An administrative entity operated by an incalculable multitude of political parasites, logically active but fortuitously efficient. This commonwealth's capitol's corridors view, So thronged with a hungry and indolent crew Of clerks, pages, porters and all attaches Whom rascals appoint and the populace pays That a cat cannot slip through the thicket of shins Nor hear its own shriek for the noise of their chins. On clerks and on pages, and porters, and all, Misfortune attend and disaster befall! May life be to them a succession of hurts; May fleas by the bushel inhabit their shirts; May aches and diseases encamp in their bones, Their lungs full of tubercles, bladders of stones; May microbes, bacilli, their tissues infest, And tapeworms securely their bowels digest; May corn-cobs be snared without hope in their hair, And frequent impalement their pleasure impair. Disturbed be their dreams by the awful discourse Of audible sofas sepulchrally hoarse, By chairs acrobatic and wavering floors -- The mattress that kicks and the pillow that snores! Sons of cupidity, cradled in sin! Your criminal ranks may the death angel thin, Avenging the friend whom I couldn't work in. K.Q.
A state; a body politic consisting of a certain number of men, united, by compact or tacit agreement, under one form of government and system of laws.
Hunt (1842) Landmark ruling of the Massachusetts supreme court establishing the legality of labor unions.
A free association of sovereign states comprising Britain and a number of its former dependencies once part of the British empire. These states have chosen to maintain ties of friendship and practical cooperation with Britain and acknowledge the British monarch as the symbolic head of their association.
The Commonwealth is a voluntary organization of 54 member countries which were once colonies of Britain. The Commonwealthâ€(tm)s 1.7 billion people make up one quarter of the worldâ€(tm)s population.
a voluntary association of 54 developing and developed nations, including Canada, which have historic ties to Great Britain.
Association of independent states. The British Commonwealth consists of countries formally ruled by Britain (some, like Australia and Canada still fall under the British Crown); and the Commonwealth of Independent States are made up of republics that used to be part of the Soviet Union.
Informal association of the countries that once formed the British Empire.
the official name of some states in the United States (Massachusetts and Pennsylvania and Virginia and Kentucky) and associated territories (Puerto Rico)
a politically organized body of people under a single government; "the state has elected a new president"; "African nations"; "students who had come to the nation's capitol"; "the country's largest manufacturer"; "an industrialized land"
a political system in which the supreme power lies in a body of citizens who can elect people to represent them
a body of people in a politically organized community that is independent or semiindependent, and in which the government functions by the common consent of the people
a free association of sovereign independent states that has no charter, treaty, or constitution
The successor of the British Empire, once most colonies became independent. A Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) is taking place in Brisbane in October 2001.
The Commonwealth is a voluntary association of 54 countries, which work together to achieve international goals. The Commonwealth's 1.7bn people comprise 30% of the world's population.
"for the good of all"; Kentucky, Virginia, Pennsylvania, & Massachusetts are "commonwealths". Must be one of the original thirteen colonies or a state created from one of the colonies. (Kentucky is a daughter of Virginia.)
a self-governing dominion "organized" by Congressional legislation or the higher sovereign authority, but with foreign state characteristics (eg. foreign relations may be allowed or barred); a dependent territory if a US Possession (eg. Puerto Rico) or a self-governing dominion if not a US possession (eg. Filipino Commonwealth, Post-Occupied Cuba, Taiwan cession)
the name given to the informal grouping of former colonies of the British Empire. The Commonwealth is a voluntary, unstructured grouping with no formal charter, but it does have a secretariat. Membership is dynamic and countries can cease to be members (or be suspended). With over 25 percent of the world's states as members, the Commonwealth is the second largest international organization, after the United Nations.
the political community (once the British Commonwealth of Nations) made up of the United Kingdom, its dependencies (see colony), and some independent nations that were once British colonies, such as New Zealand, Australia, Canada, and India.
A voluntary association of 53 independent sovereign states which recognise the Queen as their head. Principles of the Commonwealth set out in the Declaration of Commonwealth Principles, agreed at Singapore in 1971, and the Harare Declaration of 1991, include democracy, good governance, respect for human rights and gender equality, the rule of law and sustainable economic and social development.