The Commonwealth of Nations; an inquiry into the nature of citizenship in the British Empire, and into the mutual relations of the several communities thereofPt1 . ritish Isles, because, as may be seen from Plate IX.,wiities. their position makes them for purposes of commerceand manufacture the centre of the world. The exactcentre of the land hemisphere is at 47^ N., 2\ W.,a point on the sea just outside the mouth of theLoire. For ships coming from the south and westthe coasts of Britain are scarcely less central. Itsnumerous harbours are singularly convenient formaritime trade, and the very s
The Commonwealth of Nations; an inquiry into the nature of citizenship in the British Empire, and into the mutual relations of the several communities thereofPt1 . ritish Isles, because, as may be seen from Plate IX.,wiities. their position makes them for purposes of commerceand manufacture the centre of the world. The exactcentre of the land hemisphere is at 47^ N., 2\ W.,a point on the sea just outside the mouth of theLoire. For ships coming from the south and westthe coasts of Britain are scarcely less central. Itsnumerous harbours are singularly convenient formaritime trade, and the very smallness of the islandsfacilitates transport by means of coasting vesselsbetween its various centres of commerce and contains, moreover, deposits of excellent coal, largeenough to furnish more than a quarter of the worldspresent supply. Nature has in fact made this littleterritory the best place in the world for working andcombining materials collected from all the continentsinto goods for redistribution to all their as an emporium or a centre of manufacture,the natural advantage of these islands is unique. PLATE IX THE WORLD. THE OPENING OF THE HIGH SEAS 179 Nor are they dependent upon their own soil for the of the people engaged in these occupations,because a very large part of their food is broughtto them by ships returning from oversea. Whenthe oceans were first opened to traffic the Englishpopulation numbered about 3,000,000, and English-men of that age can no more have realized howlarge a population their island could carry thanthey can have foreseen the load which their littlecommonwealth was destined to take upon is this, indeed, which has hitherto enabled sosmall a section of Europe to support so overwhelminga share of the burden of government created by thehistory of Europe as a whole. The late Lord Salisbury advised students of Popuia-foreign politics to use large maps. But it is even 0f Unitedmore important that
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1910, bookidc, booksubjectcolonization
