Frederick Douglass, the Orator - Monroe County Library System

Central Library of Rochester and Monroe County · Historic Monographs Collection
78 LIFE OF FREDERICK DOUGLASS.
tion of the forces of nature is enlarging. Standing
on the deck of the City of Rome, and moving
among its company of passengers so unlike in
appearance and character, and then looking out
upon the broad, dashing billows of the Atlantic,
suggested to my mind the formula that the types
of mankind are various. They differ like the
waves, but are one like the sea.
THE HOME RULE QUESTION.
The features of England are too well known to
justify me in saying much about my sojourn in
that country. It is common nowadays to speak
of England as a declining power in comparison
with the rest of the world, and there may be truth
in that representation, but the American who
travels there will see nothing on the surface to
justify that conclusion. Great Britain, though
small in territory and limited in population, as
compared with our republic, is still Great Britain
—great in her civilization, great in physical and
mental vigor, great in her statesmanship, and
great in her elements of power and stability.
The question uppermost when we landed there, as
when we left there, was Home Rule, or coercion
for Ireland. No question of modern times has
stirred England so deeply as this. It has rent
asunder parties, cast down leaders, broken up
friendships, and divided families; men who have