But the first man to state the new ideas clearly was Disraeli. ...

But the first man to state the new ideas clearly was Disraeli.

Just twenty years later the Oxford Dictionary wrote: 'In recent British politics Imperialism means the principle or policy of seeking, or at least not refusing, an extension of the British Empire in directions where trading interests and investments require the protection of the flag; and of so uniting the different

parts of the Empire having separate

Governments, as to secure that for certain purposes, such as warlike defence, internal ecommerce, copyright, and postal communication, they shall be practically a single state.' Between these three there is room for many half tones, and for all the emotions, from an almost religious fervour to an almost religious horror, with which the name and idea of Imperialism affected Late Victorian minds, according as it was regarded as the Mission of an Elect People, or Exploitation by Superior Power. The notion of Mission, adapted from the religious conception of the duty laid by the Lord upon his prophets, was popularized by Carlyle.

Poet, novelist, statesman, journalist, everyone who wished to give his doings the importance which in his own secret judgement, perhaps, they did not possess, put them down to the credit of his Mission. Nations have their Mission too, and by 1870 the conception had taken body in the Indian Civil Service.

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