THE nineteenth century and after, from the battle of Waterloo down to the present day, has to some extent combined the characteristics of the two preceding centuries, and yet has been widely different from either, the difference being largely due to scientific invention.*
War has been much in evidence, but it has not been, with the exception of the Crimean War,* which had little or no bearing on overseas enterprise, war with any European nation.* One notable war has been the semi-civil war in South Africa.*
It has been an era when the State has been far more in evidence than in the seventeenth century, and private enterprise far more in evidence than in the eighteenth century. On the other hand, the State has been in evidence as much in relaxing authority as in asserting itself. It has taken over India from a chartered company,* but has conceded self-government in fullest measure to British North America, Australasia, and South Africa.* Starting from the British North America Act of 1867,* the self-governing dominions have been taking final shape as nations.
See Lucas’s arguments in Timely Progress.
See posts tagged Crimean War (5). It was the outcome of hysterical Russophobia and a groundless fear that the Tsars had designs on the Balkans and on India.
This volume was published in 1914, and the essay thus written before the outbreak of the Great War that year. See The Outbreak of the Great War.
See The Boer Wars, a conflict between English settlers and settlers of Dutch descent in the self-governing colonial states of southern Africa. Victory for the British led to the formation of the self-governing Union of South Africa in 1910.
During The Seven Years’ War (1756-1763), India saw continual a struggle between the Mughal Emperors and rival Indian princes, in league in one way or another with the militias attached to the British East India Company and to rival trading companies from France, Portugal and the Netherlands. Thanks mainly to Clive of India, the British won and gained complete control of the Mughal Emperors. Following The Indian Mutiny, their Empire was dissolved in 1857, and its role was adopted by the British Crown.
Lucas could not be expected to predict it, but of all these former colonies the Union of South Africa, formed in 1910 out of a mixture of British and Dutch territories, would prove to be the least successful. The others made sometimes slow but always steady progress toward racial equality, but in South Africa no progress was made at all; eventually, the Commonwealth became such a standing rebuke that in 1961 the Government seceded from it, threw off the British Crown and declared itself a Republic, all in order to pursue the infamous apartheid system that lasted until 1994.
The British North America Act of 1867 gave Canada self-government and organised the province into a federation of four provinces (five more joined between 1870 and 1905), in part to make the country defensible against any further aggression from the United States of America. To a large degree it followed the recommendations made by Lord Durham in 1839. See Defective Democracy.
Archive
Word Games
Spinners Find in Think and Speak
For each group of words, compose a sentence that uses all three. You can use any form of the word: for example, cat → cats, go → went, or quick → quickly, though neigh → neighbour is stretching it a bit.
This exercise uses words found in the accompanying passage.
1 Almost. Foreign. Go.
2 Busy. They. Up.
3 Being. Republic. Transport.
Variations: 1. include direct and indirect speech 2. include one or more of these words: although, because, despite, either/or, if, unless, until, when, whether, which, who 3. use negatives (not, isn’t, neither/nor, never, nobody etc.)
Subject and Object Find in Think and Speak
Use each word below in two sentences, first as the subject of a verb, and then as the object of a verb. It doesn’t have to be the same verb: some verbs can’t be paired with an object (e.g. arrive, happen), so watch out for these.
This exercise uses words found in the accompanying passage.
1. Action. 2. Empire. 3. War. 4. Administration. 5. Final. 6. Lead. 7. King. 8. Coast. 9. Turn.
Variations: 1.use your noun in the plural (e.g. cat → cats), if possible. 2.give one of your sentences a future aspect (e.g. will, going to). 3.write sentences using negatives such as not, neither, nobody and never.
Opposites Find in Think and Speak
Suggest words or phrases that seem opposite in meaning to each of the words below. We have suggested some possible answers; see if you can find any others.
This exercise uses words found in the accompanying passage.
Variations: 1.instead of opposites, suggest words of similar meaning (synonyms). 2.use a word and its opposite in the same sentence. 3.suggest any 5 opposites formed by adding im-.
High Tiles Find in Think and Speak
Make words (three letters or more) from the seven letters showing below, using any letter once only. Each letter carries a score. What is the highest-scoring word you can make?
Your Words ()
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