Page:A School History of England (1911).djvu/261

 Atlantic, it began to pay them less and less. And now we buy not only almost all our corn, but most of our meat, and a good deal of our wool, fruit and butter, from abroad also. The sad result has been that the land of England is rapidly going out of cultivation, and that our villages are being deserted in favour of our towns, where we cannot expect so strong and healthy a race to grow up as that of our grandfathers who lived by work in the open fields.

There is, moreover, a most serious danger behind. If England should ever be defeated in a great war at sea, it would be impossible for us to get our food at all, and our population would simply starve. Therefore, at whatever cost to ourselves, it is our duty to keep our navy so strong that it must be for ever impossible for us to be defeated at sea.

 

