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remained in darkness". But still the struggle went on. During the Napoleonic wars, when Great Britain was fighting the greater part of Europe, and also at one time America as well, with a population of something under 14,000,000, it may be interesting to know that during that period the enlistments in the 42nd Highlanders (the Black Watch) totalled 70,000 men. I have no records of other regiments, but they must have been similar. This, it may be remarked, is not commerce; but it records the struggles and the determination of the rising and predominating power in commerce, Great Britain, to keep what she had attained. After the Battle of Waterloo all the world was at the feet of Great Britain, The road to the romantic, glorious, and historic East was hers by the prowess of her armies and the vigilance of her naval administration. Before this a few years conflict had, it is true, been in evidence in India with France, under her able general, Dupleix. Here be it recorded the world has much to owe to France in civilization and in commerce, though this power had to give way in the routine of fate to Britain's power, not only in India, but also in America. We have much to thank France for in literature, in science, and also in war; and war has always been a most potent factor in establishing commerce in her true place over a dying and ofttimes a defunct civilization.
Having now arrived at the results of the events culminating in 1815 which placed Great Britain in the proud position of mistress of the seas, it might not be out of place to consider her heritage from past ages in the commerce and civilization of the world. As I have said, a new era arose after 1815 and a new arbiter in commerce wielded the sceptre. The mantle of past empires was cast on Great Britain, As heir to all the ages she inherited all that was to be known from Chaldea, Babylon, Greece, Home, Egypt, and Arabia, Supreme in war, invincible in conquest by the power of individual effort, in the language of Homer, who described the ancient Egyptian Thebes, "She spread her conquests o'er a thousand States, and poured her heroes through a hundred gates". The great Empire of India
