Excerpt from The Building of the Empire, the Story of England's Growth From Elizabeth to Victoria, Vol. 1 of 2 It is not long since, in a period of difficulty, when the national conscience was stirred, a statesman, deprecating the interference Of the public in public affairs, expressed the wish that matters might be left to the Officials. The Official is one, how ever, who is obliged to put his conscience in the hands Of his chief, and Of conscience his chief may be destitute. That was not the way the Empire was built up; neither is that the way in which it will be worthily maintained, but by the nation as a whole watching with enlightened and jealous eye to see that the best traditions of the past are Observed, and, where possible, improved upon. If the book should help at all in that direction, its chief Object will have been attained. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.