Fair points, alanabit and Greg. Yes, it is promoting the might of a nation that *can* kick ass if it has to, it's just not promoting the kicking of any particular ass, or the act of kicking ass. :-)

Re the "all thine shall be the subject main" though, at the time Britain really was setting itself up as the policeman of the world, so I read that more in the lines of pacifying and de-pirating. Although I guess "pacifying" is a moot point - more than a few "destroy the village to save it" exercises...

Thing is though, the Brits back then really did see Britain as the world's policeman, in exactly the same way as many Americans think of the US today. The parallels are (ahem) unparalleled. ;-) As more than one person has pointed out, these kind of songs tend to come from the people sat safely at home, so they're a good indication of what the national mood was at the time.

Graham.