Bismarck's consummation of a United Germany; and seeing that the tendencies and forces of the present day are all converging towards the dream of a United British Empire, it is surely not too much to predict that means will be found to focus this impulse towards unity into a definite and practical form of Imperial union.
It may seem a long step from Cromwell to Rhodes, and yet the two men are spiritually akin. Both in their own way sought the glory of God and the glory of their people. Both were intolerant of the 'fugitive and cloistered' virtues, and believed that ideals were but dim lamps unless they were used to light the work-a-day world. Both earnestly sought the greatness of England, and sought that greatness over sea. Both were 'practical mystics'; in Lord Rosebery's words, that 'most formidable of combinations.' Their constructive imperialism widely differing in scope, was inspired with the same creed. The taunts levied at the earlier statesmen were blood-guiltiness and fanaticism. The latter-day statesman was similarly labelled a self-seeking capitalist. Strange as it may seem, the accusations were similar in kind. Both were practical men using the best weapons for achieving their ends, and if Cromwell is now remembered as the man who had to crush and stamp out great evils, and did so by methods which a weaker man would have feared to use, in the same way we may regard Rhodes as one who took the most prosaic and most suspected of all methods, and used it for the furtherance of an ideal. He will be regarded, we believe, in future ages as a living proof of that stage in which capital becomes transformed and loses all its vices—a potent instrument towards the dissemination of high and noble principles. He was the true child and product, and therefore the type of his age, just as Cromwell in his person summed
