Britain's Brexit Self-Abasement

Shakespeare famously wrote of the "sceptered isle" of Britain acting as a moat "against the envy of less happier lands."

Lately, the less happier lands are winning in a rout.

Britain is suffering a political meltdown as it struggles to make good on a historic vote in 2016 to leave the European Union. The decision for a so-called Brexit was a stirring statement of independence and self-government by a people who have defined themselves down the centuries by their stiff-necked resistance to anyone -- whether overweening monarchs or continental tyrants -- who would threaten either.

That was befor...