In the first place comes Britain’s work in Europe, which to describe has been the purpose of the preceding chapters.  It cannot be right for Britain, after the share she has taken in securing for Europe the freedom that distinguishes a series of independent States existing side by side from a single centralised Empire, to turn her back upon the Continent and to suppose that she exists only for the sake of her own colonies and India.  On the contrary it is only by playing her part in Europe that she can hope to carry through the organisation of her own Empire which she has in view.  Her function as a European State is to make her voice heard in the council of the European nations, so that no one State can dictate the decisions to be reached.  In order to do that she must be strong enough to be able to say Aye and No without fear, and to give effective help in case of need to those other States which may in a decision vote on the same side with her.

In her attitude towards the Powers of Europe and in her dealings with them Great Britain is the representative of the daughter nations and dependencies that form her Empire, and her self-defence in Europe is the defence of the whole Empire, at any rate against possible assaults from any European Power.  At the same time she is necessarily the centre and the head of her own Empire.  She must take the lead in its organisation and in the direction of its policy.  If she is to fulfil these duties, on the one hand to Europe and on the other to the daughter nations and India, she must herself be organised on the principle of duty.  An England divided against herself, absorbed in the disputes of factions and unconscious of a purpose, can neither lead nor defend her Empire, can play her proper part neither in Europe nor in the world.

The great work to be done at home, corresponding to the ultimate purpose of national life, is that she should bring up her people to a higher standard of human excellence, to a finer type than others.  There are English types well recognised.  Fifty years ago the standard of British workmanship was the acknowledged mark of excellence in the industrial world, while it has been pointed out in an earlier chapter that the English standards, of character displayed in conduct, described in one aspect by the word “gentleman,” and in another by the expression “fair-play,” form the best part of the nation’s inheritance.  It is the business of any British education worth thinking of to stamp these hall-marks of character upon all her people.

Nothing reveals in a more amazing light the extent to which in this country the true meaning of our being a nation has been forgotten than the use that has been made in recent years of the term “national education.”  The leaders of both parties have discussed the subject as though any system of schools maintained at the public expense formed a system of national education.  But the diffusion of instruction is not education, and the fact that