Page:The empire and the century.djvu/65

 communication there is, but this rather breeds an illusion of mutual knowledge than creates it, and, indeed, often leads to dangerous misunderstandings.

Nor do these countries form, like Russia or the United States, a continuous whole, so that an unbroken chain of personal acquaintance binds every part to every part. The waters, even narrow seas, divide the peoples, and a wave of emotion often ends where the land meets the sea as truly as a wave of water ends where the sea meets the land. How much was England moved by the Alaska Award, or Canada by the English Education Act?

In some countries a single and centralized military system has done something to weld together a people. In the British Empire there is no true military unity, except as between England and India. The tendency has been in the direction of withdrawing British troops from the Colonies, and a policy of concentration now also governs the disposition of the Royal Navy.

Here, then, is the importance of the Crown. These nations and races, divided by space and civilization, by religion, policy, language, colour, with no common Church or Parliament or Army, are united by the lines of allegiance which converge from every part to the throne. Not otherwise could such an Empire be held together, any more than the Roman Catholic Church, not being founded upon nationality, could exist without its centre at Rome. To the British the King is the far-descended chief of their race; to Asiatics and Africans he appears as lord of their rulers, a remote, mysterious, and mighty being. Millions of British subjects have never heard of Imperial Parliament, or Cabinet, or Prime Minister, but there are none to whom the monarch is not a real, if confusedly apprehended, existence. In his name all the acts of rule in their own lands are done; they see his annual festival honoured with solemn ritual at every centre of administration. He gives an intelligible meaning to government in minds incapable of political abstractions.