NOTE.—The following essay is based mainly upon a book by the sameauthor entitled "The Expansion of Europe," in which an attempt is madeto estimate the part played by various nations in extending thecivilisation of Europe over the whole world. A few references aretherefore given to the fuller treatment of various aspects of thesubject contained in the book.
Nearly all the great self-governing nations of the world are nowcombined in a desperate struggle against the scarcely-veiled militarydespotism of the Central European Powers, and the object of the strugglehas been well denned by President Wilson as the securing of freedom fordemocracy, so that it shall be safe from the threats of militarist andconquering empires.
In the forefront of the group of States engaged in the defence ofdemocracy stands the British Empire, the greatest dominion that has everexisted in history, which covers a quarter of the earth's surface, andin which a quarter of the earth's population is subject (at any rate, inform) to the rule of two small European islands.
The very existence of this huge Empire seems to many people to stultifyin some degree the cause for which the world's democracies are fighting.It seems, at first sight, to be simply the greatest example of thatspirit of conquest and of military dominion against which we arestriving. This is the view taken by some neutrals. "Imperialism is theenemy," says one Swiss writer; "whatever form it takes, German orRussian, British or French, it is equally the foe of free government."The Germans themselves make great play with this notion. They describethe British Empire as a vast, greedy tyranny, built up by fraud. Theyinvite us to free the oppressed millions of India before we talkhypocritically about liberty. They assert that the naval supremacy ofBritain is far more dangerous to the freedom of the world than themilitary power of Germany could ever be. Some people even in the alliedcountries are affected by doubts of this kind. The Russian Socialists,for whom imperialism has in the past meant nothing but a hideousrepression of freedom, are ready to assume that the British Empire,because it is called an empire, must mean the same ugly things. Andcriticism of the same kind can sometimes be heard in France, in Italy,in the United States, and in Britain herself.
Our purpose, in this short paper, is to examine the truth of thesesuperficial impressions. But before we do so there are two preliminaryobservations worth making.
The first is that men's minds are extraordinarily easily influenced bymere words. The word "Empire" suggests, to many, conquest and dominionover unwilling subjects. In so far as it does so, it begs the question.As we shall try to show, this word is really misapplied to the Britishrealms. The character of their government and of the bond which holdsthem together would be much better expressed by a phrase which is nowbeing widely used in Britain—the British Commonwealth of Nations. Ofcourse, that title also begs the question in a way. But the reader