THE FIGHTING FIFTIES 131

ston, himself the embodiment of the spirit that made the British
Empire, pooh-poohed the idea that his country should annex
Egypt in order to safeguard her communications with India: a
gentleman with an estate in Scotland and another in southern
England, he remarked, did not need to own the post-houses along
the Great North Road. Initiative was left in this, as in all things
else, to the individual: the state in its corporate capacity only
existed to protect the individual in his just gains and lawful
occasions. The continued growth of the Empire was forced on
an ever reluctant government (which, having to consider the
interests of taxpayers who were also voters, was always cautious)
by the restless energy of its private citizens. For every English-
man, rich or poor, who had courage, a strong body, willing
hands and capital enough to buy a passage there was boundless
opportunity and elbow room waiting in lands beyond the oceans.
Two brothers, aged nineteen and seventeen, belonging to a
family of twelve, left for New Zealand with ^£2,000 capital
between them and a superabundance of animal spirits prepared
for any risks and any labour. To "build, fell trees, plough, reap,
pasture cattle, shear sheep, all these with the hands!5*1 was the
task they cheerfully set themselves. Within a dozen years each
looked forward to returning with a capital of at least £20,000
to seek a wife and found a family. And the interests represented
by that new capital and its future returns would demand in due
course the protection of the imperial government, whether these
interests lay in the British dominions or, as often happened, in
more populous lands un4er some other flag.

• •••••••

The unit of the national life was the family—the sacred
nursery of the individual. The wealth and power of the empire
grew in ratio to the size of this homely unit The first half of
the nineteenth century saw the population increasing more
rapidly than ever before, not because more children were born
but because, thanks to advances in hygiene and medical science,
more survived. Between 1841 and 1861 the population of England,
Scotland and Wales rose from seventeen to twenty-three millions.
Not only in working-class homes but in those of the upper and
middle-class large families were still the rule. The Queen herself
had nine children: a Judge of the High Court twenty-four.
Strangers admitted to the sacred circle of the home would usually

lTaine, Notes on England^ 6y-jo*