ABSTRACT
THE nature of the Commonwealth, it goes almost without saying, is not easy to understand. Englishmen would be much disappointed if it were, for the incapacity of foreigners to comprehend the working of British institutions is for them a source of unfailing satisfaction. The sort of tribute English people most cherish is that of the German commentator who observed in 19381 that the British Empire 'gives an impression of unsystematic genius in the Englishman, who has no sense of structural beauty or orderly creation. To him nothing is wrong, however illogical, so long as the machine works'.
