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EMPIRE BUILDERS
By
META SCHOOLEY LAWS
We are all too some extent at least, worshippers of the old Roman god Janus, one of whose faces turned tot eh past, the other to the future.
So we have our “Jubilees,” our “Anniversaries,” our “Old Boys Reunions.”
Perhaps one of our greatest pageants ever staged by the empire was the Diamond Jubilee of Queen Victoria, whose memory is perpetuated by the holiday and fittingly preceded by Empire day.
Truly the great poet Laureate wrote of her: “She did her people lasting good.”
Today, amid social unrest world-wide, amid the downfall of great empires and the birth of lesser states, the British empire stands secure.
“Unshaken still.
Broad-fused upon her people’s will.
And compass’d by the inviolate sea.”
More fascinating than fiction could possibly be is the story of her expansion and consolidation.
What an inspiration to novelist and poet, as well as to historian are the great men around whom, from age to age her history has centered.!
Two great loves have possessed her people, from the earliest days when Hengrst and Horsa led their wild followers across the North sea from their crowded quarters, down to the present.
The love of adventure, which lies at the root of Britain’s expansion; the love of free institutions, of liberty, which has been the mightiest force in her consolidation.
Hand in hand these two great forces have permeated our national life, and upon them the greatness of the empire; in all the phases, social or economic of her life chiefly rests. These the foundations of the empire. And the builders?
Small wonder that we are proud to count ourselves among them, when we consider that from so small a beginning this great empire has evolved.
What characteristic enabled the conquered Saxon to dominate the Norman conqueror so that England and not Normandy emerged?
How often had one man of this great empire dominated thousands not by military prowess, but by some other great quality; Warren Hastings in India; Cecil Rhodes in Africa.
Even the military force of the empire when brought to play in the development of her colonies has not engendered lasting hate. Those who led armed forces against her have in more instances than one subsequently aided her in establishing her rule among their own people.
This is peculiarly true of South Africa.
The daring of the northern tribes, the imagination of the Celt, the “canniness of the Scot, the dogged perseverance of the Englishman, the suavity of the Norman-all these have combined to make the Britisher.
The Welland Tribune and Telegraph
24 May 1927
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