18993 The British Empire 



expressed in Joaquin Miller's poem beginning with 

 the lines: 



We wish you well in all things well. 



To me as to Joaquin, both of us lifelong admirers A gross 

 of England at her best, the Boer War seemed a lapse 

 gross lapse, a view which few public men of today 

 will question. At the time, however, it was loudly 

 asserted that "the sense of greatness makes a people 

 great"; in other words, expansion of empire inflates 

 the individual! But it is a plain fact that a man's 

 political efficiency depends directly on his personal 

 stake in government. The real basis of imperialism 

 is the suppression of the individual both at the center 

 of power and in its periphery. 



England is snug and solid, and her self-governing 

 colonies are sufficient unto themselves. Thus the 

 British Empire, in so far as it rests on love of do- 

 minion and volume of trade, is vulnerable and 

 temporary, and its "far-flung" segments can be 

 permanently held together only by the cement of 

 cooperative federation; however great also the why 

 British genius for colonial control, the fact remains f reedom 



m/iHo+c 



that "no people is good enough to rule another 

 against its will." Nevertheless, just settlements of 

 ancient wrongs are not to be reached in a day, nor 

 (as a rule) by spasms of revolution. "The mills 

 of the gods grind slowly " when they yield a grist 

 worth while. It should also be remembered that 

 political independence gives no guarantee of per- 

 sonal freedom, the only liberty worth considering. 

 However, it is, or ought to be, an axiom of politi- 

 cal science that good government begins at home, 

 because justice and efficiency necessarily decrease 



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matters 



