Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1900-03-10
WHERE THE SUN NEVER SETS
Some Of the Countries Qualified to Put
Forward This Claim.
The Phrase is n Rhetorical Gem Of
Considerable Anttauity-Figure
Not Coined by England.
From the London Globe.

That the sun never sets on the British en-
pire Is an axiom which suggests rather
than defines the truth which inspired IL.
rms OF course. Is by no means Of scion
tihc or even literal exactness But we all
recognize the meaning of the phrase which,
like many another rhetorical gem OF his
torc interest, Is very much older than
the setting in which it has from time 10
time appeared. 1t has been attributed TO
Fit: and it no doubt received from him a
splendid send-off on its Introduction to the
nineteenth century. In allusion to British
possessions and resources the prime minis
ter used the then little known expression,
the King of England. on whose dominIons
cue sun never SETS. That IL made a great
impression may well be imagined Nor
Wa this feIt the least strongly in Ame-i-
ca; Tor IN addressing the Senate some Years
afterward the eloquent Daniel Webster re-
nlnued his hearers that England WAS A
power "hicn had dotted the surface of
me entire globe with her possessions and
mliitary posts, whose morning drum beat
IohowinS the sun and keeping COMPANY
with the hours. encircled the earth daily
WIN one continuous and uubrokcu strain
VI lne martial airs of England" This
graphic and picturesque enrichment raises
lhe inquire to high poetic level in itself
suggestive of the inspiration of a former
So, ana as matter of fact England
msither coined nor adapted it for herself
Inc inquire has fallen to US as a heritage
Of empire. "
Ihls is best shown by the fact that the
putdse mas been a sometime possession OF
several nations. We unexpectedIv encoun
Ter 1t In the works of the quaint Thomas
ruler, who, in his sketch of the life Of Sir.
rIahcls Drake, says that though poor
private man, the admiral hereafter under
LOOK 10 aNenSe himself upon so mighty a
monarch, who, as not contented that the
sun riseth and setteth in his dominious, NAV
seem to desire to make all his own where
n. re Is M aA,g.
monarch here referred to- nor OF The feryor
wei, Wen MiIch on so many occasions Drake
s!Hsed Inc Spanish kings beard" Ii was
IN the reign of Philip i'll that the Snantsh
monarchy attained its highest point Of
spiendor and dominion. When the Ambas-
sauor Gondomar was combining business
ana pleasure at the English court he Dade
Spanish graEdee who was returning To
MS own country remember him 10 The
sun, which he had not seen since his resi-
dence in England and which he would be
sure to ind in Spain.
The Spaniards, however had long been
conscious that the sun was always shining
on some OF their territories. In one OF
H9%elL 5 weH-hnown collections of letters,
puDIlShed IN 1623 occurs this passage: I'm
FhIlip lis time this crown came 10 his
grandeur, and truly, to give the Spaniard
ms due, he is a mighty monarch who hath
aomihioa In Europe, Asia, Africa and Amer
lea So the sun shines all the four and
twenty hours of the natural day upon some
part or other of his country for part of
the antipodes are subject to him." And in
his account of Historic Phrases Tuchan-
an quotes the following sentence of a
Dutch author in 1660: THE King of Spain
IS a great potentate, who stands with one
loot In The east and the other in the west
ara the sun never sets that il does NOT
SHINE on some of his dominions" The
same idea also finds expression in Guarini's
Pastor Ffdo." written some seventy years
carrier IN which Catherine of Austria is
spoken of as the illustrious daughter of
Inc monarch on whose empire the sun
never sets.
But Portugal had also put forward her
claim 10 an ever present sun, and certainly
not without some show of reason. Even
now in proportion TO the importance of
the mother country the Portuguese depen-
denc1es are of considerable extent No
doubt she was surpassed by Spain in the
great burst of maritime discovery But
Within the century preceding the birth of
Samoens the Cape of Good Hope was
doubled by Vasco da Cana while Brazil
was discovered by Cabral in 1900 Here
was expansion east and west more than
enough for 4 poet to build upon; and In the
I-usiati, Camoens says of the Portuguese
empire that the sun looks upon IL when II
rises, 1t still beholds ii at midday, and when
II sets it sets behind it, In whatever form
the figure is presented, there can be no
ooupt that II is entirely poetic in its origin,
though political foresight may have has
tened to adopt it. Its cosmopolitan virtues
have endowed it with all the more force
and vitality Schiller uses it with effect in
ms Don Carlos" and in the course of tho
Peninsular war Napoleon deemed IN mol
fttc to remind his army that -'the sun
never sets on the immense empire be-
queathed by Charles V" The phrase seems
at some time other to have been in the
mouth of every nation that had the SMALL
est pretensions to employ IL. though il no
doubt obtained its widest currency after
the discovery of the new world The Ro-
mans adapted it to their state of geopranh
ioal and astronomical knowledge Tibuilus
expressed 1t in poetry, and Rutilius in
prose And two thousand years afterward
their descendants are speaking of the con-
templated visit of the queen to their shores
as that of queen and empress on whose
dominion the sun never sets