Did the subjects of the British Empire every contemplate that Britain was a comparatively small place with a much smaller population than the empire, especially in British India? Was the population and actual military manpower of England well known?

by mystical-me
eighthgear

Taken from Common Sense by Thomas Paine, an English colonist in the Americas who played a role in arguing for the American Revolution:

Small islands not capable of protecting themselves, are the proper objects for kingdoms to take under their care; but there is something very absurd, in supposing a continent to be perpetually governed by an island. In no instance hath nature made the satellite larger than its primary planet, and as England and America, with respect to each other, reverses the common order of nature, it is evident they belong to different systems; England to Europe, America to itself.

http://www.gutenberg.org/files/147/147-h/147-h.htm

Geography was something well known throughout the Empire, so pretty much anyone who looked at a map could contemplate as to why they were the subjects of what is a fairly small island that was quite a bit aways from many of her domains. Britain also never was a major land power, in that they did not have a particularly large army compared to contemporary European nations such as France or Russia.

However, the United Kingdom was a significant naval power - easily the dominant one for much of the history of her Empire - which allowed the Empire to project power across the world. Also, the British frequently worked with local governments, either indigenous or set up by the British, to administer British colonies and imperial possessions, a policy that worked fairly well, with a few exceptions (like the Indian Mutiny of 1857). The British Army was set up to be in large part a colonial police force, and it was adept at that role.

It is also worth remembering that the history of the British Empire coincided with the British Agrarian Revolution and the Industrial Revolution, both of which lead to significant economic and population growth and frequently gave the British a technological advantage over their subjects.

So, in short, people did realize that the United Kingdom was a small island (well, it is actually more than just one island - Ireland was part of the UK at the time and the northern bit still is) ruling over a much larger empire, but they also realized that the British Empire was one of the most powerful entities in the world. It is worth adding that all of the great European colonial empires consisted of European nations ruling over vastly bigger domains at their respective heights.