4. We have never used the British Navy to bully weak nations out of
their oversea possessions. Who could have stopped our taking the
Spanish, Dutch, and Portuguese possessions in Africa and Asia?
5. British sea-power has always been on the side of freedom; and every
time a tyrant has tried to fight his way to world-dominion the Royal
Navy has been the backbone of all the forces that have laid him low.
THE CANADIAN
I never saw the cliffs of snow,
The Channel billows tipped with cream,
The restless, eddying tides that flow
About the Island of my dream.
I never saw the English downs
Upon an April day,
The quiet, old Cathedral towns,
The hedgerows white with may.
And still the name of England,
Which tyrants laugh to scorn,
Can thrill my soul. It is to me
A very bugle-horn.
A thousand leagues from Plymouth shore,
In broader lands I saw the light.
I never heard the cannon roar,
Or saw a mark of England's might;
Save that my people lived in peace,
Bronzed in the harvest sun,
And thought that tyranny would cease,
That battle-days were done.
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