EMPIRE NOT A UNITY.

Dominion, Volume 7, Issue 1966, 24 January 1914, Page 5

EMPIRE NOT A UNITY.

- THE KING'S FI?F.I!OGATiV>. Bj TeSeCTaDh—Freea Association- Coevrinht ! London, January 22. ' Mr'.' Sidney Lose, in the first series of Rhodes lectures- at King's College on the "Governance'of the British Empire," said thai, on a superficial view, the Empire • lacked nearly Ml the eie-. mC'iits of unity. There was . 110 community of race, language, or' te'igion, no common coinage, no common marr'ngo, naturalisation,' bankruptcy, commercial, or land laws, no Empire flag legally common, lio unity of law in the supremacy of the. Clown and the comprehensive powers which the law 'attributed to it. The law did. not recognise tho Empire. - It recognised only ■ the Dominions as possessions of tlw> Crown, In spite of tho legal theoretical supiemaey of tho Impsrial Parliament, colonial opinion was moving towards tho equality of institutions. There was no inclination in the overseas Dominions to question the'authority of the Crown, though there was a disposition to restrain it within tho narrow limits of the technical supremacy of tho Imperial Parliament.;. "Times" —Sydney "Sun" Special Cables. . . London, "January 28. Mr. Sidney Low, in his Rhodes lecture on'the "Governance of tho "British Empire" at King's College, said that it was within the prerogative of tho King to ctis'bnnd the Attire militia and armed forces, dismiss the officers, sell the Australian naval squadron, and set aside the judgments of every .Dominion's Court. That was tho legal conception, although it was not oiie of the things enumerated.. The King could even take tho first steps towards doing this, and V this assumption the hypothesis of the Crown's supremo universal authority, the Empire was held together, its value being fully recognised by colonial constitutionalists." •