Explore "Judson and the Empire" by Rudyard Kipling on Textopian. Read with annotations and highlights.
Gloriana! The Don may attack us / Whenever his stomach be fain; / He must reach us before he can rack us. / And where are the galleons of Spain? / Dobson.
One of the many beauties of a democracy is its almost superhuman skill in developing troubles with other countries and finding its honour abraded in the process. A true democracy has a large contempt for all other lands that are governed by Kings and Queens and Emperors, and knows little and thinks less of their internal affairs. All it regards is its own dignity, which is its King, Queen, and Knave. So, sooner or later, an international difference ends in the common people, who have no dignity, shouting the common abuse of the street, which also has no dignity, across the seas in order to vindicate their own dignity. The consequences may or may not be war, but the chances do not favour peace.