THE BRITISH EMPIRE.

Colonist, Volume LII, Issue 12807, 31 May 1910, Page 1

THE BRITISH EMPIRE.

• The. Ear] oi' Meath in a recent ad dress said: — "What is the British Km. piro r 1 Well the Jiritfsh Kmpire may be said to be a political organisation the like of which the world lias never seen . We have all read of the Babylonian. . Assyrian, Persian, Grc»?k, and Roman ; Empires. It yoU come <.v fctittSulttl' it . all these great Empires, magnificent a: • tlu\y v.eio, wero simply provides com- , paied with the British Empire. This • Empire covers two;ity-one per cent oi . the earth's surface, and contains twen- . ty-two per cent of the earth's population. Realise what that means. Ant ; what have we done to be placed in this extraordinary position? You and J have done, nothing at all. If any one . has done anything, it is our ancestors. We have had this Threat heritage handed down to us. Arc We going to be unworthy oi' it? A thousand times, No! "This great P^nipire contains torn hundred millions of people. It is almost impossible to realise; what thai means. Four hundred millions of people, consisting of almost every race oi man, of every colour, and every religion. There is only one country whicli at all approaches the British Empire ir population, and it doos not approacli it at all in extent or area. It is China. China is", "supposed at one time to have possessed four hundred millions, bui it was then a closed Empire. Now il ,h,is ber,n opened up, and it has not go! such an enormous population as wi thought— only a little over three hundred millions. Consequently the British Empire is at the head* ot everything. King George V rules over more than double the number of Mohanimedans than does the, Sultan. We loo* i upon him as a very great man. He ; rules over only forty millions or Mo- ' hammodans. King George V. rules over ninety-four and a-half millions. There are a groat many more Jews in the British Empire than in Palestine. i The Hindoos alojie are two hundred i and eight millions, almost equal to the entire population of the two most popI nlous countries of the. world outside China — Russia and the United States. '■'Have you realised that there is something like twenty-six important parliaments throughout the Empire, not to speak of numerous small parliaments and councils, half-elected and half-appointed others entirely nominated by the Crown ? Have you realised what an extraordinary diversity of government there is throughout this great Empire? If not, think. about it. Thci more you study the question, the more you will be overwhelmed with the immense responsibility which is resting upon your oivn shouWers. It is everything to you. Each individual has some portion of this burden of Empire thrust upon him or her."