GREAT BRITAIN 



2586 



GREAT BRITAIN 



made to distinguish between these different 

 classes, but in the articles under the separate 

 titles their standing will be indicated. Some 

 of the subject territories have no census, and 

 their population is merely estimated; and the 

 total here given is not absolute, for colonies 

 of minor importance have been omitted: 



certain advantages in Africa, but whether or not 

 the gain there is permanent, only the results 

 of the war can tell. 



The totals given are below rather than above 

 the actual numbers, for all estimates are con- 

 servative, and in the population figures of 

 many places the army and navy are not in- 



Coloulal PoHxesslonB of Great Britain 



It must be Understood that the statistics 

 here given represent conditions before the out- 

 break of the War of the Nations in 1914. The 

 early stages of that war gave to Great Britain 



eluded. The government of these colonies and 

 protectorates is dealt with under the subtitle 

 Government, below, and also in the articles 

 under the various titles. 



Government 



Great Britain has not, like the United States, 

 and indeed, like most great countries, a single 

 written constitwtion, but its government is 

 none the less a strictly constitutional form. In 

 fact, England has been a leader in developing 



constitutional government, and many other 

 countries have patterned after it. Much of its 

 constitution is unwritten a mass of precedents, 

 institutions, decisions which have been built 

 up through the centuries and now have all the 



