Bosphorus, Gibraltar, Suez, or Darien. Yet we have practically abandoned the latter position in favour of the Americans. Again, even Canning, who tried to establish an Anglo-American alliance, laid it down in 1822 that no one must seize Cuba. Yet, when the United States took that island in 1898, we sided with them. This policy is now being pursued systematically, so that Sir Edward Grey has said that the pursuit of friendship with the United States is a main feature of our diplomacy, while an American ambassador has declared that friendship between the two countries is more solidly established now than for a hundred years.
In the very darkest hour of our history, within a week of the date when the provisional articles of the Treaty of Paris had been signed in 1782, our House of Commons passed one of the best resolutions in its long history. Now that our offspring, in alliance with our bitterest enemies, had successfully revolted against us, we put it on record that "we most ardently wish that religion, language, interests, and affection may yet prove the bond of permanent union between the two countries." After so long an interval, we are now taking active steps to realise an aspiration which, if consummated, will provide another method of guaranteeing the peace of the world.
A fourth resource available for England lies in the fact that so many of the powers of Europe have themselves acquired important colonies. As
