"the british empire and it's laissez faire philosophy was one of the great evils of the history of mankind and spawned the greater evil of the present " free enterprise capitalist" empire of america. they want freedom to pillage the world and ignore the cost to others."

Thank you Ollaimh. I don't think I've ever heard it put so eloquently. I did I know that bit of Canadian history, however, it doesn't surprise me.

Now, was it all laissez faire -or did the British have a special contempt for the Irish?