Commonwealth and Empire
SIR,—I have read with much interest Mr. Easten's courteous and erudite letter; but I still feel that the term " Empire " is anachronistic, and the term " Commonwealth " linguistically improper. The examples which are cited by Mr. Easten prove that the word " Imperial"' has been used (as it still is) in a purely rhetorical and romantic sense: it is, in fact, a grandiose or grandiloquent fiction. A private correspondent, whose name I cannot divulge, assures me that the term "Commonwealth" is alto a fiction, wholly inapplicable to the loose or sentimental alliance which it is intended to designate. But even in fiction there should be a proper regard for difference and exactitude, and I am unable to see what peculiar, meaning is intended by the use of these terms. We had a real Commonwealth and a real Empire; but what have we now ? The use of such a phrase as " the
sovereignty of a power" is surely incompatible with the concept of a free association. It seems to me, with due respect to Mr. Easten, that we are here concerned with rhetorical usage or. verbal convenience, and not with precise definitions or political reality.—Yours faithfully, • West Horsley, Surrey. C. E. VULLIAMY.
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