Produced by Al Haines [Transcriber's note: transliterated Greek is surrounded by plus signs, e.g. "+agôníai+". Italicized text is surrounded by _underscores_. In the phrase "_sov[)a]v sov[=e]v_", "[)a]" represents a-breve, "[=e]" represents e-macron. "[oe]" represents the oe-ligature pair.] [Frontispiece: J. A. Cramb] THE ORIGINS AND DESTINY OF IMPERIAL BRITAIN NINETEENTH CENTURY EUROPE BY THE LATE J. A. CRAMB, M.A. PROFESSOR OF MODERN HISTORY, QUEEN'S COLLEGE, LONDON WITH A BIOGRAPHICAL NOTE AND PORTRAIT OF THE AUTHOR LONDON: JOHN MURRAY, ALBEMARLE STREET, W. 1915 _All rights reserved_ [Illustration: Greek text] "For the noveltie and strangenesse of the matter which I determine and deliberate to entreat upon, is of efficacie and force enough to draw the mindes both of young and olde to the diligent reading and digesting of these labours. For what man is there so despising knowledge, or any so idle and slothfull to be found, which will eschew or avoide by what policies or by what kinde of government the most part of nations in the universall world were vanquished, subdued and made subject unto the one empire of the Romanes, which before that time was never seen or heard? Or who is there that hath such earnest affection to other discipline or studie, that he suposeth any kind of knowledge to be of more value or worthy to be esteemed before this?" _The Histories of the most famous Chronographer_, POLYBIUS. (Englished by C. W., and imprinted at London, Anno 1568). PREFACE The following pages are a reprint of a course of lectures delivered in May, June, and July, 1900. Their immediate inspiration was the war in South Africa (two of the lectures deal directly with that war), but in these pages, written fifteen years ago, will be found foreshadowed the ideals and deeds of the present hour. When the book first appeared, Mr. Cramb wrote that he "had been induced to publish these reflections by the belief or the hope that at the present grave crisis they might not be without service to his country." In the same hope his lectures are now reprinted. BIOGRAPHICAL NOTE