Commonwealth and Empire
Sut,—Mr. C. E. Vulliamy knows more history and more English that I do. He must see himself that to write of " Imperial and Foreign ' news is sensible, but " Commonwealth and Foreign " is bad English.
Though the Queen does not bear the title of Empress, she, like King George III, " succeeded to an Empire as great in extent as it: reputation was unsullied," as Lord Chatham said in 1778. Who wa emperor then ? or when King Henry VIII declared " this Kingdon is an Empire " ? I cannot track that quotation down: but the attainde of Thomas Cromwell calls him " Circumventor of your 'most roya Person and the Imperial Crown of this your realm." Lethington, tla secretary of Scotland, writing a generation later to Cecil on the Queer of Scots' title to the English Crown twice calls it the " Imperial Crown.' And the present Imperial State Crown was made for Queen Victoria': coronation, years before she thought, of becoming Empress of India. Itiiperium merum does not imply an Emperor, but authority " with out knowledging or recognising of any other supream power o authority," the sovereignty of a power.—Yours faithfully,
Burley Vicarage, Ringwood, Hants.
EDMUND J. A. EASTEN.
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