"Further mechanical and scientific progress, however, such as
flying machines provided with these high explosives, and
asphyxiating bombs containing compressed gas that could be fired
from guns or dropped from the air, intervened. The former would
have laid every city in the dust, and the latter might have
almost exterminated the race. These discoveries providentially
prevented hostilities, so that the 'Great War,' so long expected,
never came, and the rival nations had their pains for nothing,
or, rather, for others than themselves.

"Let us now examine the political and ethnological results.
Hundreds of thousands, of the flower of Continental Europe were
killed by overwork and short rations, and millions of desirable
and often--unfortunately for us--undesirable people were driven
to emigration, nearly all of whom came to English-speaking
territory, greatly increasing our productiveness and power. As,
we have seen, the jealousy of the Continental powers for one
another effectually prevented their extending their influence or
protectorates to other continents, which jealousy was
considerably aided by the small but destructive wars that did
take place. High taxes also made it more difficult for the
moneyed men to invest in colonizing or development companies,
which are so often the forerunners of absorption; while the
United States, with her coal--of which the Mediterranean states
have scarcely any--other resources, and low taxes, which, though
necessary, can be nothing but an evil, has been able to expand
naturally as no other nation ever has before.

"This has given the English-speakers, especially the United