At one time, long ago, what we call "the past" was "the present time". To our great grandparents, the past was their "present time". That is what history is...looking back at the past and seeing what life was like for those people who lived during that era, or that time. The writer who is speaking in your sentences is saying that the wonderful Past (British history) is still connected to him and the world. The British used to rule most of the world, and the memory and pride of history is still with them now, in their memory, their living history, and the influence Britain had in the world. Their influence lives even today, in the countries they once ruled, their language and their philosophies and culture.

Who wrote that!? I don't see anything glorious about being deceitful murderers, slave traders, war mongers and rapists. But yea it just meant that their time was the present to them. But it's a stupid sentence. Good question though.