Great Britain, in the security due to her victories at sea, was able to develop her colonies into nations, and her East India Company into an Empire.  But that same security caused her to forget her nationalism, with the result that now her security itself is imperilled.  During this period, when the conception of the nation was in abeyance, some of the conditions of sea power have been modified, with the result that the British monopoly is at an end, while the possibility of a similar monopoly has probably disappeared, so that the British navy, even if successful, could not now be used, as it was a hundred years ago, as a means of entirely destroying the trade of an adversary.  Accordingly, if in a future war Britain is to find a continental ally, she must be able to offer him the assistance, not merely of naval victory, but also of a strong army.  Moreover, during the epoch in which Great Britain has turned her back upon Europe the balance of power has been upset, and there is no power and no combination able to stand up against Germany as the head of the Triple Alliance.  This is a position of great danger for England, because it is an open question whether in the absence of a strong British army any group of Powers, even in alliance with England, could afford to take up a quarrel against the combination of the central States.  It thus appears that Great Britain, by neglecting the conditions of her existence as a nation, has lost the strength in virtue of which, at previous crises in European history, she was the successful champion of that independence of States which, in the present stage of human development, is the substance of freedom.

Our consideration of the question of might showed that if Great Britain is to be strong enough to meet her responsibilities her people must nationalise themselves, while our reflections on the question of right showed that only from such nationalisation is a sound policy to be expected.  In short, only in so far as her people have the unity of spirit and of will that mark a nation can Great Britain be either strong or just.  The idea of the nation implies a work to be done by the British State, which has to be on the watch against challenge from a continental rival to Great Britain’s right to the headship of her empire, and which at the same time has to give to that empire the direction without which it cannot remain united.  Great Britain cannot do the work thus imposed upon her by her position and her history unless she has the co-operation of all her people.  Thus the conception of the nation reveals itself in the twofold shape of duties laid upon England and of duties consequently laid upon every Englishman.  It means that England must either decline and fall or do a certain work in the world which is impossible for her unless she constrains all her people to devote themselves to her service.  It thus appears that England and her people can expect no future worth having except on the principle of duty made the mainspring both of public and of private life.