BRITISH EMPIRE, the aggregation of states, self-governing dependencies colonies, dependenes and i protectorates which is subject in the last resort to the British Parliament. Officially it was not entitled to the name till 1876, when Queen Victoria assumed the title Empress of India; but the term was in current use long before_ It is the largest body of land and of people under any one jurisdiction on the globe, com prising about one-fourth of the earth's sur face, and one-fourth of its inhabitants: over 11,500,000 square miles, exclusive of Egypt, and Egyptian Sudan, or 12,500,000 with them, and 400,000,000 population. Extensive portions of it lie in each of the five grand divisions of the globe: about 121,000 square miles in Europe, 3,700,000 in America, 1,880,000 in Asia, 2,700,000 in Africa, 3,175,000 in Australasia. Its organiza tion is entirely different from that of any other in history. The control of the central government over the outlying sections varies from autocracy to a merely nominal control; the most valuable parts are the least controlled, and have become the most valuable largely by that freedom. None of them pay any taxes into the imperial treasury, and the mother country derives her profit from them solely through trade relations and as furnishing employment for the overflow of British youth. Indeed, movements for independence are forestalled by the concession of whatever privileges are claimed by the self-governing colonies, even to the imposition of discriminating duties on Brit ish goods; and it is a postulate of British poli tics that no forcible resistance shall be offered if any of these wishes to withdraw altogether.
The nucleus of the empire is the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, ruled nominally by a hereditary sovereign; actually by a Parliament with one chamber popularly elected and the other composed of hereditary peers. Even the latter in practice almost invar iably yields to the popular house when that body is firmly set on a given policy.
The subordinate portions fall under six classes: (1) Wholly self-governing commu nities: their sole ties to the mother country be ing an ornamental governor whose real func tions are social and argumentative, the right of appeal from their Supreme Courts to the Eng ish Privy Council (even that curtailed in Aus tralia), and the home government's nominal right of vetoing their laws, which, in fact, is never exercised. Canada, Australia and the
Union of South Africa are the chief exemplars. (2) Those where the home government appoints part of the legislative body as well as the gov ernor. This is entirely composed of the Chan nel Islands, Malta, Cyprus, Ceylon, Mauritius, Jamaica, the Leeward Islands, British Guiana and Rhodesia. (3) Crown colonies' where the ruling body, an executive and council (sometimes two councils, executive and legis lative), are wholly oppointed by the home gov ernment, without local representation, and are directly responsible to the Colonial Secretary, except India, the greatest of this type, which is under a special secretary of state and home council. Of the others, the chief are the British settlements on the west coast of Africa —Sierra Leone, Nigeria, the Gold Coast, Gambia and Lagos; the Straits Settlements and Hong kong; in America, British Honduras, Trinidad, the Windward and Falkland islands; in Austral asia, Fiji. The titles of these imperial rulers and of the group following are various: gover nor, commissioner, high commissioner, resident, etc. (4) Those administered by a single official under the Colonial Secretary, without a council. Such are Gibraltar and Aden, Ascension (under the control of the Admiralty); in Africa, Basu toland, Bechuanaland, and the protectorates of British Central and Eastern Africa and British Somaliland— administered respectively by the consul-general at Zanzibar, a resident commis sioner and a consul-general at Berbera; and Egypt, a protectorate over which was assumed in December 1914 under a high commissioner. (5) Government by a trading corporation, licensed and supervised by the home govern ment, formerly the chief colonial system in Europe, and the only intelligible object of col onization. Great Britain has now but one de pendency of this type: British North Borneo, where the company's governor must be con firmed by the Colonial Secretary. (6) Mere con trol of a native government by a resident com missioner, or power to interfere if judged ad visable, or sometimes scarcely more than the marking out of a °sphere of influence° within which other nations are debarred from med dling. The chief types of this class are some 40 native states of India, Zanzibar, Uganda and the native states of the Malay Peninsula.