Empire Day, by D. H. Montgomery

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NOTWITHSTANDING this difference, all the colonies are loyal subjects of the English Crown, and all stand ready to defend the English flag.*

While this successful movement toward Imperial Federation was going on, the organization called the League of Empire had been formed (1901) to cooperate with it and strengthen it. The League is nonpolitical and nonsectarian. It aims to unite the different parts of the Imperial Federation by intellectual and moral bonds. It appeals to the whole body of the people of the Empire, but it deals especially with the children in the schools. It endeavors to educate them in the duties of citizenship, and it calls on them to salute the national flag as the symbol of patriotism, of unity, and of loyalty.

A little later, Empire Day was established (1904) as a public holiday to help forward the work of the League. King Edward gave it his hearty encouragement, and it is celebrated throughout the British Isles and the self-governing colonies of the Imperial Federation.

by D. H. Montgomery 1837-1928

abridged

Abridged from ‘The Leading Facts of English History’ (1893-1912), by David Henry Montgomery (1837-1928).

See The Avengers and Hearts of Steel.

Questions for Critics

1. What is the author aiming to achieve in writing this?

2. Note any words, devices or turns of phrase that strike you. How do they help the author communicate his ideas more effectively?

3. What impression does this passage make on you? How might you put that impression into words?

Based on The English Critic (1939) by NL Clay, drawing on The New Criticism: A Lecture Delivered at Columbia University, March 9, 1910, by J. E. Spingarn, Professor of Comparative Literature in Columbia University, USA.

Questions for Critics

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