READJUSTMENT AFTER WAR 3 



the prestige of the greatest military genius of 

 modern times, if not of all times. Her colonial 

 possessions, largely increased by the twenty 

 years of war just ended, covered vast areas in 

 every part of the globe. Commercially, no 

 other power approached her in the magnitude 

 of her interests. In manufactures she was 

 slowly but surely forging to the front on lines 

 that were soon to revolutionize industry. Po 

 litically and socially the forces that made up 

 this mighty organism were centred in a nar 

 row aristocracy. The landowners of the United 

 Kingdom ruled the British Empire. There was 

 indeed a monarch; there was a House of Com 

 mons; there were courts and juries and bills of 

 rights and all the elements that had for cen 

 turies been the vaunted guarantees of English 

 liberty. In the actual working of the complex 

 system, however, the decisive influence was 

 wielded by the landed aristocracy, and more 

 particularly by the peers whose estates consti 

 tuted so significant a fraction of the surface of 

 the islands. 



The United States, when it ventured to en 

 gage in war with this huge empire, presented a 

 contrast with its adversary that was almost 

 ludicrous. A population of 8,000,000, of whom 



