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 been defending our position since 11 a.m. But soon after seven we began to advance, and the night closed with a headlong flight of the French Emperor and his army on the road to Paris.

This battle of Waterloo ended the Great War; the last war, let us hope, that we shall ever have to fight against the French, who are now our best friends. Long ago Pitt had said, ‘England has saved herself by her exertions, she will save Europe by her example.’ In 1815 she had indeed done both.

When the final treaty was made in that year, our gains in actual territory were small. We gave back the greater part of the colonies we had taken from France and her allies, keeping only the West Indian island of Tobago, the island of Mauritius in the Indian Ocean, the Dutch colonies of Ceylon and the Cape of Good Hope, and the little Dutch province of Guiana in South America. In the Mediterranean, we kept the island of Malta, but gave back Minorca to Spain. Our real reward, then, came in the commerce of the world, which during the war had passed wholly into our hands.

 

