"It had always been held by the government of this country that it was for the interest of England that the countries on the European coast extending from Dunkirk and Ostend to the islands of the North Sea should be possessed by free and flourishing communities, practising the arts of peace, enjoying the rights of liberty, and following those pursuits of commerce which tend to the civilization of man, and should not be in the possession of a great military power, one of the principles of whose existence necessarily must be to aim at a preponderating influence in Europe." Benjamin Disraeli