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E. WALTER MAUNDER, F.R.A.S., ON 



mingled in fit proportions." In his Address, Sir Charles was 

 necessarily most concerned with the " mingling " ; with the 

 practical question how best to preserve their " fit proportions." 

 My purpose is rather to examine into the basic principles them- 

 selves ; to deal with " sovereignty and liberty " in their applica- 

 tion to the problem of Empire, not confined to some particular 

 " aggregate of administrative units," but extending over the 

 entire world. 



The struggle in which to-day we have found ourselves involved 

 is one for World-Empire. Since we are in the struggle, it follows 

 inevitably that the details of the struggle occupy our thoughts 

 to the exclusion of almost every other consideration. Yet the 

 struggle is one of principles, more than of armies, and will 

 eventually be decided by principles, not by artillery. It may, 

 therefore, well repay us if for a few minutes we try to remove 

 ourselves far from the actual material conflict, and examine the 

 principles. 



The Great Eiver Valley States. 



World-Empire, sovereignty extending over the whole known 

 habitable world, is an ancient ideal. 



The earliest great states of the ancient world arose in approxi- 

 mately the same period and in analogous geographical conditions. 

 They were the states of the great river valleys. Egypt was 

 " the gift of the Nile " : Mesopotamia of the twin rivers, the 

 Tigris and the Euphrates ; China of the Hoang-Ho. In these 

 regions, blessed with plenteous sunshine and a warm climate, 

 abundance of water, but little rain, life was easy of support and 

 the cereals could be cultivated with great success. Egypt is, of 

 course, the typical instance of a river-valley state, but all three 

 countries resembled each other in this, that their suitability for 

 the maintenance of a great population depended upon the river 

 being brought under subjection. It was necessary to embank it 

 and to arrange for reservoirs of its surplus waters, which had to 

 be distributed over the land by irrigation canals. Until the 

 river had been thus controlled, it was a hindrance rather than an 

 aid to human settlement ; its annual inundations rendered the 

 land impassable for months together, and swept away any frail 

 habitations that the hand of man might have reared. 



The conquest of the river was thus, in each case, a prime 

 necessity, and this could only be accomplished by concerted 

 human effort on a very large scale. Here then, therefore, the 

 first great states arose. With the embankment of the river and 



