of those pre-existing British States. For, with England equality
is an offence and the Power that arrives at a degree of success
approximating to her own and one capable of being expanded into
conditions of fair rivalry, has already committed the unpardonable
sin. As Curran put it in his defence of Hamilton Rowan in 1797,
"England is marked by a natural avarice of freedom which she is
studious to engross and accumulate, but most unwilling to impart;
whether from any necessity of her policy or from her weakness, or from
her pride, I will not presume to say."

Thus while England might even be the attacking party, and in all
probability will be the attacking party, she will embark on a war
with Germany at an initial disadvantage. She will be on her defence.
Although, probably, the military aggressor from reasons of strategy,
she will be acting in obedience to an economic policy of defence and
not of attack. Her chief concern will be not to advance and seize,
always in war the more inspiring task, but to retain and hold. At best
she could come out of the war with no new gain, with nothing added
worth having to what she held on entering it. Victory would mean for
her only that she had secured a further spell of quiet in which to
consolidate her strength and enjoy the good things already won.

Germany will fight with far other purpose and one that must inspire a
far more vigorous effort; she will fight, not merely to keep what she
already has, but to escape from an intolerable position of inferiority
she knows to be unmerited and forced not by the moral or intellectual
superiority of her adversary or due to her own short comings, but
maintained by reason of that adversary's geographical position and
early seizure of the various points of advantage.