Excerpt from The Lost Empires of the Modern World: Essays in Imperial History Neither the 'retort courteous' nor the 'lie direct' affords comfort to a troubled con science; it must have facts. It is not a matter of very great difficulty to get at the facts; the requisite research, if wide, is not profound. And can be-compassed by any man with a year's leisure at his disposal. But the number of men so fortunately placed is small, and most men with a year's leisure at their disposal prefer to spend it otherwise than in confuting, with so much labour, a trouble some political antagonist. Such men, we reflect, can always be voted down, British fashion, when the time comes; and in the meantime we may rest contented to differ from them. 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.