THE I'KINCIl'LKS OF WOKLD-KMIUKK. 



23 



South Africa, New Zealand are substantially the result of 

 obedience to the first command of all : — 



" Be fruitful and multiply and replenish the earth and subdue it." 



Britain has been differentiated from the three other Empire- 

 States in that, being an island, her expansion has necessarily 

 been across the ocean. She has been a merchant state as well 

 as an agricultural one ; and manufacture and trade are largely 

 the means of her support. 



But because these Empires are growths, are in fact living 

 organisms, it follows that they may die ; must die indeed, unless 

 they derive their life from something imperishable. And it is 

 noteworthy that all the four are face to face with problems that 

 threaten their existence. 



China, that old, old bottle, has had poured into it the new 

 wine of modern democratic ideas, Russia is in a like case. The 

 United States stand to all appearance as much the most favoured 

 nation, and we all remember with pleasure the bright optimism 

 and charming lucidity of Chancellor McCormick's paper last 

 session on " The Composite of Races and Religions in America." 

 But we also remember that the most difficult and serious 

 questions that American statesmen have to face were confessedly 

 left out of account ; such as the relation of the coloured races, 

 black and yellow, to the white, and the concentration of wealth 

 and of the means of supply and transport in the hands of a few 

 individuals. 



Britain is confronted by problems more numerous and more 

 complex than those with which the United States have to deal. 

 The great Republic established definite organic relations between 

 the Union and the individual States comprising it at the very 

 beginning of its career, and the great question as to where 

 sovereignty was lodged was fought out to a conclusion half a 

 century ago. For Britain the whole question of organic 

 relations between her Dominions and herself, and these again 

 with each other, with the Crown Colonies and with India, has 

 never been so much as stated for solution. " Time and patient 

 neglect " are the two chief factors upon which Britain has most 

 relied in the past, and still relies ; but these will not suffice to 

 conjure away the causes of difference and difficulty which are 

 now making themselves manifest. 



And beside the many difficulties attaching to any scheme for 

 federating the self-governing English-speaking Dominions w T ith 

 the Mother Country, the British Empire presents a series of 

 problems arising from differences of colour, race, religion, 



