“Treaties looking to the abolition of war, and the settlement of all international questions by arbitration had already been adopted between the United States and Great Britain and her Colonies, and there had been a strong feeling and agitation for a closer political union of all the English speaking people. The aggressive foreign policy of England stood in the way of this. But to her, this aggressive policy appeared essential. She had held India, Birmah and large territories in Africa, by conquest, and her trade to these countries depended on her continued military control over them. “After the war with Russia and France in which she lost India, her commerce, and her prestige, England still felt her only chance for retaining her importance as an influential factor in the politics of the world, to be in cultivating her interests in Birmah and Africa. She could colonize neither of these countries to any great extent. All she could do was to conquer and rule them and compel them to trade with her on terms that turned all their surplus wealth into her coffers—as she had done in India. Her misfortunes had soured her temper and made her more truculent and bulldozing than ever. Her manner towards her colonies changed. They had been of little or no assistance to her in her struggle with Russia, and had but little sympathy with her foreign policy and the truculent and aggressive bearing towards weaker nations that had made her to be thoroughly unpopular in some parts of the world. England now began to resent the cold attitude of the colonies toward her, and to talk of the duty of the daughters towards the mother. She began to be sorely pinched for money. The war had doubled her already enormous debt, and halved her resources. The number of her unemployed at home had greatly increased by reason of the diminution of her trade and the foreign demand for her manufacturers. Taxation enormously increased and the rich were reduced to poverty in providing for the poor. Millions emigrated to America and to the colonies, generally people of the thrifty and productive classes, thereby reducing the resources of the country without diminishing her liabilities. She now proposed to the colonies to tax themselves for her benefit. This they were not inclined to do. They were all comparatively poor. They needed all the money they could raise for public improvements in their own settlements. Most of them were heavily in debt. Canada was hopelessly so, practically bankrupt in fact. Finally the colonies all declined to be taxed for the benefit of the mother country. The condition of affairs in the British empire gave a great impulse to the idea of confederation with the United States. The plan gained favor rapidly with the colonies. No nation on earth was so prosperous then, or possessed of such vast resources as the United States. The country was out of debt and enormously wealthy.