"I am reminded that I was guilty on a certain occasion of stating in an article—not a political article—that, in my opinion, it was far from improbable that as the volume of the future was unrolled, America, with its vast population and its wonderful resources, and not less with that severe education which, from the high price of labor, America is receiving in the strong necessity of resorting to every description of labor-saving contrivances, and consequent development, not only on a large scale, but down to the smallest scale of mechanical genius of the country—on that account the day may come when that country may claim to possess the commercial primacy of the world, I gave sad offence to many.
— from The Grand Old Man Or, the Life and Public Services of the Right Honorable William Ewart Gladstone, Four Times Prime Minister of England by Richard B. (Richard Briscoe) Cook