Passmore Edwards
and some others joined us, but the result was not encouraging. Harmony
did not prevail among my British friends and finally I decided to
withdraw, which I was fortunately able to do without loss.[69]
[Footnote 69: Mr. Carnegie acquired no less than eighteen British
newspapers with the idea of promoting radical views. The political
results were disappointing, but with his genius for making money the
pecuniary results were more than satisfactory.]
My third literary venture, "Triumphant Democracy,"[70] had its origin
in realizing how little the best-informed foreigner, or even Briton,
knew of America, and how distorted that little was. It was prodigious
what these eminent Englishmen did not then know about the Republic. My
first talk with Mr. Gladstone in 1882 can never be forgotten. When I
had occasion to say that the majority of the English-speaking race was
now republican and it was a minority of monarchists who were upon the
defensive, he said:
"Why, how is that?"
"Well, Mr. Gladstone," I said, "the Republic holds sway over a larger
number of English-speaking people than the population of Great Britain
and all her colonies even if the English-speaking colonies were
numbered twice over."
"Ah! how is that? What is your population?"
"Sixty-six millions, and yours is not much more than half.
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