The London Speaker, June 26, 1897. World History

456.

An Imperialist Article in the Speaker, June 26, 1897

To the people of the empire these jubilee rejoicings have brought home a knowledge, not so much of the growth of the greatness of the empire since this reign began, as of the steady growth in our minds of the determination that we shall remain one and indivisible in the ages that lie before us. The old notions about the breaking up of imperial unity and the substitution for it of a group of independent states are dead — not here in London alone, but in Melbourne, Cape Town, Montreal, Calcutta, and Madras. In their place has been formed the still grander idea of an imperial entity in which free communities are held together by the silken cord of love — love for the queen and love for each other.

This double stream of freedom and unity is not one that can be easily realized; but that it is in course of being realized now, and that with its realization the British empire will be placed not only on a grander but a safer pedestal than any empire ever stood upon before, are facts which cannot be disputed, and which none seem less inclined to dispute than the intelligent foreign critics whose remarks upon the national festival of this week have been read in this country with so deep an interest. There is no one among us who is likely at present to need to be reminded that the strongest factor in bringing about the realization of this splendid vision is the universal feeling of devotion to the sovereign who, on Tuesday, sent her thanks and her blessing to the three hundred and fifty millions of men and women whom she rules and loves.