The Government of the British Empire
Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: CHAPTER HI THE TERRITORIES OF THE EMPIRE: THE UNITED KINGDOM AND THE SELF- GOVERNING DOMINIONS One of the chief reasons, though not the only reason, why the dominions of the British Crown have received the somewhat misleading name of " Empire " is, that they comprise a large number of separate communities differing in language, institutions, religion, and other qualities, and united only by their common allegiance to the British Crown, and their common sympathy with one another. In former times, such collections of different communities were rarely created except by the process of forcible conquest; though occasionally the personal interests of a ruler, acquired by marriage or descent, exercised some influence in that direction. It was, therefore, natural that, when British statesmen began to realize that
...they were the servants of a monarch whose rule was gradually extending far beyond the bounds of the British Islands, they and others should begin to speak of that rule as " Imperial," though, in fact, it was, as we shall see, only in part based on conquest. But the practice is unfortunate, though now, probably, too firmly fixed to be changed; for it conceals the important fact, that the so-called " British Empire " is by no means a collection of subordinate peoples governed by a ruling race with the sword and spear, but a vast body of communities, nearly all of which enjoy a good deal of control over their own affairs, and some of which are practically independent commonwealths. THE UNITED KINGDOM 43 The Story Of The Empire The story, long and brilliant, of the events by which this vast Empire was created, cannot be told within the limits of this book. Happily, this is not necessary; for it has been admirably told by other writers, and readers of these pages canno... --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.
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