Because... by Jeremy Bentham

Came across these great lines by Jeremy Bentham, snubbing the imperialistic policies of the British empire:

 "You will, I say give up your choices - because you have no right to govern them, because they had rather not be governed by you, because it is against their interest to be governed by you, because you get nothing by governing them, because you can't keep them, because the expence of trying to keep them would be ruinous, because your constitution would suffer by your keeping them, because your principles forbid your keeping them and because would do good to all the world by parting with them."

Kudos to Bentham for exposing the cognitive dissonance of the Brits (c. 1822).