 3. How is the distance between England and America lessened today? 4. How are the ties between the two countries being strengthened? 5. What does the author hint at in the last part of the second paragraph? 6. What do you think of the prophecy in the first sentence of the last paragraph? 7. Is his dream any nearer reality today than when the author wrote these lines? 8. Pronounce the following: Thames; isolation; inevitable; primacy. =Phrases= unequaled moment, 338, 2 material energy, 338, 12 impassable barrier, 338, 23 inevitable drift, 338, 24 narrow isolation, 338, 24 political existences, 338, 27 assert their lordship, 339, 3 one issue is inevitable, 339, 7 primacy of the world, 339, 8 English institutions, 339, 9 ENGLAND AND AMERICA IN 1782 ALFRED, LORD TENNYSON O Thou, that sendest out the man To rule by land and sea, Strong mother of a Lion-line, Be proud of those strong sons of thine Who wrench’d their rights from thee! What wonder, if in noble heat Those men thine arms withstood, Re-taught the lesson thou hadst taught, And in thy spirit with thee fought— Who sprang from English blood! But Thou rejoice with liberal joy, Lift up thy rocky face, And shatter, when the storms are black, In many a streaming torrent back, The seas that shock thy base! Whatever harmonies of law The growing world assume, Thy work is thine—the single note From that deep chord which Hampden smote Will vibrate to the doom.