COMMONWEALTH 373

that representative possesses no more powers than belong to the
King in Britain. By what ties, then, is the Commonwealth united?
First, by the King himself. All the citizens of the Dominions are
his subjects; his representatives form part of the Dominion
Legislatures. The importance of the King in Britain, despite
the limitations of his prerogative, has been noticed Though the
King cannot personally take part in the social and ceremonial
life of the Dominions, it is certain that the monarchy exercises
as great an influence over the feelings and imagination of the
Dominion peoples as over the people of the Mother Country.
The example of monarchy in Britain shows that a tie of sentiment,
though it defies exact description, does not lack strength. An
important legal result of common allegiance is that the subjects
of the Dominions are British subjects, and any of them who come
to Britain are on an equal footing with British subjects permanently
resident here.

Secondly, there is the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council.
Some Dominions have restricted the right to appeal to it from
their own Supreme Courts, and Eire does not recognise it at all.
But it continues to transact much business, and at times, to settle
inter-Dominion disputes. Some such body is certainly required
by a group of nations between whom, iq the course of trade and
politics, disputes may arise, but who do not think of settling them
by other than peaceable means.

This fact may be mentioned as a third and probably the chief
link of the Commonwealth; that each nation in it, whatever its
claims to independence, assumes as a matter of course, one
limitation on its Sovereignty—it will not make war on other
nations of the Commonwealth. The whole people of the Common-
wealth would regard such an event as unnatural and outrageous.
Thus is the Commonwealth distinguished from any other form
of political association. In the past it has been assumed that
unlimited right to make war was an essential mark of a fully
developed national State; the Commonwealth shows that this
assumption need not always be true.