The Republican journal., 1915-01-28
Over Seas.-Creat Britain.

The British Isles, or United Kingdom
of Great Britain and Ireland, forman ar
chipelago of about 5, 500 islands and rocks
but few miles west of central Europe,
from which it is separated by the North
Sea, the Strait of Dover and the English
Channel. The principal islands are Brit
ain, Ireland. the Isle of Wight, Angle
sea, Man, the Scilly Islands, Butte, Arran,
the Hebrides, Orkney and Shetland Is
lands. Total area more than 10000
square miles. A branch of the Gulf
Stream, flowing along the west coast,
gives them climate as mild as that in
much lower ATTITUDES on the continent.
The Island of Britain, the largest is
land of Europe, 600 miles long, 300 miles
wide, containing England, Scotland and
Wales, has an historic place in the
world unrivaled in influence on the des-
gone in the past five hundred years col
onists, maritime exploiters, and military
expeditions, from the tribes of men who
in the fifteen hundred years proceeding
migrated thither and fought out their
feuds and mingled their blood, making
thus the wonderful, the mournfully te-
nacious British race that has built an
Empire on which the sun never sets. In
deed the Romans under Caesar IS years
B. c. found Celts there who in unknown
times had migrated probably from an
cient Gaul on the continent. The Island
was abandoned by the Romans after an
occupancy of nearly 500 years. The old
Roman military structures may be seen
today, notably at Chester, and across
the neck of land between the Firths of
Forth and Clyde, in great walls, the
latter to defend the empire from the at
tacks of the Caledonians. The old Ro-
man name of Scotland was Caledonia,
and the name still holds. After the Re-,
mans, came the Angles, Saxons, Jutes,
.Frisians, and later on Danes, who from
the sixth to the ninth centuries, with
swords and battleaxes, both warmed and
SoOiCL LuCSS lll1uSlOlS anu 0lluStOtlS VI
blood, in this damp, foggy cline. The
Norman conquest in 1866 brought the
last great strain into British blood, and
the present reigning house dates from
that event at the hands of the descend
ants of the old Morse Sea Kings.
Her Britense Majesty, Victoria, the
broad minded Christian Monarch, the
best the world ever knew, though de-
scended by one line from William the
Conquerer, used to say she could trace
her lineage straight from the throne of
David. Some ethnc writers have advanc-
ed the theory that the Danes took their
name from the tribe of Dan of the Isra-
elites. That tribe, starting from north
Palestine, migrated up the Danube River
in their boats, for they were maritime,
and so gave their name to the river, and
later to Denmark, where Dams mark
was seen on his boats. Such is the rea-
soning. Schoolboys know what the Danes
did in Britain. Arthur the Britain, Can
ute the Dane. William the Conqueror,
names that will live in British annals and
song.
Success to the Norman, of pride and of story,
-dls glory is pleasure. his pleasure is glory"
Following the Norman conquest, the
great historic miestones of Britain are
Magma Charta, obtained by the barons
from King John in 1915; the United
Crowns of England and Scotland under |
james | in 1904; the Civil War and |
Charles beheaded in 1919; the Common
wealth under Cromwell and Milann till |
1860, when the Monarchy was restored |
under Charles IL; the legislative Union |
of England and Scotland in 1907; the .
American Revolution, l776 to 1884; the .
Legislative Union of Ireland with Eng
land in 1900; Catholic Emancipation in
1929; civil and religious liberty, personal
freedom by the act of habeas corpus,
liberty Of the press, liberty of speech,
liberty of conscience, total abolition of
slavery wherever British sovereignty ex-
asts--such is the marking of the great
highway of 800 years, from the divine
right of kings to the sovereign rights of
man.
Great Britain, after the stupid attempt
of old George III to whip the young
American Colonies into unwarranted sub
mission, through George Washington's
timely rebuke of the same, for more than
hundred years has been the best ex-
ample of colonial empire building the
world ever knew, basing her action pure
" on the sovereign rights of man. Her
colonies in America, Asia, Africa, Aus
traia, and in the Islands of the Sea, are
loyal to her because she has so builded,
Note the witness of the great German
naturalist, Ernest Haeckel: "This en-
lpfre is in itself worthy of admit
ration, for the English are undoupt-
'eoly gifted beyond any other nation with
the genius for founding and governing
colonies :. Instead, then, of watch
ing the extension and cons 3lidation of
English power with grudging and en-
vious eyes, we (the Germans) would
Ario battar tn strdu tho politina al skill which