The decline and fall of the British Empire - University of Oregon

of the British Empire 55
with the blood of those who ran
because they had never learned to
shoot ; of the women who cursed
them for cowards when the foreigner
was quartered in their homes ?
How came it that a hundred years
ago, in 1905, when Earl Roberts,
who had saved them from defeat
in South Africa, told them in un-
mistakable language* the needs of
their Empire, these poor townsfolk
failed to play the man and realize
the dangers which surround an
empire whose inhabitants cannot
defend it ? How came it that in
this sad year they told one another
tales of Nelson |, who had left them
an ideal that every man was to do his
duty, but made not the slightest
effort to find out what that duty
was ? We can only conclude that
they were ceasing to love their
* Speeches in the House of Lords, July nth,
and at the 'Mansion House, Aug. i, 1905.
t Their noble admiral who died at Trafalgar
in 1805, 200 years ago.