responsibilities imposed on the England of our time--and no poet knew
this better--are very different from those imposed on the England of
Elizabeth. An empire vaster and more populous than that of the Caesars
has since then been added to our dominion. Millions, indeed, who are of
the same blood as ourselves and who speak our language have, by the
folly of common ancestors, become aliens. But how immense are the realms
peopled by the colonies which are still loyal to us, and by the three
hundred millions who in India own us as their rulers: of this vast
empire England is now the capital and centre. That she should fulfil
completely and honourably the duties to which destiny has called her
will be the prayer of every patriot, that he should by his own efforts
contribute all in his power to further such fulfilment must be his
earnest desire. It would be no exaggeration to say that Tennyson
contributed more than any man who has ever lived to what may be called
the higher political education of the English-speaking races. Of
imperial federation he was at once the apostle and the pioneer. In
poetry which appealed as probably no other poetry has appealed to every
class, wherever our language is spoken, he dwelt fondly on all that
constitutes the greatness and glory of England, on her grandeur in the
past, on the magnificent promise of the part she will play in the
future, if her sons are true to her. There should be no distinction, for
she recognises no distinction between her children at home and her
children in her colonies. She is the common mother of a common race: one
flag, one sceptre, the same proud ancestry, the same splendid
inheritance. "How strange England cannot see," he once wrote, "that her
true policy lies in a close union with her colonies."

Sharers of our glorious past,
Shall we not thro' good and ill
Cleave to one another still?