ABSTRACT
What did the Empire mean to men who were not long-time imperial bureaucrats, like Merivale and Rogers, nor residents of Australia in one capacity or another, like Westgarth and Denison? In trying to understand the broader mass of Englishmen-those who might have framed some Romantic vision of the reach of British settlement, shipping, telegraphs, parlour chairs, scientific instruments or what have you, entirely in their own minds-there is no reason not to start with Edward Bulwer-Lytton. He was as much a Romantic as anybody.
