British Empire
that part of the world which acknowledges the authority of the British Parliament. It is by all means the greatest empire the earth has ever seen. One-fourth of the entire area of the globe belongs to it; and 400,000,000 people in all grand divisions are under the protection of its flag. A telegraph cable encircles the globe, touching only British territory. Space will not permit an entry of the names of all the possessions, but the chief divisions may be stated as follows.
1. THE UNITED KINGDOM: England and Wales, Scotland, Ireland, the Isle of Man, and the Channel Islands.
2. EUROPEAN POSSESSIONS: Gibraltar and Malta.
3. ASIATIC POSSESSIONS: Aden, British North Borneo, Ceylon, Cyprus, Hong Kong, India and dependencies, The Straits Settlements, Weihaiwei.
4. AFRICAN POSSESSIONS: Ascension, Bechuanaland, Cape of Good Hope, or Cape Colony, Central Africa, British East Africa, Uganda, Zanzibar, Mauritius, Natal, Nigeria, Orange River, Rhodesia, St. Helena, Seychelles, Somaliland, Transvaal, Gold Coast, Gambia, Sierra Leone.
5. AMERICA: Bermudas, Canada, Falkland, British Guiana, Honduras, Newfoundland, Labrador, West Indies, including the Bahamas, Barbados, Jamaica, Leeward Islands, Trinidad, and Windwards.
6. AUSTRALASIA: Australia, British New Guinea, New Zealand, and numerous islands and islets in Oceanica.
The government of the empire is elastic. The United Kingdom is governed by Parliament direct. Executive authority is placed in the hands of a cabinet--virtually a committee of the houses of Parliament. The crown, that is to say, the king, or, to be exact, a minister responsible to Parliament, appoints an officer known as a governor, or a governor-general, or by some other name, for each colony or protectorate. His authority varies with conditions. Wherever the inhabitants are sufficiently intelligent to govern themselves and are sufficiently numerous to make it worth while, governmental matters are left to local legislatures elected by the people. In Canada and Australia, for instance, the governor-general is as unlikely to veto legislation as is the king at home. None of the colonies are taxed by Parliament. Local legislatures are given freedom, and are even permitted to levy import duties on goods coming from the home country. Through liberal treatment of this sort, the various parts of the empire remain loyal to the home government.
The extent of the British empire is well expressed by Daniel Webster. He speaks of "a power which has dotted over the surface of the whole globe with her possessions and military posts, whose morning drum-beat, following the sun, and keeping company with the hours, circles the earth with one continuous and unbroken strain of the martial airs of England." Rudyard Kipling puts the same thought in other words:
It's safest to let 'er alone:
For 'er sentries we stand by the sea an' the land
Wherever the bugles are blown.
An' flop round the earth till you're dead;
But you won't get away from the tune that they play
To the bloomin' old rag over'ead.
See Parliament; United Kingdom; Canada; Australia; India; Egypt; and the various countries of the empire.