“From these lines others soon grew, commanding the business of the country and mostly owned by the Russians. In no long time jealousy of the enterprising “foreign devils” on the part of some of the more conservative and reactionary of the Chinese, led to outrages on their part which furnished a good pretext for military occupation of the country and finally to its conquest and annexation by the Russians. These encroachments of the Russians had been bitterly, but ineffectually opposed by the English. Their opposition provoked the Russians to place England on the defensive with regard to her Indian possessions so they pushed their railway line through Tartary to the very borders of northwestern India and threatened it with a large army of invasion. The Hindoos who had for years been waiting for such an opportunity to throw off the British yoke now revolted. They had been taught the art of war by their masters and now practiced it upon them, turning upon their teachers the weapons they had put into their hands and taught them to use. The very soldiers that were counted on to repel the Russians took their side against the English. Between the Russians and the Indians the British power in India was totally crushed, and several independent kingdoms were set up under Russian protection. France also assisted Russia in this war, especially on the ocean. British commerce was almost destroyed by Russian and French cruisers. After the war was over these two nations almost monopolized the Indian trade under discriminating commerce regulations, the Russians by land carriage over their railway and the French by sea. In the end the Russians became masters of almost the whole of Asia. Turkey was dismembered, the city of Constantinople and all Asiatic Turkey falling to the Russians.” “Professor, in my day there was a great war between Russia and Japan, which you have not mentioned. Was it not a factor in the settlement of the Asiatic questions?” “No, it did not assist in making a settlement, for none was made, its only effect was to postpone a settlement. The events I have narrated were greatly to the advantage of the United States. The destruction of England’s commerce largely involved her manufacturers also, and in like degree made room for and stimulated those of the United States. Her trade with all the British Colonies soon eclipsed that of the mother country herself. As the tremendous natural resources of the United States became more and more developed under the energy and skill of the most enlightened methods, the contrast between America and England enforced itself on the attention of all.