George Bancroft, History of the United States from the Discovery of the American Continent, Vol. 5, 13th edition.

[58] a curiosity for all learning; away from home, had eyes

chap. III.} 1763.

for every thing. The Englishman, wherever he went, was environed by an English atmosphere. He saw the world abroad as if to perceive how inferior it was to the land of his birth. The English statesmen, going from the classical schools to the universities—brought up in a narrow circle of classical and mathematical learning, with no philosophical training or acquaintance with general principles, travelled as Englishmen. They went young to the House of Commons; and were so blinded by admiration of their own country, they thought nothing blameworthy that promoted its glory, its power, or its welfare. They looked out upon the surrounding sea as their wall of defence

Against the envy of less happier lands.

The great deep seemed to them their inheritance, inviting them every where to enter upon possession of it as their rightful domain. They looked beyond the Atlantic, and not content with their own colonies, they counted themselves defrauded of their due as the sole representatives of liberty, so long as Spain should hold exclusively such boundless empires. Especially to them the House of Bourbon was an adder, that might at any time be struck at, whenever it should rear its head. To promote British interests, and command the applause of the British Senate, they were ready to infringe on the rights of other countries,¹ and even on those of the outlying dominions of the crown.