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Presented  to  the 

LIBRARY  of  the 

UNIVERSITY  OF  TORONTO 

by 

CHARITY  GRANT 


IMPERIAL    FEDERATION 


IMPERIAL    FEDERATION 


THE  PROBLEM  OF  NATIONAL    UNITY 


BY 


GEORGE   R.    PARKIN,   M.A. 


WITH  MAP 


%ontion 

MACMILLAN    AND    CO. 
AND  NEW   YORK 

1892 


'I  tell  you  that  when  you  study  English  history  you  study  not 
the  past  of  England  only,  but  her  future.  It  is  the  welfare  of  your 
country,  it  is  your  whole  interest  as  citizens  that  is  in  question 
while  you  study  history.  How  it  is  so  I  illustrate  by  putting  before 
you  this  subject  of  the  Expansion  of  England.  I  show  you  that  there 
is  a  vast  question  ripening  for  decision,  upon  which  almost  the  ivhole 
future  of  our  country  depends.  In  magnitude  this  question  far  surpasses 
all  other  questions  which  you  can  ever  have  to  discuss  in  political  life? 

PROFESSOR  J.  R.  SEELEY. 


OXFORD.     HORACE    HART,     PRINTER    TO    THE    UNIVERSITY 


PREFACE 

THIS  book  has  been  written  at  the  request  of  many 
friends  who  think  that  a  useful  purpose  will  be  served 
by  putting  the  facts  and  arguments  which  it  embodies 
into  a  connected  form,  where  they  will  be  easily 
accessible  to  the  ordinary  reader,  and  where  either 
their  fallacies  may  be  exposed  or  their  truth  find  a 
wider  recognition.  In  most  of  the  chief  centres  of  the 
British  world  both  at  home  and  abroad  I  have  found 
men  of  all  classes,  and  not  seldom  large  masses  of 
men,  who  agreed  on  the  whole  with  the  line  of  thought 
which  I  here  try  to  follow  ;  agreed,  too,  with  an 
intensity  of  belief  and  a  warmth  of  enthusiasm  which 
are,  I  think,  rarely  found  except  in  connection  with 
great  and  true  causes.  This  concurrence  of  other 

o 

minds  has  deepened  the  profound  conviction  which 
I  have  long  felt  that  the  completion  of  a  closer  and 
permanent  political  unity  between  the  British  com- 
munities scattered  throughout  the  world  should  be 
a  first  aim  of  national  statesmanship,  and  might 


VI  PREFACE. 

become,   if  its   advantages  were   clearly  understood, 
a  supreme  object  of  popular  desire. 

It  is  essentially  a  subject  for  full  and  free  discussion. 
Permanent  national  unity  for  British  people  can  only 
be  based  on  an  agreement  of  opinion  among  at  least 
the  larger  self-governing  communities  that  the  union 
is  for  «the  common  good.  That  there  should  be  an 
absolute  unanimity  of  consenting  opinion  among  the 
populations  of  the  communities  concerned  we  have  no 
reason  to  hope.  It  has  never  occurred  in  any  large 
national  consolidation  hitherto,  and  it  is  not  likely  to 
do  so  now.  The  continued  unity  of  the  Empire  is  a 
political  question  involving  immense  issues,  and 
divergent  opinions  may  be  assumed  from  the  start 
Indeed,  it  becomes  more  evident  from  day  to  day,  to 
those  who  watch  carefully  the  current  of  events,  that 
the  end  can  only  be  gained — as  great  ends  have  ever 
been  gained — after  a  severe  struggle  between  contend- 
ing forms  of  thought.  The  provincialism  which  has 
uniformly  resisted  large  national  organization ;  the 
pessimism  which  sees  danger  in  every  new  form  of 
political  evolution  ;  the  repugnance  to  change  in  an 
old  country  with  forms  of  government  more  or  less 
fixed  ;  the  crudeness  of  political  thought  and  want  of 
national  perspective  in  young  communities  ;  the  ignor- 
ance which  begets  inertia  :  all  these  exist  and  must 
be  combated.  In  this  struggle  the  better  cause,  the 
strongest  arguments,  the  deepest  convictions,  the  most 


PREFACE.  vil 

strenuous  moulders  of  public  opinion,  will  win.  Mere 
circumstances  will  never  shape  themselves  for  the 
required  solution.  A  policy  of  drift  will  never  result 
in  united  strength.  Growth  may  be  an  unconscious 
process — organization  can  only  be  the  result  of  a  con- 
scious effort.  No  thinking  man  to-day  would  wish  to 
see  the  American  Republic  resolved  into  its  original 
sovereign  states,  Germany  into  its  kingdoms,  small 
principalities,  and  duchies ;  Canada  into  its  distinct 
provinces  ;  Italy  into  its  cities.  Yet  none  of  these 
would  now  be  what  they  are  had  their  fortunes  been 
left  to  the  drift  of  circumstances  alone.  Their  history 
proves  that  the  ideals  of  the  clearest  minds,  backed 
up  by  intense  convictions  and  resolute  effort,  are 
essential  to  the  attainment  of  the  highest  political 
organization.  Circumstances  or  the  course  of  events 
may  thwart  human  effort  or  favour  it.  but  they  can 
never  take  its  place  as  a  complete  substitute. 

The  further  consolidation  of  the  Empire  depends  in 
great  measure  upon  the  answer  given  to  two  questions. 
Is  it  for  the  advantage  of  the  different  communities 
that  they  should  remain  together  ?  and,  granting  an 
affirmative  answer  to  this,  does  the  problem  of  further 
unification  on  a  mutually  satisfactory  basis  present 
difficulties  which  transcend  the  resources  of  British 
statesmanship  ? 

These  questions  roughly  indicate  the  line  of  enquiry 
which  I  wish  to  follow.  Behind  them  lies  an  issue 


Vlll  PREFACE. 

which  British  people  throughout  the  world  will  soon 
be  forced  to  recognize  as  infinitely  surpassing  in 
momentous  significance  any  upon  which  their  political 
thought  and  energy  are  now  being  spent.  We  may 
not  unreasonably  believe  that  the  movements  at 
present  going  on  in  the  mother-land  and  the  colonies 
are  only  supplying  us  with  the  political  formulae 
required  for  grappling  with  the  higher  national 
problem. 

It  seems  like  sheer  political  blindness  not  to  perceive 
that  in  different  parts  of  the  Empire  forces  are  now 
actively  at  work  which  may  at  any  moment  precipitate 
a  decision  of  this  great  question  ;  movements  in  pro- 
gress which,  it  seems  safe  to  say,  must  of  necessity 
lead  up  to  a  decision  within  a  time  measured  at 
the  very  most  by  one  or  two  decades. 

Nations  take  long  to  grow,  but  there  are  periods 
when,  as  in  the  long  delayed  flowering  of  certain  plants, 
or  in  the  crystallization  of  chemical  solutions,  new 
forms  are  taken  with  extreme  rapidity.  There  are 
the  strongest  reasons  for  believing  that  the  British 
nation  has  such  a  period  immediately  before  it.  The 
necessity  for  the  creation  of  a  body  of  sound  public 
opinion  upon  the  relations  to  each  other  of  the  various 
parts  of  the  Empire  is  therefore  urgent.  In  stating 
the  case  for  British  Unity  I  have  constantly  found 
myself  merely  linking  together  arguments  already 
used  by  thinkers  in  many  parts  of  the  Empire. 


PREFACE.  IX 

Any  apology  on  my  part  for  thus  making  use  of 
other  men's  thoughts,  is  unnecessary.  Earnest  believers 
in  a  great  cause  only  wish  that  the  grounds  of  their 
belief  should  be  made  known  as  widely  as  possible. 

No  one  can  be  more  conscious  than  .myself  of  the 
incompleteness  of  the  statement  which  I  have  tried  to 
make.  But  even  a  partial  study  of  a  great  subject  may 
serve  a  useful  purpose.  If  what  is  here  said  furnish 
to  the  advocates  of  National  Unity  some  texts  upon 
which  they  may  enlarge  and  improve,  if  it  provoke  that 
honest  criticism  which  leads  to  a  firmer  grasp  of  truth, 
I  shall  be  more  than  satisfied. 


CONTENTS 


CHAPTER   I. 

PAGE 
INTRODUCTION       ...  i 


CHAPTER  II. 
FEDERATION 31 

CHAPTER   III. 
DEFENCE .         .         .         .59 

CHAPTER   IV. 
THE  UNITED  KINGDOM 103 

CHAPTER  V. 
CANADA n^ 

CHAPTER  VI. 
FRENCH  CANADA I53 

CHAPTER   VII. 
MR.  GOLDWIN  SMITH 163 

CHAPTER  VIII. 
AUSTRALIA.    TASMANIA.     NEW  ZEALAND 192 


xii  CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER   IX. 

PAGE 
SOUTH  AFRICA.     THE  WEST  INDIES 232 

CHAPTER   X. 
INDIA 243 

CHAPTER   XI. 
AN  AMERICAN  VIEW 253 

CHAPTER   XII. 
FINANCE 271 

CHAPTER   XIII. 
TRADE  AND  FISCAL  POLICY  . 278 

CHAPTER   XIV. 
PLANS.     CONCLUSION 296 


MAP. 
Commercial    and    Strategic    Chart    of   the    British    Empire,  on 

Mercator's  Projection End  of  book. 


THE 
PROBLEM  OF  NATIONAL    UNITY 

CHAPTER     I. 

INTRODUCTION. 

THE  glory  of  the  British  political  system  is  often 
said  to  lie  in  the  fact  that  it  is  a  growth ;  that  it  has 
adapted  itself,  and  is  capable  of  continuous  adaptation, 
to  the  necessities  of  national  development.  The  fact  is 
proved  and  the  boast  is  justified  by  British  history,  but 
behind  them,  no  doubt,  is  a  race  characteristic.  A 
special  capacity  for  political  organization  may,  with- 
out race  vanity,  be  fairly  claimed  for  Anglo-Saxon 
people. 

The  tests  which  have  already  been,  or  are  now  being, 
applied  to  this  organizing  capacity  are  sufficiently 
striking  and  varied.  In  the  British  Islands  them- 
selves a  gradual  and  steady  process  of  evolution, 
extending  over  hundreds  of  years,  has  led  up  from  the 
free  but  weak  and  disjointed  government  of  the 
Heptarchy  period  to  the  equally  free  but  strong  and 
consolidated  government  of  the  United  Kingdom.  In 

the  United  States,  within  little  more  than  a  hundred 

*A 

B 


2  IMPERIAL   FEDERATION.  [Cn.  I 

years,  we  have  seen  one  great  branch  of  the  race  weld 
into  organic  unity  a  number  of  loosely  aggregated 
provinces  under  a  system  which  now  extends  over 
half  the  area  of  a  great  continent.  Twenty-five  years 
ago  the  process  was  repeated  on  the  other  half  of  the 
American  continent.  In  the  face  of  difficulties,  by 
many  believed  to  be  insuperable,  Canada,  stretching 
from  ocean  to  ocean  a  distance  of  nearly  4000  miles, 
has  become  a  political  unit,  and  already  exhibits  a 
cohesion  which  small  European  States  have  often  only 
gained  after  long  periods  of  internal  and  external 
conflict. 

On  another  continent  Australians,  dealing  with 
provinces  larger  in  area  than  European  empires,  are 
grappling  courageously  with  the  problem  of  political 
combination,  and  the  universal  confidence  felt  in  the 
ultimate  success  of  their  efforts  shows  what  reliance  is 
put  upon  the  strength  and  efficiency  of  the  race  instinct. 
In  South  Africa  and  the  West  Indies  the  considerable 
intermixture  of  coloured  races  complicates  the  ques- 
tion, but  here  too  the  forces  which  make  for  unity  are 
more  or  less  actively  at  work. 

Speaking  generally  we  may  say  that  in  the  long 
course  of  Anglo-Saxon  history  whenever  the  need  of 
combination  has  arisen  the  political  expedient  has 
been  devised  to  match  the  political  necessity.  This 
capacity  for  adequate  organization  has  been  the  key- 
note of  distinction  between  the  democracy  of  our  race 
and  all  the  democracies  by  which  it  has  been  preceded. 

There  is  reason  to  think  that  this  organizing  quality 


CH.  I]  INTRODUCTION.  3 

is  one  which  has  given  effectiveness  to  all  others.  The 
steadiness  of  the  advance  which  the  race  has  made  in 
social  and  industrial  directions  has  depended  upon  the 
security  given  by  political  organization  at  once  com- 
prehensive, flexible,  and  strong.  No  other  branch  of 
the  human  family  has  ever  been  so  free  to  apply 
itself  to  the  higher  problems  of  civilization. 

All  the  conditions  of  the  world  at  the  present  time 
point  to  the  conclusion  that  further  progress  must  be 
safe-guarded  in  the  same  way.  On  the  one  hand,  we  see 
an  extraordinary  organization  of  military  power  and 
a  widening  of  military  combination  among  European 
nations  to  which  the  past  furnishes  no  parallel,  and 
which  suggest  hitherto  unheard-of  possibilities  of 
conflict  or  aggression.  On  the  other  hand,  the  vast 
extension  of  industrial  and  commercial  interests  among 
British  people,  without  any  parallel  in  the  previous 
history  of  the  world,  seems  to  demand  a  correspond- 
ing widening  of  the  political  combination  which  is 
required  to  give  them  security. 

Meanwhile  the  amazing  spread  of  the  race  has 
become  the  main  fact  of  modern  history — the  one 
which  assuredly  will  have  the  most  decisive  influence 
on  the  future  of  mankind.  Only  within  the  last 
hundred  years,  one  might  almost  say  within  a  still 
narrower  limit  of  time,  has  this  been  fully  realized. 
The  tentative  efforts  of  Spaniards,  Portuguese,  Dutch, 
and  French  to  dominate  the  new  continents  opened 
up  by  the  discoveries  at  the  end  of  the  fifteenth  and 
the  beginning  of  the  sixteenth  centuries  did  not 

B  a 


4  IMPERIAL   FEDERATION.  [Cn.  I 

receive  a  decisive  check  till  towards  the  end  of  the 
eighteenth.  Then  the  new  tide  fairly  began  to  flow. 
The  flux  of  civilized  population,  by  which  new  and 
great  centres  of  human  activity  are  created,  has  since 
that  time  been  so  overwhelmingly  Anglo-Saxon  that 
nearly  all  minor  currents  are  absorbed  or  assimilated 
by  it.  Teuton,  Latin,  Scandinavian,  with  one  or  two 
limited  but  well-defined  exceptions,  lose  their  identity 
and  tend  to  disappear  in  the  dominant  mass  of  British 
population  which  has  flowed,  and  continues  in  scarcely 
abated  volume  to  flow,  steadily  away  from  the  mother 
islands  to  occupy  those  temperate  regions  which  are 
manifestly  destined  to  become  in  an  increasing  degree 
centres  of  the  world's  force. 

With  abundant  space  on  which  to  expand,  increase 
has  been  rapid,  and  it  would  seem  that  in  mere  mass 
of  numbers  English-speaking  people  are  destined  at 
no  distant  date  to  surpass  any  other  branch  of  the 
human  stock. 

That  an  expansion  so  vast  should  bring  in  its  train 
a  new  set  of  political  problems,  with  a  range  wider  than 
any  that  had  gone  before,  is  only  natural.  That  new 
hopes  should  be  conceived  from  this  wonderful  change 
in  the  balance  of  the  world's  forces  ;  that  new  plans 
should  be  devised  to  utilize  it,  as  other  expansions 
have  been  utilized,  for  the  good  of  our  race  and  of 
mankind,  is  equally  natural. 

It  is  almost  needless  to  point  out  that  the  conditions 
incidental  to  this  expansion  were  at  first  misunder- 
stood. The  ignorance  of  public  opinion  as  to  the  true 


CH.  I]  INTRODUCTION.  5 

relations  between  mother-land  and  colonies,  seconded 
by  the  blindness  and  obstinacy  of  politicians  waging 
a  bitter  party  fight,  produced  in  1776  the  great  schism 
of  the  Anglo-Saxon  race.  Chatham,  Burke,  and  many 
of  the  clearest  minds  of  England,  believed  that  the 
American  Revolution  was  unnecessary — in  America 
itself  there  was  a  large,  and  for  a  long  time  a  pre- 
ponderant party,  which  held  that  in  constitutional 
change  a  way  of  escape  could  be  found  from  Revolu- 
tion. The  worse  counsels  prevailed,  and  Revolution 
took  the  place  of  Reform  and  Readjustment.  It  is, 
no  doubt,  idle  to  speculate  upon  the  results  which 
might  have  followed  from  a  different  line  of  action  ; 
if  the  statesmen  of  that  day  had  proved  equal  to  the 
task  of  dealing  with  the  political  problem  with  which 
they  were  confronted.  The  idea  that  the  separation 
of  the  United  States  from  Great  Britain  was  a  pure 
gain  to  either  country  or  to  the  world  may,  however, 
be  distinctly  challenged. 

It  may  easily  be  imagined  that  the  earlier  ripening 
of  public  opinion  in  England  upon  the  question  of 
slavery,  and  the  earlier  solution  found  for  it  on  peaceful 
lines,  might  have  helped  to  solve  the  problem  at  an 
earlier  stage  in  America  as  well,  and  thus  prevented 
the  frightful  catastrophe  of  the  War  of  Secession  in 
1865.  The  close  and  intimate  political  reaction  upon 
each  other  of  the  two  greatest  Anglo-Saxon  commu- 
nities, the  one  with  its  higher  standard  of  statesman- 
ship and  public  morality,  the  other  with  its  more  active 
liberalizing  tendencies,  might  have  been  in  the  highest 


6  IMPERIAL  FEDERATION.  [Cn.  I 

degree  healthful  for  both.  United  with  all  others  of 
their  own  race  and  language,  British  people  might 
have  been  able,  in  self-sufficing  strength,  to  withdraw 
almost  a  hundred  years  earlier  than  could  otherwise 
be  possible  from  the  entanglements  of  European 
politics,  and  to  be  free  to  devote  all  their  energies 
to  the  maintenance  of  peace,  and  the  development 
of  industry,  commerce,  and  civilization.  Qualifi- 
cations to  these  views  will,  of  course,  present  them- 
selves to  every  mind,  and  it  is  not  necessary  to  press 
them  too  far  or  to  quarrel  with  the  course  of  history. 
Much  more  important  is  it  to  observe  its  results  and 
learn  the  lessons  which  it  teaches. 

We  now  see  that  the  bifurcation  of  Anglo-Saxon 
national  life  which  took  place  in  1776  was  of  all  other 
events  in  modern  history  the  one  most  pregnant  with 
great  consequences.  The  war  of  the  Revolution  led 
primarily  to  the  foundation  of  the  Republic  of  the 
United  States.  Its  significance,  however,  is  not  ex- 
hausted by  this  fact,  great  though  it  is.  The  reflex 
action  upon  the  thought  and  policy  of  Britain  involved 
consequences  as  important  and  far-reaching.  Revolu- 
tion for  once  in  our  development  had  taken  the  place  of 
Evolution,  but  in  the  end  enabled  the  latter  to  resume 
its  steady  course.  The  revolt  of  the  American  colonies 
led  to  the  closer  study  of  the  principles  which  must 
control  national  expansion.  Britain  strove,  and  not 
in  vain,  to  acquire  the  art  of  bringing  colonies  into 
friendly  relation  with  the  national  system.  The 
nation-building  energy  of  her  people  remained  unim- 


CH.  1]  INTRODUCTION.  7 

paired,  and  though  one  group  of  colonies  had  been 
lost,  others,  extending  over  areas  far  more  extensive, 
were  soon  gained.  Under  new  principles  of  govern- 
ment these  were  acquired,  not  to  be  lost,  but  retained 
as  they  have  been  up  to  the  present  time.  Is  that 
retention  to  be  permanent?  Is  it  desirable?  Can 
the  colonies  be  brought,  and  ought  they  to  be 
brought,  not  merely  into  friendly  relations,  but  into 
organic  harmony  with  the  national  system  ?  Has  our 
capacity  for  political  organization  reached  its  utmost 
limit?  For  British  people  this  is  the  question  of 
questions.  In  the  whole  range  of  possible  political 
variation  in  the  future  there  is  no  issue  of  such  far- 
reaching  significance,  not  merely  for  our  own  people 
but  for  the  world  at  large,  as  the  question  whether 
the  British  Empire  shall  remain  a  political  unit  for 
all  national  purposes,  or,  yielding  to  disintegrating 
forces,  shall  allow  the  stream  of  the  national  life  to 
be  parted  into  many  separate  channels. 

Twenty-five  years  ago  it  seemed  as  if  English  people, 
and  it  certainly  was  true  that  the  majority  of  English 
statesmen,  had  made  up  their  minds  definitely  as  to 
the  only  possible  and  desirable  solution  to  this  great 
national  problem.  The  old  American  colonies  had 
gone,  and  had  remained  none  the  less  good  customers 
of  the  mother-country  for  having  become  independent. 
Very  soon,  it  was  sincerely  believed,  the  whole  world 
would  be  converted  to  Free  Trade,  and  with  universal 
free  trade  and  the  universal  peace  which  was  to  follow, 
nothing  was  to  be  gained  from  retaining  the  colonies, 


8  IMPERIAL   FEDERATION.  [On.  I 

while  the  colonies  themselves  were  expected  to  look 
eagerly  forward  to  complete  political  emancipation  as 
the  goal  of  their  development.  A  few  brilliant  writers 
in  the  press,  a  few  eloquent  speakers  on  the  platform, 
gave  much  vogue  to  these  views.  The  correspondence 
of  prominent  public  men  which  has  since  come  to 
light,  the  recollections  of  men  still  living,  furnish  con- 
vincing proof  that  this  opinion  was  widely  accepted  in 
official  circles.  A  governor,  leaving  to  take  charge 
of  an  Australian  colony,  was  told  even  from  the 
Colonial  Office  that  he  would  probably  be  the  last 
representative  of  the  Crown  sent  out  from  Britain. 
This  tendency  of  official  thought  found  its  culmination 
when,  in  1866,  a  great  journal  frankly  warned  Canada, 
the  greatest  of  all  the  colonies,  that  it  was  time  to 
prepare  for  the  separation  from  the  mother-land  that 
must  needs  come.  The  shock  which  this  outspoken 
declaration  gave  to  Canadian  sentiment,  built  up  as 
it  had  been  on  a  century  of  loyalty  to  the  idea  of 
a  United  Empire,  was  very  great.  That  statesman 
and  journalist  alike  had  misconceived  the  temper  of 
the  British  as  well  as  of  the  colonial  mind  was  soon 
made  manifest.  This  was  shown  by  the  almost 
universal  applause  which  greeted  the  passionately 
indignant  protest  of  Tennyson,  when,  in  the  final 
dedication  to  the  Queen  of  his  Idylls,  he  wrote: — 

'  And  that  true  North l,  whereof  we  lately  heard 
A  strain  to  shame  us — keep  you  to  yourselves  : 

1  Lord  Dufferin  dedicated  a  Canadian  edition  of  his  '  Letters  from 
High  Latitudes'  in  the  words  'To  that  true  North.'    I  cannot  refrain 


CH.  I]  INTRODUCTION.  9 

So  loyal  is  too  costly  !    friends,  your  love 

Is  but  a  burden :  break  the  bonds  and  go ! 

Is  this  the  tone  of  Empire  ?     Here  the  faith 

That  made  us  rulers  ?     This  indeed  her  voice 

And  meaning,  whom  the  roar  of  Hougoumont 

Left  mightiest  of  all  nations  under  heaven  ? 

What  shock  has  fooled  her  since  that  she  should  speak 

So  feebly?' 

At  once  it  became  clear  that  here  the  real  heart  of 
Britain  spoke — that  poet  rather  than  politician  grasped 
with  greater  accuracy  the  true  drift  of  British  thought. 

It  is  not  too  much  to  say  that  from  that  day  to  this  the 
policy  of  separation,  as  the  true  theoretical  outcome  of 

from  connecting  with  these  lines  one  more  association  which  will, 
I  feel  sure,  in  Canadian  hearts  at  least,  add  a  tender  grace  to  the 
vigorous  thought  of  the  poet  and  the  delicate  compliment  of  the  poli- 
tician. I  am  able  to  do  so  through  the  accident  of  a  conversation 
with  the  late  Rev.  Drummond  Rawnsley,  of  Lincolnshire,  a  connexion 
and  intimate  friend  of  Lord  Tennyson,  whom  I  happened  to  meet 
some  years  since  at  the  house  of  a  common  friend,  Professor  Bonamy 
Price,  at  Oxford.  Introduced  to  him  by  our  host  as  a  Canadian,  I 
was  informed  by  him  of  a  fact  which  he  felt  sure  would  interest  all 
Canadians.  The  Poet  Laureate,  with  whom  he  had  lately  been  staying, 
had  told  him  that  when  the  articles  referred  to  had  appeared  in  the 
Times,  Lady  Franklin,  who  was  then  a  guest  in  his  house,  and  who 
felt  the  most  intense  interest  in  the  future  of  Canada,  had  been  filled 
with  indignation  at  the  wrong  which  they  did  to  English  sentiment  and 
to  Canadian  loyalty,  and  had  strongly  urged  upon  him  the  duty  and 
propriety  of  giving  utterance  to  some  sufficient  protest.  Being  in  the 
fullest  sympathy  with  Lady  Franklin's  views,  the  poet  acted  upon 
this  suggestion  and  the  lines  were  written.  I  do  not  think  any 
private  confidence  is  violated  in  mentioning  the  facts  told  to  me  on 
such  unquestionable  authority.  It  seems  well  that  Canadian  people 
should  know  when  reading  these  lines,  that  behind  the  poet's  brain 
was  the  woman's  heart,  and  that  a  lady  whose  name  is  held  in 
highest  honour  wherever  the  English  language  is  spoken,  and 
wherever  heroism  and  devotion  touch  the  human  heart,  is  thus  con- 
nected by  the  subtle  thread  of  sympathy  and  the  golden  verse  of  our 
greatest  poet  with  their  own  loved  land. 


io  IMPERIAL  FEDERATION.  [Cn.  I 

national  evolution,  has  been  slowly  but  steadily  dying. 
John  Bright  held  the  theory  in  England  almost  up  to 
the  end  of  his  great  career.  Goldwin  Smith  advocates 
it  in  Canada  still.  Of  their  views  I  shall  have  more 
to  say  later.  But  among  conspicuous  names  theirs 
have  stood  practically  alone.  Politicians  in  Britain 
do  not  wish,  and  if  they  wished,  would  scarcely  dare, 
to  advocate  it  on  public  platforms.  Separation  may 
come  under  the  compulsion  of  necessity,  from  the  in- 
capacity of  statesmen  to  work  out  an  effective  plan  of 
union,  or  as  the  result  of  national  apathy  and  ignorance 
— not  because  it  is  desired,  or  from  any  theoretical 
belief  in  its  advantage  to  the  people  concerned. 

If  we  lay  aside,  however,  the  question  of  national 
feeling,  or  national  interest,  and  look  upon  the  matter 
as  simply  one  of  constitutional  growth  and  change,  it 
is  little  wonder  that  the  statesmen  of  that  earlier 
period  took  the  view  they  did. 

I  have  in  my  possession  a  document  which  seems  to 
me  of  much  historical  interest  in  this  connection  as 
furnishing  concrete  evidence  of  the  direction  of 
political  thought  at  the  period  to  which  I  have 
referred.  It  is  the  printed  draft  of  a  Bill  prepared 
with  great  care  more  than  twenty-five  years  ago  by 
Lord  Thring,  whose  long  service  as  Parliamentary 
counsel  to  successive  Cabinets  has  given  him  an 
experience  in  the  practical  forms  of  English  legis- 
lation quite  unrivalled.  The  Bill  was  intended  to 
be  a  logical  sequel  to  those  measures  of  Imperial 
legislation  by  which  responsible  government  was 


CH.  I]  INTRODUCTION.  n 

granted  to  the  Canadian  and  Australian  colonies. 
The  new  constitutions  had  then  been  in  operation  for 
some  time  in  several  of  the  great  colonies,  and  already 
no  slight  friction  had  occurred  in  the  endeavour 
to  adjust  Imperial  and  Colonial  rights  and  respon- 
sibilities upon  a  clear  and  well-understood  basis. 
Moreover,  the  continued  formation  of  new  colonies  and 
the  desire  of  certain  Crown  colonies  to  attain  to  respon- 
sible government  suggested  a  fundamental  treatment 
of  the  whole  question  of  colonial  relations.  The  Bill 
therefore  embodies  an  attempt  to  put  upon  a  just  basis 
the  relations  between  Britain  and  her  colonies  at  each 
period  of  their  growth,  and  to  state  clearly  their 
mutual  obligations  and  mutual  duties. 

It  naturally  provides  in  the  first  place  for  the 
government  of  settlements  in  their  earlier  stages  of 
growth  under  the  absolute  jurisdiction  of  the  Crown. 

In  the  next  place,  the  transition  of  such  a  Crown 
settlement  into  the  rank  and  status  of  a  colony  with 
responsible  government  is  not  left  to  be  decided  by 
agitation  within  the  colonies  or  by  irregular  pressure  in 
other  directions,  such  as  lately  took  place  in  the  case 
of  Western  Australia  ;  but  it  is  made  to  depend  on 
a  definite  increase  of  European  population  and  other 
conditions  equally  applicable  to  all  colonies  alike. 
With  the  grant  of  responsible  government,  however, 
comes  a  clear  division  between  imperial  and  local 
powers,  and  an  equally  definite  distribution  of  burdens ; 
the  guarantee  to  the  colony  of  protection  from  foreign 
aggression  being  contingent  upon  the  contribution  by 


12  IMPERIAL   FEDERATION.  [Cn.  I 

the  colony  of  the  revenue  or  money  required  for  de- 
fence in  fair  proportion  to  its  wealth  and  population. 

Lastly,  '  as  the  natural  termination  of  a  connection 
in  itself  of  a  temporary  character  '  (to  use  the  words  of 
the  preface  to  the  Bill),  provision  is  made  for  the 
formal  separation  of  a  colony  and  its  erection  into  an 
independent  state  when  its  people  feel  equal  to  under- 
taking the  full  range  of  national  responsibility.  Direct 
provision  is  made  for  independence  only  at  the  colony's 
own  request,  but  it  is  suggested  that  separation  might 
be  brought  about  by  coercive  proclamation  on  the 
part  of  the  mother-country  in  case  the  colony  fails  to 
perform  the  national  duties  which  it  accepted  with 
responsible  government. 

The  interest  of  this  proposed  legislation  seems  to 
me  to  lie  in  the  proof  which  it  furnishes  that  the  grant 
of  responsible  government  was  by  no  means  regarded 
as  giving  finality  to  national  relations,  but  only  as 
marking  a  stage  in  colonial  development.  The  view 
thus  taken  by  Lord  Thring  in  England  was  the  view 
taken  by  Joseph  Howe  in  Canada,  to  whose  opinions 
I  shall  have  occasion  hereafter  to  refer. 

The  merit  of  the  Bill  lay  in  the  fact  that  it  placed 
upon  a  defined  and  easily  understood  footing  the 
relations  of  mother-land  and  colony  so  long  as  they 
remained  together  ;  and  provided  a  constitutional  way 
of  escape  from  the  connection  when  it  had  ceased  to 
give  satisfaction  to  either  party.  Its  peculiarity,  indi- 
cative of  the  opinions  prevailing  at  the  time,  is  that 
no  notice  is  taken  of  the  possibility  of  a  colony  rising 


Cml]  INTRODUCTION.  13 

to  a  place  of  greatness  and  power  inconsistent  with  a 
strictly  subordinate  colonial  relation,  and  yet  desiring 
to  perpetuate  its  organic  connection  with  the  nation. 

The  constitution  of  the  United  States  provides  that 
new  settlements,  though  thousands  of  miles  from  the 
centre  of  government,  and  as  truly  colonies  as  those 
of  Britain,  shall  rise  from  the  condition  of  territories 
into  that  of  states,  under  which  they  enjoy  the  full 
national  franchise,  and  assume  a  full  share  of  national 
responsibility.  In  a  like  manner  Lord  Thring's  Bill 
fairly  faced  the  fact  that  for  communities  such  as 
those  which  British  people  were  forming,  the  colonial 
stage  was  temporary  and  transitional,  and  it  provided, 
in  a  different  sense,  but  in  accord  with  existing  con- 
ditions and  beliefs,  a  fixed  goal  for  colonial  aspira- 
tions, and  a  fixed  limit  to  the  responsibilities  of  the 
mother-land. 

The  framer  of  this  Bill  is  now,  I  have  reason  to 
think,  among  those  who  believe  that  a  very  different 
end  of  colonial  development  is  both  desirable  and 
practicable.  Such  a  reversal  of  opinion  is  the  natural 
outcome  of  the  extraordinary  changes  which  have 
passed  over  the  national  life.  The  extension  of  com- 
mercial and  industrial  relations,  the  growth  of  common 
interests,  the  increased  facility  for  communication, 
above  all,  the  retention  in  the  colonies,  under  their 
new  systems  of  free  government,  of  a  strong  national 
sentiment,  and  the  absence  of  the  anticipated  desire  to 
break  the  national  connection,  have  thrown  new  light 
upon  the  whole  question. 


14  IMPERIAL   FEDERATION.  [Cp.  I 

In  that  new  light  it  now  seems  that  there  is  an 
argument  well  nigh  unanswerable,  which  goes  to 
prove  that  so  far  from  being  a  matter  of  indifference, 
the  separation  from  the  Empire  of  any  one  of  our 
great  groups  of  colonies  would  be  an  event  pregnant 
with  anxieties  and  possible  disaster  alike  to  the 
colonies  and  to  the  mother-land,  and  so  far  from  being 
the  natural  line  of  political  development,  that  separa- 
tion would  be  as  unnatural  as  it  is  unnecessary.  It 
is  this  thought  that  has  given  birth  to  the  idea  of 
national  federation,  to  the  conviction  in  many  minds 
that  the  chief  effort  of  our  national  statesmanship 
should  be  directed  to  securing  the  continued  unity  of 
the  wide-spread  British  Empire,  to  resisting  any 
tendency  towards  that  disintegration  which  a  genera- 
tion ago  was  looked  forward  to  with  comparative 
unconcern.  This  is  not  the  thought  of  mere  theorists 
or  enthusiasts.  Statesmen  and  thinkers  of  the  first 
rank  both  in  the  mother-land  and  the  colonies,  while 
reserving  their  judgment  as  to  the  lines  on  which 
complete  unity  can  be  gained,  have  strongly  affirmed 
their  belief  that  it  is  the  true  goal  for  our  national 
aspirations,  that  the  question  is  one  of  supreme 
concern  for  the  whole  Empire,  and  that  the  problem 
must  soon  be  grappled  with  in  practical  politics. 

Not  the  creation,  but  the  preservation  of  national 
unity,  is  the  task  which  thus  confronts  British  people, 
which  they  must  accept  or  refuse.  Unity  already  exists  : 
it  is  the  necessary  starting-point  of  every  discussion. 
It  will  prove,  if  need  be,  an  incalculable  assistance 


CH.  I]  INTRODUCTION.  15 

towards  the  attainment  of  the  completer  unity  at  which 
we  aim.  But  the  existing  unity  is  crude  in  form,  one 
which  in  its  very  nature  is  temporary  and  transitional, 
one  which  ignores  or  violates  political  principles  in- 
grained in  the  English  mind  as  essential  to  any  finality 
in  political  development,  and  which  already  results 
in  gross  inequalities  in  the  conditions  of  citizenship 
throughout  the  Empire. 

The  logic  by  which  this  position  is  proved  seems 
irresistible  in  its  appeal  to  the  mind  of  the  ordinary 
British  citizen.  It  is  well  to  be  clear  on  this  point. 

The  essence  of  British  political  thought,  the  very 
foundation  upon  which  our  freedom,  political  stability, 
and  singular  collective  energy  as  a  nation  have  been 
built  up,  may  be  expressed  in  two  words— Representa- 
tive Government.  The  loyalty  of  the  subject  and  the 
faithfulness  of  the  ruler  spring  alike  from  this.  The 
willingness  to  bear  public  burdens,  the  deep  interest 
in  public  affairs,  the  close  study  and  careful  application 
of  political  principles  which  distinguish  the  people  of 
our  race  from  all  others,  and  the  advance  of  the  whole 
body  politic  towards  greater  individual  freedom  com- 
bined with  greater  collective  strength,  are  all  direct 
outgrowths  of  Representative  Government.  Other 
races  may  work  out  other  systems  and  attain  greatness 
in  doing  so  ;  we  have  committed  ourselves  to  this,  so 
far  as  dealing  with  our  own  people  is  concerned. 
From  the  local  board  which  settles  the  poor-rate  or 
school-tax  for  a  parish,  to  the  Cabinet  which  deals 
with  the  highest  concerns  of  the  Empire  and  the  world, 


16  IMPERIAL  FEDERATION.  [Cn.  I 

this  principle  is  the  central  element  of  strength,  since 
it  is  the  ground  on  which  public  confidence  is  based. 
A  British  subject  who  has  no  voice  in  influencing 
the  government  of  the  nation  throughout  the  whole 
range  of  its  operation  has  not  reached  that  con- 
dition to  which  the  whole  spirit  of  our  political 
philosophy  points  as  the  state  of  full  citizenship.  We 
are  on  absolutely  safe  ground  when  we  say  that  great 
English  communities  will  not  permanently  consent  to 
stop  short  of  this  citizenship,  nor  will  they  relegate  to 
others,  even  to  a  majority  of  their  own  nationality, 
the  uncontrolled  direction  of  their  most  important 
interests. 

With  certain  qualifications,  introduced  to  mitigate 
the  glaring  anomaly  of  the  situation,  the  great  self- 
governing  colonies  of  the  Empire  are  in  fact  now  com- 
pelled to  allow  many  of  their  most  important  affairs  to 
be  managed  by  others.  Canada,  with  a  commercial 
navy  which  floats  on  every  sea,  holding  already  in  this 
particular  the  fourth  place  among  the  nations  of  the 
world,  has  a  voice  in  fixing  international  relations  only 
by  the  courtesy  of  the  mother-land,  and  not  by  the  de- 
fined right  of  equal  citizenship.  Australia,  occupying  a 
continent,  with  vast  and  growing  commercial  interests, 
is  in  the  same  anomalous  position.  English-speaking, 
self-governing  populations,  amounting  in  the  aggre- 
gate already  to  nearly  a  third  of  the  population  of 
the  United  Kingdom,  and  likely  within  little  more 
than  a  generation  to  equal  it,  with  enormous  interests 
involved  in  nearly  every  movement  of  national  affairs, 


CH.  I]  INTRODUCTION.  17 

have  no  direct  representative  influence  in  shaping- 
national  policy  or  arranging  international  relations. 

The  almost  perfect  freedom  they  enjoy  in  the 
control  of  local  affairs  accentuates  rather  than  miti- 
gates the  anomaly.  By  accustoming  them  to  the 
exercise  of  political  rights  it  makes  them  impatient 
of  anything  which  falls  short  of  the  full  dignity  of 
national  citizenship. 

No  one  who  understands  the  genius  of  Anglo- 
Saxon  people  can  believe  that  this  state  of  affairs 
will  be  permanent.  No  one  who  sympathizes  with 
the  spirit  which  has  constantly  urged  forward  British 
people  on  their  career  of  political  progress  can  wish 
it  to  be  so.  Great  countries  with  an  assured  future 
cannot  always  remain  colonies,  as  that  term  has 
hitherto  been  understood.  The  system  which  per- 
sists in  making  no  other  provision  for  them  is  on 
the  point  of  passing  away. 

It  is  sometimes  urged  that  freedom  from  national 
burdens  should  be  enough  to  reconcile  colonists  to 
any  lack  of  representation  in  national  counsels  ;  that 
if  they  have  no  sufficient  share  of  Imperial  Govern- 
ment they  are  at  least  rid  of  Imperial  anxieties ; 
that  wise  direction  of  affairs  may,  in  any  case,  be 
looked  for  from  the  mother-land.  But  no  immunity 
from  public  burdens  can  compensate  for  the  loss  of 
a  share  in  the  higher  life  of  the  nation  and  the 
higher  dignity  of  full  citizenship  :  no  honourable 
career  can  result  from  a  readiness  to  shirk  respon- 
sibility :  a  willingness  to  rely  upon  others  to  do  our 

C 


1 8  IMPERIAL   FEDERATION.  [Cn.  I 

work  or  protect  our  interests  is  not  the  spirit  which 
has  built  up  or  will  perpetuate  the  power  of  our  race. 
Such  argument  may  suit  the  infancy  of  colonies; 
applied  to  their  adolescence  it  is  degrading,  since  it 
implies  a  mean  and  contented  dependence.  If  the 
greater  British  colonies  are  permanently  content  with 
their  present  political  status  they  are  unworthy  of 
the  source  from  which  they  sprang.  It  will  not  be 
so.  The  spirit  of  independence  has  developed,  not 
degenerated,  in  the  wider  breathing  space  of  new 
continents.  A  very  little  further  growth,  increasing 
the  complication  and  aggravating  the  anomaly  of  the 
existing  situation,  will  bring  us  to  a  stage  where  that 
spirit  will  no  longer  endure  the  restraints  now  put 
upon  it  by  practical  difficulties  of  political  organi- 
zation, and  where  those  difficulties  must  be  swept 
away  by  the  gathering  force  of  national  instincts 
and  necessities.  About  the  direction  of  change  there 
may  be  a  question ;  about  the  certainty  of  change 
there  can  be  none. 

But  the  argument  is  equally  strong  when  we  re- 
verse our  attitude,  and  place  ourselves  in  the  position 
of  the  taxpaying  citizens  of  the  United  Kingdom. 
There  are  probably  few  of  these  who  are  not  at  times 
filled  with  a  glow  of  pride  and  enthusiasm  when  they 
think  of  the  vast  extent  of  those  colonies,  which, 
planted  by  British  energy,  held  through  years  of 
conflict  by  British  courage,  and  proudly  inheriting 
British  traditions,  are  rising  to  pre-eminence  in  every 
quarter  of  the  globe. 


CH.  I]  INTRODUCTION.  19 

This  pride  and  enthusiasm  have  very  positive  and 
practical  issues.  The  citizen  of  the  remotest  colony 
knows  that  should  an  enemy  wantonly  attack  his 
frontier  —  should  port  or  city  be  threatened  by  a 
hostile  force  —  almost  within  twenty-four  hours,  as 
soon  as  telegraph  could  summon  or  steam  convey 
them,  British  sailors  or  British  soldiers  would  be 
pouring  thither,  as  ready  to  fight  and  die  for  that 
particular  bit  of  soil  as  for  the  shores  of  England 
itself.  But  the  sentiment  which  makes  this  possible 
is  balanced  and  qualified  by  very  different  con- 
siderations. The  citizen  of  the  United  Kingdom  has 
often  been  compelled  to  regard  the  colonies  as  great 
dependencies  which  increased  his  responsibilities  and 
multiplied  his  difficulties  without  returning  to  the 
mother-country,  under  their  present  organization, 
strength  in  men  or  resources,  or  even  in  exclusive 
commercial  advantage.  Every  new  colony  or  colonial 
interest  was  to  him  something  new  to  defend,  and 
augmented  the  burden  of  Empire. 

Yearly  the  vast  expense  necessary  to  provide  ade- 
quately for  national  responsibilities  increased,  and 
added  itself,  to  the  weight  of  taxation  incident  to  an 
advanced  civilization  and  complex  social  system. 
While  forced  to  bear  the  chief  burden  of  the  taxation 
required  for  national  defence,  the  people  of  the  British 
Islands  could  see  that  the  mass  of  the  colonists  bene- 
fited by  this  protection  already  possessed,  or  were 
likely  before  long  to  possess  a  higher  average  of 
wealth  and  comfort  than  the  mass  of  the  people 

c  a 


20  IMPERIAL   FEDERATION.  [Cn.  I 

who  bestowed  the  benefit.  Looking  forward  little 
more  than  a  generation  he  could  foresee  a  time 
when  the  colonists  whose  commerce  was  protected 
would  equal  in  number  the  whole  home  population 
which  gave  the  protection,  when  the  volume  of 
colonial  commerce  itself  would  surpass  that  of  the 
mother-land. 

It  requires  little  argument  to  prove  that  the  ano- 
maly of  leaving  one  part  of  a  nation  to  bear  a  dis- 
proportionate share  of  the  burdens  of  the  whole  is 
as  inconsistent  with  Anglo-Saxon  ideas  of  government 
as  the  exclusion  of  the  colonies  from  a  propor- 
tionate voice  in  the  conduct  of  national  affairs. 

An  effective  method  of  illustrating  this  anomalous 
condition  of  the  Empire  and  of  British  citizenship  at 
the  present  time  is  to  consider  the  immediate  change 
which  takes  place  in  the  political  privileges  and  re- 
sponsibilities of  a  man  who  shifts  his  residence  from 
the  mother-country  to  Canada,  Australia,  or  any  other 
great  colony.  He  crosses  the  ocean,  perhaps,  to  carry 
on  in  another  part  of  the  Empire  the  business  of  the 
the  bank,  or  commercial  house,  or  shipping  firm  with 
which  he  is  connected  here.  Such  of  his  interests  as 
require  national  protection  remain  the  same,  and 
continue  to  enjoy  security  under  the  British  flag.  He 
continues  to  take  precisely  the  same  interest  as  before 
in  the  national  welfare.  But  he  loses  at  once  the 
right  to  influence  national  policy  by  his  vote,  and  at 
the  same  time  he  drops  his  old  responsibilities  of 
citizenship,  since  he  no  longer  pays  the  same  propor- 


CH.  I]  INTRODUCTION.  21 

tion  of  the  taxes  which  make  the  nation  strong  to 
protect  him. 

Take  again  a  crucial  case  as  applied  to  the  working 
man.  In  Australia  one  finds  nearly  100,000,000  of 
sheep.  The  shepherding  and  shearing  of  these  sheep, 
the  packing,  carriage,  and  shipping  of  their  wool,  give 
employment  to  a  large  section  of  the  industrial  popula- 
tion. Nearly  all  this  wool  finds  its  market  in  England, 
where  the  manufacture  of  a  portion  of  it  gives  employ- 
ment to  an  immense  population  in  centres  such  as  the 
West  Riding  of  Yorkshire  and  parts  of  Scotland. 
The  safety  of  this  wool  in  passing  from  the  Australian 
centre  of  production  to  the  British  centre  of  manufac- 
ture is  essential  to  the  prosperity  of  the  people  in 
both.  To  this  end  Australian  ports  are  made  strong 
at  Australian  expense  and  British  ports  at  British 
expense.  So  far  all  is  fair  and  the  distribution  of 
the  burden  on  industry  is  equal.  But  between  the 
two  countries  lie  12,000  miles  of  sea  to  be  guarded, 
and  this  is  effectively  done  at  enormous  naval  and 
military  expense,  the  burden  of  which,  however,  is 
almost  exclusively  borne  at  the  British  end  of  the 
line.  The  proportion  paid  by  the  Australian  work- 
man is  comparatively  insignificant.  Yet  he  is  the  one 
who  earns  the  higher  wages  and  feels  the  pressure  of 
taxation  less. 

I  have  heard  a  working  man  in  a  large  public 
meeting  in  Australia  assert  that  the  position  viewed 
from  this  aspect  was  unfair,  and  he  added  that  he 
personally  was  far  better  able  to  bear  an  equal  share 


22  IMPERIAL   FEDERATION.  [CH.  I 

of  national  burdens  as  a  working  man  in  Australia 
than  he  had  ever  been  as  a  working  man  in  Britain. 
He  was  certainly  as  competent  to  exercise  the  national 
franchise. 

Trfe  illustration  thus  taken  from  a  single  colony 
and  a  single  department  of  industry  has,  of  course, 
a  wide  application.  Whether  viewed,  then,  from  a 
purely  British  or  a  purely  colonial  standpoint  there 
are  unanswerable  reasons,  and  they  are  equally  un- 
answerable from  either  side,  which  point  to  an  early 
modification  of  the  national  system. 

Especially  is  it  to  be  noted,  however,  that  the  cir- 
cumstances which  have  developed  this  great  problem 
have  not  arisen,  like  many  other  political  problems, 
from  injustice  or  mismanagement  in  the  past,  or  from 
any  causes  tending  to  provoke  mutual  recrimination. 
Through  the  simple  processes  of  growth  and  change, 
the  conditions  which  satisfied  the  demands  of  national 
life  in  the  past  have  become  insufficient  to  satisfy  its 
necessities  for  the  future.  Nothing  could  possibly  be 
more  helpful  for  the  solution  of  the  question  than  this 
fact,  that  men  are  able  to  approach  it  entirely  free 
from  party  feuds  and  local  animosities. 

Why,  it  may  be  asked,  have  not  the  incon- 
sistency and  the  temporary  character  of  the  existing 
national  system  been  all  along  obvious  to  every 
one  ?  Why  does  the  public  attention  require  to  be 
directed  to  facts  so  manifest?  Perhaps  the  best 
answer  is  to  be  found  in  the  wonderful  rapidity  of  the 
changes  which  have  been  going  on,  and  the  intense 


CH.  I  ]  INTRODUCTION .  2  3 

absorption  of  British  people,  both  at  home  and 
abroad,  in  the  actual  processes  of  national  evo- 
lution, which  left  no  time  for  studying  their  indirect 
results. 

Within  the  last  century,  and  mainly  within  tlie  last 
half  century,  the  United  Kingdom  has  passed  through 
the  most  strenuous  period  of  industrial  development 
known  in  the  history  of  nations.     The  social  system 
has  been  revolutionized  by  an  extraordinary  incre- 
ment of  wealth,  an  immense  increase  of  population, 
and  its  concentration  in  towns,  with  all  the  difficult 
problems   which    these    changes    involve.      Political 
thought  has  had  enough  to  do  to  adjust  the  balance 
between  decreasing  rural  and  increasing  urban  con- 
stituencies— to    meet    the    wants    of    a    democracy 
advancing  in  prosperity  and  intelligence,  to  maintain 
an  equilibrium  between  new  and  conflicting   forces. 
Moral   effort   has   been    strained   to   the   utmost   in 
dealing  with  education,  sanitation,  social  reformation, 
and  kindred  questions,  a  deepening  sense  of  public 
responsibility  in    such  matters  going  hand  in  hand 
with  an  almost  paralyzing  increase  in  the  masses  to 
be  dealt  with.    Under  such  circumstances  it  is  scarcely 
to   be  wondered  at   that  British   people  within   the 
United  Kingdom  have  been  too  much  absorbed   in 
what  was  directly  before  them  to  weigh  carefully  the 
results  of  what  was  going  on  abroad  ;  that  even  when 
most  active  in  external  as  well  as  internal  affairs  they 
seem  '  to  have  conquered  and  peopled  half  the  world 
in  a  fit  of  absence  of  mind.' 


24  IMPERIAL   FEDERATION.  [CH.  I 

In  the  colonies  the  preoccupation  of  thought  and 
energy  has  with  equal  reason  been  as  complete.  It 
is  scarce  fifty  years  since  the  Canadian  provinces 
obtained  local  self-government.  The  last  half  century 
has  witnessed  the  growth  of  a  most  complete  system 
of  municipal  and  provincial  institutions,  crowned  by 
a  great  act  of  constructive  statesmanship  in  Con- 
federation. The  organization  of  half  a  continent  on 
material  lines  has  kept  pace  with  each  step  in  political 
construction.  Railroads,  canals,  telegraphs,  postal 
facilities,  steamboat  communication,  all  the  machinery 
of  modern  civilization,  have  been  widely  applied  to 
an  immense  area. 

In  Australia  movement  has  been  even  more  rapid 
and  engrossing.  Melbourne  has  changed  in  fifty 
years  from  a  village  of  a  thousand  inhabitants  to 
a  city  of  500,000.  Australian  commerce,  in  its  infancy 
when  the  Queen  came  to  the  throne,  now  equals  that 
of  the  United  Kingdom  at  the  same  date.  New 
Zealand,  then  the  home  of  mere  savages,  has  already  a 
British  population  which  exports  annually  £10,000,000 
worth  of  the  products  of  civilized  labour.  In  South 
Africa  half  a  continent  is  being  organized  under  con- 
ditions of  extreme  difficulty. 

In  the  rush  of  progress  so  swift  as  this,  the  mass  ol 
men  are  conscious  chiefly  of  the  work  immediately 
before  them.  But  as  this  work  grows  under  their 
hands,  the  vast  external  interests  are  created,  and  the 
wide  external  connections  grow  up,  which  compel 
attention  to  the  larger  problems  which  they  involve. 


CH.  I]  INTRODUCTION.  25 

The  local  politician,  as  provinces  consolidate,  is,  by 
a  process  of  natural  compulsion,  changed  into  the 
statesman  with  a  national  and  international  range  of 
political  vision. 

It  seems  almost  superfluous  to  point  out  that  in 
striving  for  closer  consolidation  British  people  would 
be  following  strictly  along  the  lines  of  the  most 
striking  national  movements  of  modern  times.  They 
would  be  merely  keeping  abreast  of  the  spirit  of  the 
age. 

For  the  idea  of  national  unity  the  people  of  the 
United  States  twenty-five  years  ago  made  sacrifices 
of  life  and  money  without  a  parallel  in  modern 
history.  No  one  now  doubts  that  the  end  justified 
the  enormous  expenditure  of  national  force.  'The 
Union  must  be  preserved '  was  the  pregnant  sentence 
into  which  Lincoln  condensed  the  national  duty  of  the 
moment,  and  to  maintain  this  principle  he  was  able 
to  concentrate  the  national  energy  for  a  supreme 
effort.  The  strong  man  who  saved  the  great  republic 
from  disruption  takes  his  place,  without  a  question, 
among  the  benefactors  of  mankind. 

Germany  struggled  through  years  of  difficulty, 
conflict,  and  swaying  tides  of  national  passion  towards 
the  ideal  of  a  united  fatherland.  The  ideal  has  been 
realised  ;  the  men  who  made  its  attainment  possible 
have  won,  not  merely  the  gratitude  of  their  country- 
men, but  the  world's  respect  as  well ;  even  their  acts  of 
despotism  are  forgiven  and  more  than  half  forgotten 
in  the  momentous  significance  of  their  one  supreme 


26  IMPERIAL   FEDERATION.  [Cn.  1 

achievement.  To-day  it  seems  as  if  their  work  of  con- 
solidated strength  was  the  best  guarantee  of  Europe's 
peace. 

Cavour's  statue  stands  in  the  squares  of  Italian 
cities — his  name  lingers  in  Italian  hearts.  To  Tuscan, 
Lombard,  and  Neapolitan  alike  he  is  'our  great 
Cavour' — the  man  whose  courageous  genius  found 
a  basis  in  facts  for  the  conception  of  Italian  unity, 
whose  patient  and  resolute  diplomacy  made  possible 
the  satisfaction  of  the  national  aspiration. 

Canada  has  placed  first  on  her  roll  of  greatness  the 
statesman  to  whom  she  mainly  owes  the  achievement 
of  Federal  unity.  Thus  beyond  a  doubt  the  men  who 
have  graven  their  names  most  deeply  on  the  history 
of  our  time  are  those  who  have  carried  out  in  many 
lands  and  under  varying  conditions  the  work  of 
national  consolidation.  American  unity,  German 
unity,  Italian  unity,  Austro-Hungarian  unity  —  the 
expansion  of  Russia  without  loss  of  unity — these 
are  the  accomplished  facts  of  our  time  which  we 
have  to  face.  More  than  this.  We  do  not  need  the 
philosophical  historian  to  tell  us,  for  the  process  is 
going  on  under  our  own  eyes,  that  a  governing  ten- 
dency of  the  age  is  towards  the  union  of  many 
states  into  combinations  of  nearly  equal  strength— 
sometimes  by  fusion,  sometimes  by  federation,  some- 
times by  alliance.  On  the  practical  equipoise  of  two 
such  great  groups  the  equilibrium  of  Europe  at  this 
moment  depends.  Race  adds  its  influence  to  the 
tendency.  Pan-Sclavism — Pan-Latinism — Pan-Teu- 


CH.  I]  INTRODUCTION.  27 

tonism  are  more  than  names.  They  are  forces  which 
play  their  part  in  moulding  the  destinies  of  nations 
and  governments.  The  aspect  of  the  whole  world 
irresistibly  suggests  the  thought  that  we  are  passing 
from  a  nation  epoch  to  a  federation  epoch.  That 
British  people  should  fall  in  with  this  tendency  is  in 
the  strict  line  of  historical  continuity.  '  From  clans  in 
the  north,'  it  has  been  truly  said,  'and  from  a  hep- 
tarchy in  the  south,  England  and  Scotland  grew  into 
nations  and  thence  into  one  nation.'  In  the  great 
offshoots  of  the  race  abroad  the  tendency  is  renewed, 
and  each  step  prepares  the  way  for  another  and 
greater  effort.  To  consolidate  the  empire  which 
Chatham  founded  is  the  one  manifest  opportunity 
remaining  in  the  British  world  for  British  statesmen 
to  place  their  names  in  our  history  beside  those  of 
the  greatest  of  the  statesmen  of  the  past. 

For  the  mother-land  an  organized  national  unity 
means,  not  degradation  from  her  imperial  position, 
but  a  frank  acceptance  of  the  facts  of  national  growth, 
and  the  greater  dignity  which  would  come  from  ac- 
knowledged leadership  of  the  free  communities  which 
have  grown  up  around  her. 

Prussia  gained,  instead  of  losing,  in  dignity,  when 
many  of  the  higher  functions  of  her  historic  parlia- 
ment became  merged  in  those  of  the  Reichstag  of 
the  German  people,  when  she  gave  up  her  individual 
place  as  a  nation  in  Europe  to  assume  the  leadership 
of  the  German  Empire.  So  would  it  be  with  Great 
Britain. 


28  IMPERIAL   FEDERATION.  [Cn.  I 

For  the  colonies  national  unity  means  independ- 
ence :  not  '  virtual '  independence,  as  their  present 
ill-defined  condition  is  sometimes  spoken  of,  but  the 
manly  and  sufficient  independence  which  comes  from 
asserted  rights  and  assumed  responsibilities. 

There  are  two  kinds  of  independence.  The  first  is  that 
of  the  son  grown  restless  under  tutelage,  who  throws 
himself  off,  more  or  less  recklessly,  from  the  family 
connection,  refuses  family  advice  or  assistance,  and 
takes  the  chances  of  life  on  his  own  account.  Given, 
on  the  one  hand,  overbearing  and  unsympathetic 
parents  anxious  to  retain  their  control  till  the  last 
moment,  or,  on  the  other,  children  filled  with  ignorant 
self-conceit  and  consequent  discontent,  and  independ- 
ence of  this  first  type  is  the  natural  result.  Some- 
times it  is  justified,  and  succeeds  ;  sometimes  it  is 
born  of  blind  stupidity  and  makes  lamentable  ship- 
wreck. But  this  is  not  the  ideal  or  the  only  form  of 
independence.  Given  reason,  due  consideration,  mutual 
regard  for  rights  on  both  sides,  and  the  family  tie 
becomes  a  partnership  which  combines  the  advantages 
of  all  the  liberty  required  for  full  development  with 
the  unity  of  action  and  counsel  which  assures  strength. 
It  produces  a  great  Rothschild  firm,  each  head  of 
which  is  free  to  work  out  his  own  views  at  his  own 
centre  of  the  world's  finance,  but  each  in  touch  with 
the  other  for  counsel  or  action,  each  making  use  of 
the  business  machinery  established  by  all  the  rest,  and 
thus  securing  incomparable  business  advantages  for  all. 
So  in  a  wider  sphere  it  produces  the  nation — the  great 


CH.  I]  INTRODUCTION.  29 

American  Republic — the  Swiss,  Germanic,  or  Canadian 
Confederation  ;  each  state  or  group  of  states  working 
independently  within  its  own  well-defined  sphere  of 
influence ;  each  taking  its  share  as  freely  in  the 
equally  well-defined  but  wider  orbit  of  a  large  national 
life. 

Our  admiration  is  not  given  to  the  independence  of 
the  American  state,  or  the  Canadian  or  Australian 
province  when  holding  aloof  from  union,  where  we 
feel  that  a  spirit  of  petty  provincialism  is  at  work. 
Nor  can  it  be  reasonably  given  to  the  independence  of 
the  Greek  state  impatient  of  any  control  beyond  that 
which  is  found  within  a  city's  walls.  At  least,  in  this 
case,  if  we  admire,  we  pity  still  more,  for  the  lack  of 
the  power  to  preserve  the  liberty  which  the  city  had 
created.  We  reserve  our  admiration  for  the  reasoned 
and  secured  independence  of  a  state  whose  members 
have  abandoned  the  petty  side  of  their  individuality, 
and  displayed  that  political  self-restraint,  sagacity,  and 
largeness  of  view  which  is  implied  in  wide  organiza- 
tion for  the  attainment  of  great  ends. 

It  is  to  this  independence  of  partnership  that  a  real 
national  unity  would  lift  the  colonies  of  the  British 
Empire.  Doubtless  it  would  at  first  be  the  partner- 
ship of  junior  members.  More  than  this  could  not 
reasonably  be  expected.  But  the  position  need  not 
be  an  irksome  one. 

One  primary  principle  reason  approves  and  experi- 
ence recommends  for  our  guidance  in  attempting  to 
outline  the  form  of  union  which  will  best  be  adapted 


30  IMPERIAL  FEDERATION. 

to  the  genius  of  the  British  people.  For  all  its  com- 
munities there  should  be  the  utmost  freedom  of  in- 
dividual action  which  is  consistent  with  united  strength. 
Apparently  this  condition  will  be  best  fulfilled  under 
some  form  of  Federal  connection. 


CHAPTER    II. 

FEDERATION. 

THE  central  internal  fact,  then,  which  must  soon 
bring  about  a  decisive  change  in  our  system  of  na- 
tional organization  is  the  necessity  that  British  people 
in  all  parts  of  the  Empire  should  have,  if  they  are  to 
remain  together  and  so  far  as  circumstances  permit, 
full  and  equal  privileges  of  self-government  and 
citizenship.  The  political  instinct  which  works  in 
this  direction  nothing  can  resist,  for  it  has  become 
innate  in  all  that  is  best  in  our  race.  The  colonist 
who  is  permanently  content  with  less  has  lost  no  small 
part  of  the  spirit  of  his  ancestors. 

The  central  external  fact  which  points  to  federation 
rather  than  separation  as  the  form  which  that  change 
should  take  is  the  necessity  for  joint  defence  of  great 
common  interests,  and  the  joint  management  of  inter- 
national relations. 

It  may  be  fairly  claimed  that  in  accepting  the 
federal  idea  Anglo-Saxon  peoples  have  reached  the 
crown  of  their  political  achievement,  inasmuch  as  it 
offers  a  compromise  between  excessively  centralized 
systems  of  government,  which  gave  strength  at  the 


32  IMPERIAL  FEDERATION.  [Cn.  II 

expense  of  local  freedom,  and  those  other  systems 
which  for  the  sake  of  local  freedom  sacrificed  the 
strength  which  was  necessary  for  their  own  preserva- 
tion. The  liberty  of  the  small  Greek  Republic  was  in 
some  aspects  a  glorious  thing  contrasted  with  the 
despotisms  around  it,  yet  we  cannot  but  remember 
that  for  want  of  power  to  combine  that  liberty  was 
crushed  beneath  the  heel  of  the  foreigner.  Federalism 
is  the  device  by  which  organized  democracy,  without 
giving  up  anything  essential  to  liberty,  is  placed  in 
a  position  to  wrestle  on  even  terms  with  organized 
despotism. 

An  Australian  writer  has  lately  defined  very  justly 
the  true  reason  for  the  application  of  the  Federal 
principle.  c  It  may  be  said,5  he  remarks,  'that  federa- 
tion becomes  desirable  where,  on  the  one  hand,  the 
country  is  too  enormous  in  extent  and  too  diverse  in 
conditions  for  its  internal  affairs  to  be  satisfactorily 
managed  by  one  central  government,  while,  on  the 
other  hand,  the  communities  have  certain  common 
interests  best  served  by  their  coming  together,  or  are 
confronted  by  common  dangers  if  they  keep  apart.' 
Never  in  the  history  of  the  world  were  these  conditions 
more  completely  fulfilled  than  in  the  case  of  the 
British  Empire.  But  objections  to  a  federal  organiza- 
tion for  the  Empire  are  at  once  raised.  '  The  areas 
and  communities  to  be  dealt  with  are  too  vast,  the 
problem  too  complex,  and  the  consequent  difficulty  of 
giving  an  adequate  organization  too  great  for  such 
a  plan  to  be  thought  of.'  To  this  it  may  be  answered 


CH.  II]  FEDERATION.  33 

that  the  growth  of  the  United  States  has  widened 
political  horizons.  It  has  proved  that  immense  terri- 
torial extent  is  not  incompatible,  under  modern 
conditions,  with  that  representative  system  of  popular 
government  which  had  its  birth  and  development  in 
England,  and  its  most  notable  adaptation  in  America. 
It  has  shown  that  the  spread  of  a  nation  over  vast 
areas,  including  widely-separated  states  with  diverse 
interests,  need  not  prevent  it  from  becoming  strongly 
bound  together  in  a  political  organism  which  combines 
the  advantages  of  national  greatness  and  unity  of 
purpose  with  jealously  guarded  freedom  of  local  self- 
government.  So  that  if  the  birth  of  the  American 
Republic  suggested  the  confident  inference  that  the 
inevitable  tendency  of  new  communities  was  to  detach 
themselves  like  ripe  fruit  from  the  parent  stem,  the 
circumstances  of  its  growth  have  done  much  to  dissi- 
pate the  idea.  The  United  States  have  illustrated  on 
a  great  scale  the  advantages  of  national  unity ;  their 
example  has  pointed  the  way  to  its  attainment.  That 
example  has  been  followed  in  one  great  British  com- 
munity ;  it  is  being  adopted  in  another. 

But  in  the  United  States,  in  Canada,  in  Australia 
it  is  urged,  we  have  continental  contiguity.  The 
British  Empire  is  too  large,  its  parts,  separated  by 
oceans,  are  unfitted  for  government  under  a  common 
federal  system.  We  can  at  least  answer  that  the 
standard  of  possible  size  for  a  nation  has  steadily 
enlarged  in  the  course  of  history.  For  a  federal 
system  the  unit  may  be  small  or  large,  and  there  seems 

D 


34  IMPERIAL   FEDERATION.  [CH.  II 

to  be  a  measure  by  which  to  fix  the  possible  size  of 
the  unit  in  any  case.  The  breadth  of  interest  is  this 
measure.  In  a  United  British  Empire  each  of  the 
federated  countries,  as  commercial  communities,  would 
have  interests  all  over  the  world,  and  having  such 
interests  would  have  a  justification  for  being  units  in 
a  world-wide  Oceanic  Empire. 

For  great  trading  communities,  moreover,  we  must 
remember  that  oceans  do  not  divide.  The  almost  in- 
stantaneous transmission  of  thought,  the  cheap  trans- 
mission of  goods,  the  speedy  travel  possible  for  man, 
have  revolutionised  pre-existing  conditions  in  com- 
merce and  society,  once  more  widening  our  horizon. 
The  fact  lies  at  the  very  basis  of  our  national  prosperity; 
it  is  recognised  in  the  every-day  transactions  of  com- 
mercial life.  Why  should  it  not  be  admitted  among 
the  ordinary  considerations  of  political  life  as  well  ? 

Communities  so  remote  from  each  other  as  those 
which  compose  the  Empire,  it  is  said  again,  '  cannot 
have  those  common  interests  which  are  necessary  to 
give  cohesion  to  a  nation.'  Let  us  consider  the  point. 

I  go  into  a  woollen  mill  in  Yorkshire  or  the 
south  of  Scotland.  Its  proprietor,  a  great  organizer 
of  industry,  shows  me  over  the  vast  establishment, 
from  the  warehouse  where  the  bales  of  wool  are 
being  packed  as  they  arrive  after  their  long  voyage 
from  the  antipodes,  through  the  washing,  combing, 
spinning,  weaving,  dyeing,  and  pressing  rooms  till 
we  come  to  the  show  rooms  where  the  completed 
goods  are  awaiting  sale  and  shipment  to  the  furthest 


CH.  II]  FEDERATION.  35 

corners  of  the  world.  He  tells  me  that  any  circum- 
stance which  checked  the  steady  supply  of  the  raw 
material  even  for  a  few  weeks  would  leave  all  this 
extensive  and  complicated  mass  of  machinery  idle ; 
would  throw  his  employes,  numbered  by  thousands, 
out  of  employment ;  would  bring  himself  face  to  face 
with  ruin  and  his  people  with  want.  Any  circumstances 
which  checked  the  steady  shipment  of  the  manufac- 
tured goods  to  distant  markets  would  produce  conse- 
quences scarcely  less  immediate  or  less  disastrous. 
I  find  the  proprietor  day  by  day  anxiously  watching 
the  reports  of  the  wool  sales  in  London,  and  through 
them  anything  that  affects  the  wool  trade  in  Sydney. 
Melbourne,  or  Dunedin.  Clearly  this  man  and  those 
who  work  for  him  must  look  far  afield,  if  they  consider 
all  the  conditions  upon  which  their  prosperity  depends. 
They  are  types  which  represent  many  millions  of 
people  in  the  United  Kingdom. 

I  go  to  Australia  or  New  Zealand,  and  find  my- 
self the  guest  of  a  squatter  on  his  remote  station. 
The  sheep  in  his  flocks  number  perhaps  a  hundred 
thousand.  He  shows  me  his  station  houses,  his 
shearing  sheds,  his  wool  sheds,  his  vast  paddocks 
enclosed  with  hundreds  of  miles  of  wire  fencing,  all 
his  extensive  plant,  his  horses,  his  shepherds,  his 
band  of  shearers.  He  has  to  fight  against  drought ; 
swarms  of  rabbits  may  threaten  him  with  ruin ;  his 
year's  clip  of  wool  may.  as  the  result  of  past  disasters, 
be  mortgaged  to  the  Banks.  But  if  the  telegraph  tells 
him  that  wool  is  rising  in  the  London  market,  that  the 

D  2 


36  IMPERIAL   FEDERATION.  [Cn.  II 

factories  at  Leeds  and  Halifax  and  Huddersfield  are 
running  at  their  utmost  capacity,  that  Yorkshire  is 
prosperous,  he  is  cheerful  (and  faces  his  difficulties  with 
a  hopeful  mind.  A  good  year's  sales  will  repay  him 
for  his  risks  and  recoup  him  for  the  losses  of  the  past. 
Cut  this  man  off  from  access  to  the  home  markets  for 
a  few  months,  block  the  ports  from  which  he  ships  his 
wool,  or  break  the  line  of  his  communication,  and  his 
industry  is  paralysed,  his  workmen  without  pay ;  the 
bank  which  backs  him  and  stakes  much  on  the  pros- 
perity of  him  and  his  like  may  close  its  doors.  Here 
manifestly  is  a  man  who,  with  his  organized  army  of 
industry,  from  the  shepherd  who  tends  the  sheep  to 
the  lumper  who  handles  the  bales  at  the  docks,  has 
interests  which  extend  further  than  his  immediate 
neighbourhood. 

I  go  on  board  one  of  the  great  liners  which  run 
between  Australia  and  England,  and  which  may  be 
taken  to  represent  the  third  great  form  of  British 
industry.  Down  in  her  hold,  forming  the  chief  part  of 
her  cargo,  are  several  thousand  bales  of  wool.  When 
she  returns  the  wool  will  be  replaced  by  manufactured 
goods.  The  profits  of  the  company  which  owns  and 
manages  her  depend  upon  the  prosperity  of  the  great 
manufacturing  communities  at  home  and  the  great 
producing  areas  abroad  ;  upon  the  pressure  of  outward 
and  homeward  trade.  Upon  the  absolute  safety  from 
hostile  attack  of  this  vessel  and  her  like  in  passing 
over  many  thousand  miles  of  sea  depends  once  more 
the  industrial  security  of  the  vast  multitudes  of  human 


CH.  II]  FEDERATION.  37 

beings  for  whom  and  between  whom  she  carries  on 
exchange. 

Can  community  of  interest  and  mutual  dependence 
be  more  complete  than  this?  Of  the  man  who  pro- 
duces the  raw  material,  the  man  who  works  it  up,  and 
the  man  who  carries  between  them,  can  we  say  where 
the  interest  of  the  one  begins  and  the  other  ends  ?  Yet 
what  has  been  said  of  one  raw  material  of  production 
and  manufacture  may  be  said  of  a  hundred.  What  has 
been  said  of  wool  may  be  said  of  wheat,  for  artizans 
must  be  fed  while  they  work,  and  more  and  more 
English  people  at  home  will  have  to  depend  on 
English  people  abroad  for  their  supplies  of  wheat.  It 
may  be  said  of  meat,  which  every  year,  in  increasing 
quantity,  Canada,  New  Zealand,  and  Australia  send  to 
the  mother-land. 

No  limit  can  be  put  to  the  range  of  common  interest 
between  communities  of  which  one  devotes  its  industry 
chiefly  to  supplying  the  raw  material  of  commerce, 
the  other  to  its  manufacture. 

This  community  of  industrial  interest  is  strengthened 
by  a  thousand  influences  which  give  community  of 
thought  in  almost  every  relation  of  life,  and  must  be 
reckoned  among  the  forces  which  make  for  cohesion. 

The  population  which  flows  into  the  waste  places 
of  the  colonies  comes  chiefly  from  the  motherland, 
not  driven  out  by  religious  persecution  or  political 
tyranny,  but  impelled  by  the  spirit  of  enterprize  or  in 
search  of  the  larger  breathing  and  working  space  of 
new  countries.  In  almost  every  case  the  emigrant 


38  IMPERIAL   FEDERATION.  [CH.  II 

makes  a  new  bond  of  friendly  connection.  He  leaves 
the  old  Britain  without  any  feeling  of  bitterness,  and 
often  with  friendly  aid ;  he  finds  a  welcome  as  well  as 
a  home  in  the  new  Britain  beyond  the  seas.  There 
the  links  of  connection  multiply  and  strengthen. 
Cheaper  ocean  transport,  cheaper  postage,  cheaper 
telegraph  rates,  are  constantly  making  it  easier  for 
him  to  keep  in  touch  with  the  old  home.  His  daily 
or  weekly  paper  has  its  columns  of  English  news, 
keeping  him  well  informed  about  all  that  most  closely 
concerns  the  nation's  life.  The  best  products  of  the 
best  minds  of  the  motherland  furnish  his  chief  in- 
tellectual food,  and  form  the  basis  of  his  education. 
Cheaper  and  cheaper  editions  poured  out  by  com- 
petitive publishers  in  the  centres  of  cheap  production 
bring  all  the  master  minds  who  have  spoken  or 
written  in  the  English  tongue  within  easy  reach  even 
on  an  Australian  station  or  a  Canadian  prairie.  The 
tick  of  the  telegraph  keeps  the  financial  and  specu- 
lative interests  of  the  whole  outlying  Empire  in  almost 
instant  touch  with  those  at  the  centre.  The  philan- 
thropic and  social  movements  which  originate  in  the 
old  lands  or  the  new  find  an  almost  immediate  re- 
flection or  response  in  the  other.  Pan-Anglican 
Synods,  Oecumenical  Councils,  and  General  Assem- 
blies, together  with  the  great  Missionary  and  Bible 
Societies,  keep  in  closest  touch  the  religious  thought 
and  activities  of  the  British  world.  The  British 
Association  for  the  Advancement  of  Science  meets  in 
Montreal,  and  finds  itself  as  much  at  home  there  as  in 


CH.  II]  FEDERATION.  39 

London,  Edinburgh,  or  Dublin.  Competitions  of 
skill  in  arms  or  in  athletics  add  their  manifold  links 
of  connection.  It  seems  as  if  Pan-Britannic  contests 
of  the  kind  on  a  great  scale  might  yet  revive  the 
memories  of  the  old  Greek  world.  Already  corps  of 
riflemen  or  artillerymen  meet  in  friendly  competition 
year  by  year  at  Wimbledon,  Bisley,  or  Shoeburyness. 

The  young  Australian  or  Canadian  who  begins  to 
practice  with  the  cricket-bat  or  oar  is  already  in  im- 
agination measuring  his  skill  and  strength  against 
the  best  that  Great  Britain  can  produce,  nor  has  the 
cricketer  or  oarsman  of  the  United  Kingdom  gained 
his  final  place  in  the  athletic  world  till  he  has  tested 
his  powers  on  Australian  fields  or  Canadian  waters. 
The  eager  interest  with  which  in  either  hemisphere 
the  tour  of  a  selected  team  or  the  performance  of  a 
champion  sculler  is  watched  from  day  to  day  is  a 
curious  proof  of  the  intimacy  of  thought  made  possible 
by  existing  means  of  communication. 

The  great  labour  conflicts  of  the  past  two  or  three 
years  have  furnished  striking  examples  of  the  vital 
sympathy  which  springs  from  nationality  and  close 
social  and  commercial  connection.  During  the  Aus- 
tralian strike  of  last  year,  day  after  day,  by  message 
and  manifesto,  each  party  to  the  contest  strove  to 
bring  over  public  opinion  in  Great  Britain  to  its  side, 
while  the  funds  raised  on  the  one  side  of  the  world 
to-day  were  on  the  morrow  giving  support  and  en- 
couragement to  those  they  were  intended  to  assist  at 
the  other.  Once  more  there  is  the  sense  of  common 


40  IMPERIAL   FEDERATION.  [Cn.  II 

and  equal  ownership  of  great  national  memories  and 
names.  The  people  of  the  great  colonies  have  never 
broken  with  national  traditions,  They  are  able  to 
enter  without  reserve  into  that  passionate  affection 
with  which  Shakespeare  and  Milton,  Scott  and  Burns, 
loved  their  native  land,  even  while  pointing  out  her 
faults.  The  statue  of  a  national  hero,  like  Gordon,  finds 
its  place  as  naturally  on  a  square  of  Melbourne  as  on 
Trafalgar  Square  itself.  Equally  in  place  are  the  memo- 
rial tablet  to  an  Australian  statesman  in  the  crypt  of 
St.  Paul's  beside  the  tombs  of  Nelson  and  Wellington, 
or  the  memorial  service  at  Westminster  to  a  statesman 
of  the  Empire  who  did  his  work  in  Canada. 

It  may  be  asked  whether  it  can  be  supposed  that  the 
great  colonies,  widely  separated  as  they  are,  will  ever 
learn  to  think  and  act  together  politically;  whether, 
for  instance,  Australians  can  ever  be  expected  to  take 
interest  in  Canadian  fishery  disputes,  or  Canadians  sym- 
pathize in  Australian  excitement  about  New  Caledonia 
or  New  Guinea.  '  Canada  and  Australia,'  says  Mr. 
Freeman, '  care  a  great  deal  for  Great  Britain ;  we  may 
doubt  whether,  apart  from  Great  Britain,  Canada  and 
Australia  care  very  much  for  one  another.  There 
may  be  American  States  which  care  yet  less  for  one 
another ;  but  in  their  case  mere  continuity  produces 
a  crowd  of  interests  and  relations  common  to  all.  We 
may  doubt  whether  the  confederation  of  States  so 
distant  as  the  existing  colonies  of  Great  Britain, 
whether  the  bringing  them  into  closer  relations  with 
one  another  as  well  as  with  Great  Britain,  will  at  all 


CH.  II]  FEDERATION.  41 

tend   to   the   advance  of  a  common   national  unity 
among  them  V 

The  question  thus  raised  is  an  interesting  one,  not 
to  be  dismissed  in  a  word.  Some  force  is  given  to  it 
by  the  wide  separation  of  the  colonies  from  each 
other,  and  the  lack  of  intercourse  in  the  past.  But 
anyone  who  watches  colonial  questions  closely  sees 
that  great  changes  are  taking  place.  Till  a  very  few 
years  ago  Canada  looked  to  Australia  only  eastward 
across  the  Atlantic  and  Indian  Oceans.  The  Do- 
minion has  now  become  like  Australia,  a  state  upon 
the  Pacific,  with  interests  in  that  ocean  which  are  sure 
to  become  very  considerable.  Lines  of  steamship, 
postal,  and  cable  communication  between  the  two 
countries  are  already  in  contemplation.  The  safety 
of  such  routes  would  of  itself  form  a  great  common 
interest.  Passing  through  the  centre  of  the  Pacific 
it  would  tend  to  create  those  national  interests  which 
would  increase  British  influence  in  that  ocean — an  end 
very  much  in  Australasian  thought. 

On  the  Atlantic  Canada  is  extending  her  trade 
relations  with  another  group  of  colonies,  the  West 
Indies.  This  trade  promises  to  develop  greatly  in 
the  future,  for  as  one  country  is  in  the  temperate  zone 
and  the  other  in  the  tropics,  each  seems  the  natural 
complement  of  the  other  in  range  of  production. 
The  opening  of  a  Panama  route  would  give  the  Aus- 
tralian colonies  a  profound  interest  in  the  strength  of 
the  British  position  in  the  West  Indies. 

1  Britannic  Confederation,  p.  54. 


42  IMPERIAL   FEDERATION.  [CH.  II 

Australia  and  New  Zealand,  again,  have  a  sub- 
stantial interest  in  the  political  fortunes  of  South 
Africa,  since  in  that  country  is  the  most  vulnerable 
point  of  their  most  important  trade  route.  In  the 
Naval  Annual  for  1890  Lord  Brassey  estimates  the 
outward-bound  Australasian  trade  which  passes  the 
Cape  at  twenty  millions  sterling  per  annum,  and 
uses  the  statement  to  enforce  his  views  as  to  the 
national  importance  of  making  perfectly  secure  our 
position  at  this  great  turning-point  of  the  world's 
commerce. 

But  I  do  not  wish  to  lay  undue  stress  upon  these 
facts,  which  are  only  intended  to  be  illustrations  of 
the  existence  and  growth  of  common  interests  between 
different  groups  of  colonies.  They  are  suggestions 
of  future  possibilities  rather  than  powerful  factors  in 
the  present. 

It  is  more  pertinent  to  measure  the  strength  of 
the  forces  which  at  the  present  time  make  effectively 
for  national  cohesion.  Nobody  doubts  that  if  to-day 
either  Canada  or  Australia  were  attacked  by  any 
foreign  power  the  whole  might  of  Great  Britain  would 
be  put  forth  to  protect  them.  As  little  doubt  can 
there  be  that  if  Britain  were  wantonly  attacked  and 
engaged  in  a  struggle  for  existence,  each  of  these 
great  colonies  would  be  ready  with  such  assistance 
as  it  could  give.  Race  sentiment  and  national  honour, 
to  say  nothing  of  self-interest,  would  combine,  as 
things  now  stand,  to  make  these  results  as  certain  as 
anything  can  be  in  human  affairs.  The  common 


CH.  II]  FEDERATION.  43 

bond  with  the  mother-land  seems  to  me  a  guarantee 
of  sufficient  unity  between  the  colonies — not  so  close, 
not  so  instinctive,  it  is  true,  as  the  more  direct  tie, 
but  still  amply  sufficient  to  give  effective  national 
cohesion.  All  the  colonies  are  parts  of  the  same  great 
body ;  all  would  alike  suffer  from  the  weakness  of 
the  whole.  All  would  gain  indefinitely  from  united 
strength. 

'  In  their  case/  to  repeat  what  Mr.  Freeman  says  of 
the  United  States,  '  mere  continuity  produces  a  crowd 
of  interest  and  relations  common  to  all.'  But  if 
Mr.  Freeman  reflects  that  seventy-seven  per  cent,  of 
Australia's  trade,  eighty  per  cent,  of  New  Zealand's 
trade,  eighty-five  per  cent,  of  South  Africa's  trade, 
fifty  per  cent,  of  Canada's  trade,  finds  its  way  back- 
ward and  forward  over  the  vast  oceans  which  separate 
these  colonies  from  Britain,  or  from  each  other,  he 
will  be  forced  to  admit  that  mere  distance  of  separa- 
tion produces,  if  not  a  crowd  of  interests  and  relations, 
at  least  a  few  interests  and  relations  common  to  all 
which  are  practically  predominant.  No  states  of  the 
American  Union  have  an  interdependence  of  finan- 
cial and  commercial  relations  proportionally  so  ex- 
clusive and  complete  as  those  which  exist  between 
New  Zealand,  Australia,  South  Africa,  or  even  Canada 
and  Great  Britain.  '  It  is  hard  to  believe,'  adds  Mr. 
Freeman,  'that  states  which  are  united  only  by  a  sen- 
timent, which  have  so  much,  both  political  and  physical, 
to  keep  them  asunder,  will  be  kept  together  by  a  sen- 
timent only.'  Mr.  Freeman  has  evidently  not  studied 


44  IMPERIAL   FEDERATION.  [Cn,  II 

the  facts  of  colonial  trade,  or  the  relations  of  English 
and  colonial  industry1. 

Another  practical  aspect  of  the  question  naturally 
appeals  strongly  to  many  minds.  We  are  the  most 
strenuous  working  race  of  the  world,  and  the  problems 
of  labour  fill  a  large  place  in  our  thoughts  of  the 
present  and  the  future.  Not  only  to  hold  our  own 
in  the  keen  competition  going  on  with  the  rest  of  the 
world  in  both  manufacture  and  the  production  of  raw 
material,  but  also  to  reach  the  higher  ideal  formed  of 
the  life  possible  for  a  working  man,  we  seek  to  make 
as  light  as  may  be  the  burdens  which  industry  must 
necessarily  bear.  In  all  countries  no  small  portion 
of  these  are  such  as  are  imposed  by  the  needs  of 
national  organization — burdens  which  no  country  has 
ever  yet  escaped,  or  ever  will.  In  national  unity  we 
may  have  all  the  advantages  and  resources  of  co- 
operation utilized  to  this  end  on  a  vast  scale ;  one 
diplomatic  and  consular  service  ;  one  fleet  instead  of 
several ;  ports  and  docks  defended  at  the  common 
expense  for  the  good  of  all.  Under  any  well-con- 
sidered scheme  it  is  certain,  so  far  as  defence  is 
concerned,  that  all  parts  of  the  Empire  would  secure 

1  Since  the  above  was  written  we  have  been  called  upon  to  lament 
the  great  loss  which  English  literature  has  suffered  in  Mr.  Freeman's 
death.  I  cannot  but  think  that  the  critical  attitude  which  he  took 
towards  British  unity  is  explained  by  a  remark  which  I  have  lately 
found  in  his  Impressions  of  the  United  States.  He  says,  '  Greatly  to 
my  ill-luck,  I  am  wholly  ignorant  of  all  things  bearing  on  commerce, 
manufactures,  or  agriculture.'  Are  not  these  the  questions  which 
really  dominate  British  national  development  ? 


CH.  II]  FEDERATION.  45 

a  maximum  of  protection  at  a  minimum  of  cost,  and 
the  same  would  hold  good  in  regard  to  other  forms 
of  necessary  national  expense.  A  nation  economizing 
expenditure  in  these  directions  could  enlarge  it  for 
objects  which  tended  to  the  common  good,  and  brought 
advantages  within  the  reach  of  the  masses,  cheap 
postage,  cheap  telegraphy,  cheap  transit  of  every  kind. 
Combinations  undertaken  for  ends  such  as  these  could 
have  no  savour  of  an  aggressive  Imperialism. 

To  provide  for  the  safety  of  industry  is  not 
Jingoism.  Richard  Cobden  was  not  under  a  Jingo 
influence  when  he  said  that  he  would  willingly  vote 
£100,000,000  for  the  Navy  rather  than  see  it  unable 
to  fulfil  its  task  of  giving  security  to  British  commerce. 
His  was  rather  the  expression  of  strong  English 
common  sense.,  which  faces  facts  and  the  actual 
conditions  of  life.  Lord  Rosebery  is  not  a  Jingo 
when  he  suggests  that  British  people  can  best  secure 
peace  by  '  preponderance.'  The  strength  of  a  United 
Empire  would  be  no  more  than  equal  to  the  increasing 
tasks  which  are  laid  upon  it.  The  fear  that  Federation 
with  the  strength  which  it  gave  would  make  British 
people  the  bullies  of  the  world  appears  absurd.  If 
we  have  powerful  athletic  sons  we  do  not  cut  their 
muscles  or  reduce  their  physique  lest  they  should  use 
their  splendid  strength  to  injury  of  their  neighbours  ; 
rather  do  we  train  them  to  use  it  in  noble  ways — to  be 
foremost  in  toil,  to  help  the  oppressed,  to  defend  the 
defenceless,  to  be  the  strong  arbiter  between  conten- 
tious disputants.  So  with  the  nation.  Doubtless  vast 


46  IMPERIAL   FEDERATION.  [Cn.  II 

strength,  without  an  adequate  controlling  moral  force, 
has  in  it  a  temptation  and  a  danger.  But  surely  the 
remedy  lies  in  deepening  the  moral  sense,  not  in 
limiting  or  diminishing  the  material  strength  of  the 
nation. 

To  the  Christian,  the  moralist,  the  philanthropist, 
no  inspiration  could  be  greater  than  that  which  might 
well  spring  from  observing  the  growing  strength  of 
the  Empire,  and  from  reflection  that  this  immense 
energy  might  be  turned  in  directions  which  would 
make  for  the  world's  good.  And  strength  beyond 
all  other  nations  British  people  must  have  if  they 
are  to  face  in  its  fulness  the  work  they  have  to  do. 
As  the  outcome  of  that  intense  life  which  has  specially 
characterized  the  last  two  hundred  years  they  find 
themselves  front  to  front  with  the  whole  world  on 
every  great  sphere  of  action  or  field  of  responsibility. 
They  have  to  face  and  boldly  play  their  part  in  the 
large  and  complex  problems  of  European  politics, 
when  the  might  of  enormous  armies  stands  ready 
to  enforce  the  decisions  of  an  alliance  or  the  will 
of  a  despot.  Commerce,  extending  to  the  remotest 
islands  or  penetrating  to  the  heart  of  uncivilized 
continents,  makes  almost  co-extensive  with  the  globe 
those  ordinary  interests  of  British  people  which  re- 
quire protection.  Three  hundred  millions  of  man- 
kind, who  do  not  share  British  blood,  of  various 
races  and  in  various  climes,  acknowledge  British  sway, 
and  look  to  it  for  guidance  and  protection  ;  their 
hopes  of  civilization  and  social  elevation  depending 


CH.  II]  FEDERATION.  47 

upon  the  justice  with  which  it  is  exercised,  while 
anarchy  awaits  them  should  that  rule  be  removed. 
Through  commerce  and  widespread  territories  the 
nation  is  brought  into  constant  intercourse  and  often 
into  the  most  delicate  relations  with  almost  every 
savage  race  on  the  globe,  thus  standing  almost  alone 
of  European  nations  on  that  border-land  where 
civilization  confronts  barbarism,  of  all  positions  in 
which  a  nation  can  be  placed  perhaps  the  one  most 
weighted  with  responsibilities  and  most  pregnant 
with  possibilities  of  good  and  evil.  To  this  position 
the  world's  history  offers  no  parallel ;  beside  it 
Rome's  range  of  influence  sinks  into  comparative 
insignificance.  « 

But  to  understand  all  that  it  means  we  must  re- 
member that  along  with  this  mighty  growth  of  power 
there  has  been  a  steady  growth  of  a  public  conscience, 
which  holds  itself  responsible  not  only  for  national  acts, 
but  for  national  influence  ;  which  refuses  to  shut  its 
eyes  to  abuse  of  power,  but  rather  looks  upon  power 
as  a  sacred  trust,  to  be  used  for  worthy  ends.  Therein 
lies  the  justification  of  our  national  greatness,  and  of 
the  wish  that  it  should  be  maintained. 

'  We  sailed  wherever  ship  can  sail, 

We  founded  many  a  noble  state; — 
Pray  God  our  greatness  may  not  fail 
Through  craven  fear  of  being  great.' 

This  is  the  poet's  thought  and  prayer.  May  it  not 
rightly  be  the  thought  and  prayer  of  every  British 
citizen  ?  We  have  assumed  vast  responsibilities  in  the 


48  IMPERIAL   FEDERATION.  [Cn.  II 

government  of  weak  and  alien  races,  responsibilities 
which  cannot  now  be  thrown  off  without  a  loss  of 
national  honour,  and  without  infinite  harm  to  those 
under  our  rule.  A  nation  which  has  leaning  upon  it 
an  Indian  population  of  nearly  300,000,000  over  and 
above  the  native  races  of  Australasia,  South  Africa, 
and  many  minor  regions,  must  require,  if  stability  and 
equilibrium  are  to  be  maintained,  an  immense  weight 
of  that  trained,  intelligent,  and  conscientious  citizen- 
ship which  is  the  backbone  of  national  strength.  It 
needs  to  concentrate  its  moral  as  well  as  its  political 
strength  for  the  work  it  has  to  do. 

If  we  really  have  faith  in  our  own  social  and  Chris- 
tian progress  as  a  nation  ;  if  we  believe  that  our  race, 
on  the  whole,  and  in  spite  of  many  failures,  can  be 
trusted  better  than  others,  to  use  power  with  moder- 
ation, self-restraint,  and  a  deep  sense  of  moral 
responsibility  ;  if  we  believe  that  the  wide  area  of 
our  possessions  may  be  made  a  solid  factor  in  the 
world's  politics,  which  will  always  throw  the  weight 
of  its  influence  on  the  side  of  a  righteous  peace,  then  it 
cannot  be  inconsistent  with  devotion  to  all  the  highest 
interests  of  humanity  to  wish  and  strive  for  a  con- 
solidation of  British  power.  It  is  because  I  believe 
that  in  all  the  noblest  and  truest  among  British  people 
there  is  this  strong  faith  in  our  national  integrity, 
and  in  the  greatness  of  the  moral  work  our  race 
has  yet  to  do,  that  I  anticipate  that  the  whole  weight 
of  Christian  and  philanthropic  sentiment  will  ultimately 
be  thrown  on  the  side  of  national  unity,  as  opening 


CH.  II]  FEDERATION.  49 

up  the  widest  possible  career  of  usefulness  for  us  in 
the  future ;  inasmuch  as  it  will  give  us  the  security 
which  is  necessary  for  working  out  our  great  national 
purposes. 

The  praises  of  the  Federal  system  of  the  United 
States  are  much  dwelt  upon  now  that  it  has  been 
justified  by  triumphing  over  the  difficulties  and 
dangers  of  a  century.  It  seems  the  natural  and  easy 
outgrowth  of  the  circumstances  in  which  the  original 
colonies  found  themselves  at  the  close  of  the  Revolu- 
tion. The  conditions  under  which  it  was  created 
and  exists  are  pointed  out  as  ideally  favourable  for 
national  unity  on  a  federal  basis — contiguity,  common 
interest,  sentiment  based  on  a  common  history,  and 
other  facts  and  considerations  of  a  parallel  kind. 

Far  different  from  this  did  the  task  of  framing  the 
Federal  Constitution  seem  to  those  who  had  it  in 
hand.  It  has  been  described  by  Mr.  Bryce  as  '  a 
work  which  seemed  repeatedly  on  the  point  of  break- 
ing down,  so  great  were  the  difficulties  encountered 
from  the  divergent  sentiments  and  interests  of  the 
different  parts  of  the  country,  as  well  as  of  the  larger 
and  smaller  states.'  The  same  writer  adds  :  '  The 
Convention  had  not  only  to  create  de  novo>  on  the 
most  slender  basis  of  pre-existing  institutions,  a 
national  government  for  a  widely  scattered  people, 
but  they  had  in  doing  so  to  respect  the  fears  and 
jealousies  and  apparently  irreconcileable  interests  of 
thirteen  separate  commonwealths,  to  all  of  whose 
governments  it  was  necessary  to  leave  a  sphere  of 

E 


50  IMPERIAL   FEDERATION.  [Ca.  II 

action  wide  enough  to  satisfy  a  deep-rooted  sentiment, 
yet  not  so  wide  as  to  imperil  national  unity.' 

Yet  once  more  we  read  of  difficulties  curiously 
like  those  which  are  urged  as  making  British  unity 
impossible  now.  '  Their  geographical  position  made 
communication  very  difficult.  The  sea  was  stormy 
in  winter,  the  roads  were  bad,  it  took  as  long  to 
travel  by  land  from  Charleston  to  Boston  as  to 
cross  the  ocean  to  Europe,  nor  was  the  journey  less 
dangerous.  The  wealth  of  some  states  consisted  in 
slaves ;  of  others  in  shipping ;  while  in  others  there 
was  a  population  of  small  farmers,  characteristically 
attached  to  old  habits.  Manufactures  had  hardly 
begun  to  exist.  The  sentiment  of  local  independ- 
ence showed  itself  in  intense  suspicion  of  any  external 
authority;  and  most  parts  of  the  country  were  so  thinly 
peopled  that  the  inhabitants  had  lived  practically 
without  any  government,  and  thought  that  in  creating 
one  they  would  be  forging  fetters  for  themselves.' 

Difficulties,  then,  are  no  new  thing  in  national 
organization.  They  may  be,  as  they  have  been, 
but  the  spur  to  the  determined  will  of  nation  or 
individual.  They  are  to  be  measured  by  the  resources 
at  our  disposal  with  which  to  confront  them. 

Admitting  the  difficulties  involved  in  framing  a 
Federal  system  we  must  at  the  same  time  remember 
the  long  and  peculiar  training  which  our  race  has 
had  in  dealing  with  them.  Acute  minds  have  been 
turned  upon  the  problem,  systems  have  been  framed 
and  adopted  by  vast  populations,  and  time  has  tested 


CH.  II]  FEDERATION.  51 

the  results.  The  experience  of  the  United  States 
extends  over  more  than  a  century  of  strenuous 
national  life  and  wonderful  growth.  In  the  light  of 
that  experience,  and  to  meet  her  own  necessities, 
Canada  faced  the  question  a  quarter  of  a  century 
ago,  and  framed  a  system  which  works  well  and 
gives  assurance  of  permanence.  Encouraged  by  these 
examples,  Australia  is  taking  steps  to  frame  a  similar 
union.  Thus  three  great  English-speaking  communi- 
ties have  had  their  thoughts  fixed  with  anxious 
attention  upon  Federal  problems.  In  forming  or 
in  carrying  on  these  three  great  English-speaking 
federations,  fundamental  principles  have  been  so  ex- 
haustively studied  and  so  thoroughly  tested  that  the 
conditions  that  must  control  Federal  organization 
may  now  be  stated  with  a  very  considerable  degree 
of  accuracy.  Germany,  Switzerland,  and  Austro- 
Hungary  all  furnish  data  which  assist  in  making 
conclusions  definite.  An  adoption  of  Federalism  is 
therefore  no  longer  a  leap  in  the  dark.  The  losses 
and  gains  which  it  involves  can  be  weighed  and 
measured. 

With  such  a  range  of  history  and  experience  to  fall 
back  upon  it  ought  to  be  possible  for  a  practical  self- 
governing  people  to  distinguish  between  the  relations 
they  wish  to  control  through  the  smaller  machinery 
of  local  government,  and  those  they  are  content  to 
submit  to  the  larger  machinery  of  a  central  govern- 
ment :  to  draw,  in  short,  a  true  line  of  division 
between  those  interests  which  are  peculiar  to  each 

E  2 


52  IMPERIAL   FEDERATION.  [Cn.  II 

member   of    the    Federation    and    those   which   are 
common  to  all. 

In  this  connection  Professor  Ransome  has  stated 
what  seems  to  me  a  striking  and  most  suggestive 
view.  He  points  out  that  the  geographical  relations 
of  the  great  divisions  of  the  Empire  lend  themselves 
naturally  to  Federal  organization  on  a  large  scale. 
A  primary  difficulty  in  all  federations,  as  I  have  said, 
is  to  draw  a  sufficiently  defined  line  between  those 
local  questions  in  the  settlement  of  which  com- 
munities, and  most  of  all  Anglo-Saxon  communities, 
will  brook  no  interference  from  outsiders,  and  those 
other  questions  in  which  all  have  a  common  interest, 
and  are  content  to  have  only  a  proportionate  voice. 
Great  Britain,  Canada,  Australia,  South  Africa,  have 
each  internal  problems  of  their  own  to  wrestle  with, 
which  each  can  solve  only  for  itself,  and  about  which 
it  would  resist  dictation  or  resent  even  advice  from 
all  or  any  of  the  others.  Such  are  the  relations  of 
French  and  English  in  Canada;  of  white  and  coloured 
labour  in  Australia ;  of  Boer  and  Englishman  in 
South  Africa  ;  of  Irish  Home  Rulers  and  Unionists 
in  the  United  Kingdom.  But  the  fact  that  Great 
Britain,  Canada,  Australia,  and  South  Africa  lie  in 
different  quarters  of  the  globe  at  once  distinguishes 
broadly  all  questions  of  this  kind,  and  diminishes 
the  probability  of  conflict.  On  the  other  hand  the 
very  distance  of  separation  makes  it  impossible, 
except  by  united  action,  to  deal  adequately  with  the 
vast  interests  common  to  all.  To  draw  the  line  of 


CH.II]  FEDERATION.  53 

distinction  between  things  purely  local  and  such  as 
are  general  in  states  thus  widely  separated  would  be 
much  easier  than  to  do  the  same  for  the  contiguous 
sovereign  states  of  the  American  Republic,  or  the 
contiguous  provinces  of  Canada  or  Australia.  The 
very  diversity  and  peculiarity  of  local  interest  sim- 
plify the  task. 

It  is  to  be  noted,  also,  that  in  forming  a  British 
Federal  system  we  should  be  relieved  from  what  was 
the  most  difficult  problem  which  presented  itself  to 
the  framers  of  the  American  constitution.  It  was 
necessary  to  create  a  head  for  the  state,  and  a 
method  was  devised  with  elaborate  caution  for  doing 
this  in  freedom  from  the  storms  of  party  passion. 
In  actual  working  that  system  has  broken  away  from 
the  original  intention  of  its  authors,  and  more  than 
once  the  quadrennial  selection  of  a  party  head  to  the 
American  Republic  has  put  a  heavy  strain  upon  the 
machinery  of  national  government. 

The  British  nation,  on  the  other  hand,  has  a  head 
which  commands  reasoned  and  personal  allegiance  in 
all  parts  of  the  Empire.  Under  it  the  popular  will 
reaches  its  end  with  less  friction  than  under  any 
other  method  yet  devised.  The  system  has  been 
proved  capable  of  easy  and  satisfactory  application  to 
the  wants  of  the  colonies,  even  under  a  federal 
organization  such  as  that  of  Canada.  The  possession 
of  such  a  starting-point  will  prove  of  enormous 
practical  advantage  in  facing  the  problems  of  national 
organization. 


54  IMPERIAL   FEDERATION.  [CH.  II 

The  fact  that  the  constituent  elements  of  the  pro- 
posed federation  are  not  at  the  same  stage  of  political 
development  naturally  occurs  as  a  difficulty.  Canada, 
in  having  a  fully  matured  internal  system,  is  riper  for 
federation  than  Australia,  Australia  than  South  Africa, 
South  Africa  than  the  West  Indies. 

The  circumstance  is  often  urged  as  a  conclusive 
argument  for  delay :  it  is  sometimes  represented  as 
an  insuperable  obstacle  to  any  present  progress 
towards  closer  unity.  The  condition  is  no  new  one 
to  existing  federal  systems,  nor  has  it  proved  an 
obstacle  of  importance  to  the  framing  of  an  adequate 
constitution.  Both  the  United  States  and  Canada 
have  a  carefully  arranged  system  by  which  their 
younger  communities  are  admitted  by  successive 
stages  into  fuller  privileges  of  citizenship,  each  as  it 
reaches  a  fixed  period  of  maturity  becoming  entitled 
to  the  full  franchise  of  state  or  province.  As  well 
argue  that  a  man  must  not  admit  his  eldest  son  into 
partnership  until  the  youngest  has  come  of  age,  as 
claim  that  Canada,  with  its  constitution  already  con- 
solidated by  a  quarter  of  a  century's  history,  must 
still  wait  another  quarter  or  half  century  for  its 
rightful  position  in  the  nation  to  which  it  belongs 
because  the  West  Indies  and  South  Africa  have  not 
been  able  to  work  their  way  through  certain  stages  of 
political  evolution.  Strange,  indeed,  would  have  been 
the  political  position  of  the  United  States  had  they 
waited  to  frame  their  federal  system  till  Colorado 
was  on  a  level  with  Massachusetts.  For  a  nation 


CH.  II]  FEDERATION.  55 

like  ours,  constantly  expanding,  and  with  possibilities 
for  further  extension  even  greater  than  the  United 
States,  common  sense  would  seem  to  indicate  the 
maturity  of  the  first  great  colonies,  the  period  when 
they  might  fairly  be  expected  to  desire  some  final 
decision  about  their  national  destiny,  as  the  time 
when  the  basis  of  a  Federal  system,  applicable  on  a 
fixed  principle  to  all,  should  be  determined.  They 
are  then  free,  as  each  advances  to  maturity,  to  choose 
between  independence  and  entrance  into  the  national 
system. 

The  concession  of  Responsible  Government  to  the 
colonies  was  an  important,  but  by  no  means  a  final 
step  in  political  development.  From  some  points  of 
view  the  change  seemed  to  superficial  observers  very 
closely  akin  to  the  concession  of  independence.  It 
gave  the  absolute  control  of  local  affairs,  the  power  of 
levying  taxes,  and  of  applying  the  proceeds  ;  but  the 
higher  functions  of  government,  it  must  be  remembered, 
still  remained  with  the  central  power.  Not  only  was 
this  so,  but  the  responsibilities  of  independence  were 
clearly  not  imposed  in  the  same  proportion  that  its 
privileges  were  granted. 

In  the  minds  of  some  colonists  and  more  English- 
men I  have  found  a  belief,  or  rather  a  suspicion,  that 
any  closer  union  than  at  present  exists  could  only  be 
effected  by  taking  away  from  the  colonies  some  of  the 
self-governing  powers  which  they  now  possess.  That 
this  is  necessary  is  clearly  a  mistake,  and  one  which 
probably  arises  from  the  erroneous  impression  about 


56  IMPERIAL   FEDERATION.  [Cn.  II 

the  degree  of  self-government  which  a  colony  enjoys. 
Not  the  resignation  of  old  powers,  but  the  assumption 
of  new  ones,  must  be  the  result  of  Federal  union.  A 
colony  has  now  no  power  of  making  peace  or  war ;  no 
voice,  save  by  the  courtesy  of  the  mother-country,  in 
making  treaties  ;  no  direct  influence  on  the  exercise 
of  national  diplomacy.  Admitted  to  an  organic 
union,  its  voice  would  be  heard  and  its  influence  felt 
in  the  decision  of  these  questions.  To  the  Imperial 
Parliament,  that  is,  as  things  now  stand,  to  the 
Parliament  of  the  United  Kingdom,  is  reserved  the 
right  to  override  the  legislation  of  a  colony,  just  as, 
for  example,  the  Parliament  of  the  Dominion  has 
the  right  to  override  the  legislation  of  a  Canadian 
Province.  But  as  the  Canadian  feels  in  this  no  sense 
of  injustice  or  tyranny,  since  he  is  represented  in  the 
superior  as  well  as  in  the  inferior  Legislature,  so  the 
colonist  would  feel  no  loss  of  political  dignity  if  he 
had  his  true  place  in  the  higher  as  well  as  in 
the  lower  representative  body.  With  enlarged 
powers,  it  is  true,  the  colony  would  have  to  accept 
enlarged  responsibilities.  In  human  affairs  the  two 
invariably  and  rightly  go  together 1.  If,  instead 

1  '  No  community  which  is  not  primarily  charged  with  the  ordinary 
business  of  its  own  maintenance  and  defence  is  really,  or  can  be,  in 
the  full  sense  of  the  word,  a  free  community.  The  privileges  of 
freedom  and  the  burdens  of  freedom  are  absolutely  associated  to- 
gether. To  bear  the  burden  is  as  necessary  as  to  enjoy  the  privilege, 
in  order  to  form  that  character  which  is  the  great  necessity  of 
freedom  itself.' — Mr.  Gladstone  before  the  Colonial  Committee, 
1859. 


CH.  II]  FEDERATION.  57 

of  federation,  a  colony  chose  independence,  it 
would  evidently  be  compelled  at  once  to  assume  the 
control  of  all  questions  now  reserved  for  Imperial 
treatment,  and  the  corresponding  burdens  now  pro- 
vided for  at  Imperial  expense.  In  a  closer  union  the 
larger  control  and  the  larger  responsibility  would  be 
assumed  in  partnership  rather  than  individually. 
Surely  this  is  not  subtracting  anything  from  the 
power  of  self-government.  It  is  the  means  of  making 
it  complete. 

Shall  it,  then,  be  separation  or  closer  union  ?  Shall 
we  face  the  dangers  which  few  can  deny  will  be  inci- 
dent to  the  disintegration  even  by  Act  of  Parliament 
and  mutual  consent  of  the  greatest  nation  of  the 
world  ;  or  shall  we  choose,  as  a  wiser  alternative,  to 
confront,  as  in  the  past,  the  difficulties  of  such 
political  reconstruction  or  adaptation  as  is  required  to 
meet  new  national  needs  ?  This  is  the  question  which 
not  merely  may  arise,  but  certainly  must  arise  within 
a  very  measurable  time  to  be  settled  by  British  people 
in  all  parts  of  the  world. 

It  has  been  said  that  all  great  movements  which 
affect  the  condition  of  peoples  are  originated  and 
carried  forward  by  the  combination  of  two  forces : 
the  force  of  conviction,  which  comes  from  reason,  and 
the  force  of  enthusiasm,  which  is  born  of  sentiment. 
It  is  generally  supposed  that  Anglo-Saxon  people 
are  most  strongly  influenced  by  reason,  by  arguments 
directed  to  their  intelligence.  Yet  it  may  be  doubted 
if  in  any  race,  sentiment  plays  a  more  decisive  part  in 


58  IMPERIAL   FEDERATION. 

moulding  public  action.  It  lives  in  the  pages  of 
Milton,  Shakespeare,  Scott,  Burns,  Tennyson,  and  in 
distant  lands  loses  none  of  its  power  to  stir  men's 
hearts.  It  has  profoundly  influenced  Canadian  history 
for  more  than  a  hundred  years.  It  flames  up  in 
every  colony  when  a  crisis  arises  when  British 
honour  is  at  stake. 

Millions  of  people  in  distant  parts  of  the  world  glory 
in  the  right  to  speak  of  England,  Scotland,  or  Ireland 
under  the  tender  name  of  home.  A  sentiment  indeed, 
but  a  mighty  power.  It  is  true  that  the  term  'loyalty,' 
as  it  has  usually  been  applied  to  British  colonies  and 
colonists  in  their  relations  to  the  United  Kingdom,  is 
in  some  ways  becoming  an  obsolete  and  unmeaning 
term.  A  larger  loyalty  which  has  in  it  no  suspicion 
of  dependence  is  taking  its  place.  It  is  one  which 
implies  faithfulness  to  the  great  nationality  to  which 
we  belong,  its  heart,  indeed,  and  its  greatest  traditions 
in  Britain,  but  its  mighty  limbs  and  no  small  share  of 
its  hopes  for  the  future  on  the  world's  circumference. 
It  is  at  the  bar  of  this  loyalty  that  the  Briton  at  home 
as  well  as  the  Briton  abroad  must  be  judged.  The 
sentiment  on  which  it  partly  rests  is  one  we  need  not 
fear  to  count  upon,  and  it  has  its  limits  only  with  the 
British  world.  It  has  been  proof  against  the  defects 
of  an  illogical  system  :  it  will  prove  the  main  element 
of  cohesion  in  a  true  system.  But  we  need  not  fear 
to  turn  away  entirely  from  sentiment  to  study  the  dry 
facts  of  material  interest  which  each  of  the  greater 
communities  of  the  Empire  has  in  National  Unity. 


CHAPTER    III. 

DEFENCE. 

IN  beginning  his  elaborate  study  of  the  Empire  and 
its  capacity  for  defence,  the  author  of  '  The  Problems 
of  Greater  Britain  '  says  : — 

'  The  danger  in  our  path  is  that  the  enormous  forces 
of  European  militarism  may  crush  the  old  country  and 
destroy  the  integrity  of  our  Empire  before  the  growth 
of  the  newer  communities  that  it  contains  has  made  it 
too  strong  for  the  attack/  In  closing  he  says  :  *  The 
result  of  this  survey  of  Imperial  Defence  is  to  bring 
before  the  mind  a  clearer  image  of  the  stupendous 
potential  strength  of  the  British  Empire,  and  of  an 
equally  stupendous  carelessness  in  organizing  its  forces. 

Our  ambition  is  not  for  offensive  strength, 

and  not  only  home-staying  Britons,  but  our  more 
energetic  colonists  themselves,  decline  to  accept  such 
organization  of  our  power,  with  the  temptations  that 
it  would  bring.  We  wish  only  to  be  safe  from  the 
ambition  of  others,  and  the  first  step  towards  safety 
must  be  the  arrangement  of  consistent  plans  for  sup- 
porting the  whole  edifice  of  British  rule  by  the  assist- 
ance of  all  the  component  parts  of  the  Empire.  As 
all  have  helped  to  raise  the  fabric,  so  may  all  combine 


60  IMPERIAL   FEDERATION.  '[Cn  III 

to  secure  it  by  the  adoption  of  a  settled  plan  of 
Imperial  Defence.' 

The  defence  of  common  interests  has  been,  in  the 
past,  the  primary  bond  which  has  held  federations 
together.  It  must  be  put  in  the  very  forefront  among 
the  arguments  for  British  unity.  Taken  by  itself  it 
seems  to  furnish  more  than  sufficient  reason  why 
Great  Britain  and  her  colonies  should  present  a  united 
political  front  to  the  world. 

Common  interests  so  vast  no  nation  or  union  of 
nations  has  ever  before  had  in  the  history  of  the  world. 
The  foundations  of  British  greatness  rest  in  the 
creative  power  of  industry,  and  that  interaction  of 
industry  or  exchange  of  products  which  we  call  com- 
merce. Industry  and  commerce  have  combined  to 
make  our  nation  the  richest  in  the  world.  We  are 
a  race  of  workers  and  of  traders.  It  is  in  virtue  of  our 
working  and  trading  instincts  that  we  hold  to-day  the 
foremost  place  among  the  nations  of  the  world.  In 
following  them  we  have  won  Empire  ;  it  seems  capable 
of  proof  that  to  satisfy  their  necessities  we  must  main- 
tain Empire,  for  what  we  have  been  in  the  past  such 
we  are  manifestly  to  be  on  a  much  larger  scale  in  the 
future. 

Transferred  to  Canada,  or  Australia,  New  Zealand, 
the  Cape,  or  to  foreign  lands,  the  Briton  is  still  the 
eager  worker  and  trader,  and  the  field  for  the  exercise 
of  his  qualities  is  ever  enlarging.  As  the  standard  of 
living  rises  with  increasing  prosperity,  as  the  comforts 
and  luxuries  of  distant  lands  come  within  reach  of  even 


CH.  Ill]  DEFENCE.  61 

the  labouring  man,  commerce  is  stimulated  anew ;  its 
safety  becomes  of  greater  concern.  In  the  strength  of 
the  British  flag  to  give  security  to  the  infinite  army  of 
workers  who  carry  on  their  toil  under  its  protection, 
is  involved  the  welfare  and  prosperity  of  the  greatest 
aggregation  of  human  beings  that  ever  was  joined 
together  in  one  body  politic. 

It  is  when  we  consider  the  extent  of  British 
commerce,  of  what  the  nation  constantly  has  staked 
upon  the  security  of  ocean  trade,  that  we  realize  the 
vastness  and  importance  of  the  problems  involved  in 
national  defence,  the  supreme  necessity  that  British 
people  should  be  in  a  position  either  to  command 
peace,  or  to  face  with  confidence,  so  far  as  trade  is 
concerned,  the  risks  of  any  war  that  may  be  forced 
upon  them. 

To  most  minds  figures  perhaps  convey  but  an 
inadequate  idea  of  what  they  represent,  but  it  is 
only  by  figures  that  the  extent  of  the  stake  which 
British  people  have  upon  the  ocean  can  be  indicated. 
The  rapidity  of  expansion  is  as  striking  as  the  actual 
extent,  and  they  may  usefully  be  put  together.  In 
1837,  when  the  Queen  ascended  the  throne,  the  annual 
value  of  the  sea-commerce  of  the  United  Kingdom, 
together  with  that  of  the  colonies  and  dependencies, 
was  estimated  at  £210,000,000  That  commerce  has 
now,  in  a  little  more  than  fifty  years,  expanded  to 
nearly  £1200,000,000.  Every  year  British  people 
have  afloat  upon  the  ocean  wealth  represented  by 
this  enormous  sum.  Nothing  like  it  has  ever  been 


62  IMPERIAL   FEDERATION.  [CH.  Ill 

known  in  the  history  of  any  nation  before.  The 
marvellous  expansion  still  goes  on.  In  the  case 
of  the  colonies  and  dependencies,  with  their  un-, 
limited  possibilities  of  development,  it  is  manifest 
that  we  see  but  the  beginning  of  their  commercial 
career.  For  them,  as  for  the  mother-islands,  the  safety 
of  trade,  the  security  of  the  ocean  waterways,  must  in 
the  interests  of  industry  be  the  supreme  object  of 
statesmanship.  And  I  believe  that  there  is  a  well-nigh 
unanswerable  line  of  argument  which  goes  to  prove 
that  statesmanship  will  find  that  security  most  certainly 
and  most  effectually  by  maintaining  intact  the  actual 
unity  of  the  Empire  through  such  further  political 
consolidation  of  its  various  parts  as  will  make  united 
action  possible  and  most  effective.  On  the  other  hand, 
there  are  the  strongest  reasons  for  thinking  that  the 
separation  of  even  one  of  the  great  colonies  might 
produce  for  the  colony  itself,  for  the  United  Kingdom, 
and  for  the  Empire  at  large,  a  fatal  flaw  in  the  capacity 
for  defending  interests  which  are  vital  to  the  general 
prosperity  and  to  the  greatness  of  the  nation. 

The  outline  of  this  argument  may  be  shortly  stated. 
The  vast  magnitude  of  the  Empire,  and  its  disper- 
sion in  the  various  quarters  of  the  globe,  have  hitherto 
oppressed  the  imagination  of  those  charged  with  its 
defence.  Vulnerability  has  seemed  the  natural  con- 
comitant of  magnitude.  The  impression  might  have 
been  correct  fifty  or  seventy- five  years  ago  ;  it  is  not 
so  to-day.  It  seems  a  proposition  fairly  capable  of 
demonstration  that  under  the  changed  conditions  of 


CH.  Ill]  DEFENCE.  63 

modern  communication  and  naval  war  the  vast  area 
of  the  Empire  and  the  wide  dispersion  of  its  parts,  so 
far  from  being  a  cause  of  weakness,  are  really  elements, 
under  proper  organization,  of  a  strength  greater  than 
any  nation  of  present  or  past  times  has  ever  enjoyed. 
It  is  a  strength,  too,  which  particularly  recommends 
itself  to  the  national  mind,  since  it  is  effective  for 
defence  rather  than  aggression. 

To  understand  how  magnitude  and  diffusion  may  be 
sources  of  strength  we  must  recall  the  fact  that  for  all 
purposes  of  trade,  intercourse,  and  naval  power,  the 
introduction  of  steam  has  re-created  the  world.  Before 
Trafalgar  was  fought  Nelson  was  able  to  keep  the  sea 
for  months,  the  staying  power  of  a  ship  of  war  depend- 
ing almost  entirely  upon  its  supplies  of  food,  water, 
and  warlike  stores.  Now  it  has  become  chiefly  a 
question  of  coal  endurance.  Removed  from  the  means 
of  renewing  its  supplies  of  coal,  the  most  powerful 
ship  afloat  within  a  very  limited  number  of  days 
becomes  a  helpless  hulk. 

'  The  striking  distance  of  a  ship  of  war  is  now  on  an 
average  two  thousand  miles,'  are  the  words  used  by 
Lord  Salisbury  not  long  since  to  indicate  the  nature 
and  extent  of  this  change  in  the  conditions  of  naval 
defence.  What  he  means  is,  we  may  suppose,  that 
when  a  modern  ship  of  war  has  filled  her  bunkers 
with  coal,  she  can  go  two  thousand  miles,  do  the  work 
assigned  her,  and  get  safely  back  to  her  starting-place. 
High  naval  authorities  have  told  me  that  Lord  Salis- 
bury's average  is  fixed  at  the  outside  limit. 


64  IMPERIAL   FEDERATION.  [Cn.  Ill 

'  Our  fleet  must  be  present  in  sufficient  force  to 
protect  adequately  the  whole  commerce  of  the  Empire, 
wherever  it  is,'  says  the  Secretary  of  the  Admiralty  in 
a  last  year's  speech,  and  the  press  almost  unanimously 
unites  with  Chambers  of  Commerce  and  other  repre- 
sentative bodies  in  echoing  the  sentiment  as  a  national 
resolution. 

In  discussing  a  considerable  event  in  naval  con- 
struction in  the  beginning  of  the  present  year  the  Times 
said :  '  So  far  as  human  effort  can  attain  its  end,  the 
country  has  now  definitely  resolved  that  the  naval  his- 
tory of  the  future  shall  not  be  unworthy  of  its  past.' 
It  added  :  'There  is  no  finality  to  naval  policy.  .  .  . 
Its  only  sound  basis  is  not  the  cost  of  the  fleet  in  the 
abstract,  but  a  rational  estimate  of  the  conditions  of 
naval  defence  at  sea.' 

But  the  world  is  25,000  miles  round,  and  the  com- 
merce of  the  Empire  is  upon  every  sea.  The  striking 
distance  of  a  ship  of  war  is  2000  miles,  and  practically 
every  ship  of  war  we  have  operates  under  the  limita- 
tions imposed  by  the  use  of  steam.  The  figures 
certainly  give  us  the  necessary  data  for  calculating 
what  naval  bases  are  necessary  for  adequate  naval 
strength. 

Surely  Canada,  resting  on  the  North  Atlantic  and 
North  Pacific  ;  South  Africa,  commanding  the  passage 
around  the  Cape  ;  and  Australasia,  in  the  centre  of  the 
vast  breadth  of  the  Indian  and  Pacific  Oceans,  are  not 
merely  useful,  but,  under  the  conditions  which  have 
been  stated,  essential.  But  when  we  have  realized 


CH.  Ill]  DEFENCE.  65 

that  under  modern  conditions  they  are  essential  to 
widely  extended  sea  power,  we  are  in  a  position  to 
understand  the  addition  which  they  make  to  defensive 
strength.  A  nation  which  commands  the  great  naval 
and  coaling  stations  at  these  essential  points  could 
practically  paralyze  any  enemy  which  sought  to  attack 
her,  by  simply  closing  the  ports  of  coal  supply  to 
hostile  ships. 

Let  me  ask  the  reader  to  turn  to  the  map  of  the 
world  which  accompanies  this  book.  In  it  an  attempt 
has  been  made  to  emphasize,  though  not  unduly,  a  few 
of  the  main  facts  connected  with  our  national  position. 
The  chief  routes  of  British  commerce  are  indicated — 
the  arteries  along  which  flow  the  life-blood  of  the 
nation.  On  what  is  now  the  principal  route  to  the 
East,  that  through  the  Mediterranean  and  Red  Seas, 
we  note  the  fortified  naval  and  coaling  stations  in  a 
connected  chain :  Gibraltar,  Malta,  Bombay,  Trinco- 
malee,  Singapore,  and  Hong  Kong.  At  each  of  these 
stations  British  ships  find  themselves  under  the  shelter 
of  strong  fortifications.  Most  of  them  are  practically 
impregnable,  and  are  supplied  with  docks  for  the 
repair  of  ships.  All  are  points  of  storage  for  coal. 
Besides  these  stations  of  primary  importance  there 
are  subsidiary  ports,  Kurrachi,  Colombo,  Calcutta, 
and  many  others. 

Whether  this  remarkable  hold  on  the  greatest  route 
of  Eastern  commerce  is  the  outcome  of  a  grasping 
militarism,  or  the  natural  result  which  arises  from 
supreme  commercial  interest,  may  be  judged  from  a 

F 


66  IMPERIAL   FEDERATION.  [CH.  Ill 

single  fact.  Of  the  3800  steamships  which  passed 
through  the  Canal  in  1891  seventy-eight  out  of  every 
hundred  were  under  the  British  flag,  leaving  only 
twenty-two  divided  among  Frenchmen,  Germans, 
Dutchmen,  Austrians,  Spaniards,  Americans,  and  all 
the  other  nations  of  the  world.  Of  the  whole  tonnage 
eighty-two  per  cent,  was  British. 

Follow,  again,  the  alternative  route  to  the  East  and 
South  around  Africa.  Here  we  find  Sierra  Leone, 
St.  Helena,  Cape  Town,  and  Mauritius  at  intervals 
singularly  adapted  to  the  necessities  of  steam  naviga- 
tion under  conditions  of  either  peace  or  war.  Other 
nations  occupy  parts  of  Africa,  but  none  have  naval 
stations  of  corresponding  strength. 

Terminating  these  two  great  Eastern  routes  we  have 
in  Australasia  King  George's  Sound,  Thursday  Island, 
Melbourne,  Sydney,  and  Auckland,  which  may  be 
regarded  as  positions  of  primary  naval  importance. 
Some  of  these  are  already  fortified,  others  have  their 
defensive  works  in  progress.  Secondary,  and  yet  im- 
portant, are  Hobart,  Adelaide,  Brisbane,  Wellington, 
Lyttleton,  Dunedin,  and  other  ports. 

Westward  across  the  Atlantic,  Halifax,  Bermuda, 
St.  Lucia,  and  Jamaica  furnish  adequate  naval  bases 
for  the  protection  of  the  vast  British  commerce  which 
traverses  this  ocean.  The  harbours  of  the  Gulf  and 
River  St.  Lawrence  and  Newfoundland,  and  of  several 
West  India  islands,  supplement  these  strongly  fortified 
positions. 

On   the    Pacific    Coast    Esquimalt  and  Vancouver 


CH.  Ill]  DEFENCE.  67 

furnish  stations  from  which  may  be  protected  the 
new  route  of  trade  and  travel  opened  to  the  far  East, 
and  the  projected  route  to  Australasia. 

Finally,  the  Falkland  Islands,  to  which  it  has  now 
been  decided  to  give  adequate  fortifications,  furnish 
a  coaling  place  for  ships  in  times  of  urgent  necessity, 
and  a  point  from  which  trade  can  be  defended  in  the 
long  voyage  between  Britain  arid  Australia  by  the 
Cape  Horn  route.  They  also  serve  as  a  base  of  pro- 
tection for  our  large  trade  with  the  Western  coast  of 
South  America. 

It  will  be  seen  that  the  map  illustrates  another 
group  of  facts  which  we  must  consider  before  we 
can  fully  grasp  the  relation  of  this  geographical 
distribution  of  the  Empire  to  naval  power  in  an 
age  of  steam.  On  the  Pacific  and  Atlantic  coasts 
of  Canada,  in  New  Zealand,  Tasmania,  New  South 
Wales,  and  Queensland,  in  India,  Borneo,  and  South 
Africa,  coal  is  noted  as  among  the  products  of 
these  countries,  and  in  them  all,  there  are,  in  fact, 
great  coal  deposits  forming  in  each  corner  of  the 
globe,  a  wonderful  complement  to  those  of  the 
mother-land. 

Here,  then,  is  the  outline  of  a  maritime  position 
such  as  no  people  ever  enjoyed  before.  North  and 
South,  East  and  West,  we  hold  the  great  quadrilateral 
of  oceanic  power.  It  is  not  an  undue  strength  of 
position,  for  it  has  to  match  the  greatest  commercial 
expansion  that  history  has  known.  The  security  of 
each  part  of  the  system  seems  essential  to  the  security 

F  2 


68  IMPERIAL  FEDERATION.  [Cn.  Ill 

of  the  whole,  and  therefore  should  be  guaranteed  by 
the  united  strength  of  all.  And  it  is  clear  that  under 
modern  steaming  conditions  it  is  this  very  diffusion 
of  the  Empire  over  every  part  of  the  world  which 
constitutes  its  greatest  advantage  for  giving  safety  to 
a  world-wide  commerce. 

The  conditions,  however,  under  which  this  maritime 
position  is  maintained,  and  the  vast  and  growing 
commerce  of  the  Empire  now  enjoys  security  present 
some  anomalies  which  cannot  possibly  have  in  them 
conditions  of  permanency. 

Let  me  summarize  the  facts  as  placed  before  the 
House  of  Commons  (March  2nd,  1891),  by  Sir  John 
Colomb.  The  annual  value  of  the  sea-borne  com- 
merce of  the  United  Kingdom  is,  roughly  speak- 
ing, about  £740,000,000  ;  of  the  colonies  and  depen- 
dencies £460,000,000.  As  the  latter  has  increased 
ninefold  and  the  former  but  fivefold  in  a  little  more 
than  fifty  years,  it  is  clear  that  at  no  very  distant  time 
the  sea-borne  commerce  of  the  outlying  empire  will 
become  equal  to  and  gradually  surpass  in  value  that 
of  the  United  Kingdom. 

The  portion  of  the  whole  colonial  trade  which  con- 
sists of  interchange  with  the  United  Kingdom,  and  in 
the  safety  of  which  presumably  the  United  Kingdom 
has  a  close  and  direct  interest,  is  £187,000,000.  This 
leaves  £273,000,000  of  independent  trade  carried  on 
with  foreign  countries,  or  between  the  colonies  and 
dependencies  themselves.  Compared  with  the  sea- 
borne trade  of  great  foreign  powers  which  support 


CH.  Ill]  DEFENCE.  69 

large  war  navies,  Sir  John  Colomb  finds  this  inde- 
pendent trade  to  be  '  about  four  times  as  much  as  the 
whole  sea-borne  trade  of  all  Russia  ;  about  equal  to 
that  of  Germany;  about  three-quarters  that  of  France ; 
two  and  a-half  times  that  of  Italy ;  and  nearly  half  that 
of  the  United  States/  The  whole  of  this  vast  and 
rapidly  increasing  independent  trade  has  precisely  the 
same  guarantee  of  protection  from  the  naval  power  of 
the  Empire  as  the  trade  of  the  United  Kingdom  itself. 
Yet,  while  the  net  expenditure  (1890)  incurred  by  the 
United  Kingdom  in  the  Naval  Estimates  is  £  1 4.2 15,100, 
the  whole  contribution  of  the  colonies  and  dependen- 
cies for  the  same  purpose  only  amounts  to  £381,546, 
of  which  India  alone  provides  £254,776.  In  other 
words,  out  of  every  pound  spent  for  the  protection 
of  the  nation's  commerce  at  sea,  the  United  King- 
dom contributes  19^.  5f^.,  the  outlying  empire  6\d. 
This  comparison  is  made  even  more  striking  when 
combined  with  the  statement  that  the  united 
revenues  of  the  colonies  and  dependencies  amount  to 
£105,000,000,  against  the  £89,000,000  which  repre- 
sent the  revenue  of  the  United  Kingdom.  The  vast 
capital  sum  invested  in  ships,  armament,  and  naval 
establishments,  believed  to  amount  to  more  than 
£80,000,000,  is  paid  wholly  by  the  taxpayers  of  the 
United  Kingdom. 

Besides  the  protection  to  their  commerce  given  by 
the  Navy,  colonists  enjoy  as  fully  as  British  people 
themselves  the  use  and  advantage  of  the  consular  and 
diplomatic  services  of  the  Empire.  The  colonial  mer- 


70  IMPERIAL   FEDERATION.  [Cn.  Ill 

chant,  sailor,  or  shipmaster  finds  in  every  chief  port  of 
the  world  a  consul  to  whom  he  can  apply  for  protection 
— an  officer  whose  services  are  paid  for  by  the  British 
taxpayer  alone.  The  Imperial  treasury  maintains  un- 
aided the  costly  diplomatic  staff  which  carries  on  the 
long  and  delicate  negotiations  in  which  the  colonies  are 
often  more  directly  concerned  than  the  mother-land 
itself.  Jf  the  results  of  diplomacy  sometimes  fail  to 
satisfy  colonial  expectations,  the  experience  is  not 
new  among  nations,  nor  likely  to  be  avoided  by  the 
agencies  which  a  colony  could  independently  set  in 
motion.  When  the  execution  of  treaties  involves  loss 
to  the  individual  colonist,  the  example  of  Newfound- 
land and  the  Behring  Sea  indicates  that  it  is  to  the 
Imperial  treasury  that  he  chiefly  looks  for  compensa- 
tion. 

This  want  of  proportion  in  the  distribution  of 
national  burdens  is  so  striking  that  one  is  impelled  to 
ask  if  it  may  not  have  at  least  some  partial  or  tem- 
porary justification.  There  is  one  consideration  of 
much  weight.  The  settlers  in  the  outlying  sections  of 
the  Empire  have  been  compelled  in  their  short  history 
to  face  tasks  of  great  difficulty.  They  have  had  upon 
their  hands  the  organization  of  vast  continental  areas, 
the  clearing  of  forests,  the  construction  of  highways 
and  railroads,  the  extension  of  the  post  and  telegraph 
over  immense  distances,  the  speedy  application  of  the 
machinery  of  civilization  to  new  lands.  Were  it  quite 
certain  that  all  this  would  become  a  permanent  addi- 
tion to  the  strength  and  resources  of  the  nation,  it 


CH.  Ill]  DEFENCE.  71 

might  well  be  an  object  of  national  policy  to  relieve 
them  from  other  burdens,  however  fair  in  themselves. 
There  would,  on  the  other  hand,  be  no  justification  for 
this  if  they  are  in  the  end  to  become  independent 
powers  or  additions  to  the  strength  of  another  state. 

In  any  case,  the  moment  that  the  ordinary  tax- 
payer of  the  new  land  is  as  able  to  pay  as  the  ordinary 
taxpayer  of  the  old,  the  uneven  distribution  of  re- 
sponsibility becomes  a  gross  injustice. 

Meanwhile  it  ought  to  be  possible  to  roughly  define 
even  now  some  of  the  general  principles  which  should 
be  attended  to  in  distributing  this  responsibility. 

We  are  fortunate  in  having  the  clearly  stated  opinion 
of  one  great  colonial  thinker  upon  this  point.  Joseph 
Howe  is  remembered  in  England,  no  less  than  in 
Canada,  as  one  of  the  ablest  statesmen  that  the 
colonies  have  produced.  '  The  great  orator  and  patriot,' 
is  the  description  applied  to  him  by  Mr.  Goldwin 
Smith.  As  the  brilliant  and  triumphant  champion  of 
Responsible  Government  his  record  places  him  abso- 
lutely beyond  the  suspicion  of  subordinating  colonial 
interests  to  any  others.  Yet  from  the  very  outset  he 
looked  upon  the  attainment  of  complete  indepen- 
dence of  local  government  in  the  colonies  as  but  a 
stepping-stone  to  the  assertion  of  still  higher  national 
rights,  to  the  acceptance  of  still  higher  responsibilities  ; 
to  some  form  of  substantial  union  among  British 
people,  based  on  considerations  of  equal  citizenship 
and  the  defence  of  common  interests.  As  far  back  as 
1854  he  delivered  in  the  Nova  Scotia  Legislature  an 


72  IMPERIAL   FEDERATION.  [Cn.  ITI 

address,  since  published  in  his  collected  speeches 
under  the  name  of  the  '  Organization  of  the  Empire,' 
which  attracted  wide  attention  at  the  time,  and,  indeed, 
embodies  most  of  what  has  since  been  said  by  the 
advocates  of  national  unity.  Twelve  years  later, 
when  on  a  visit  to  England,  he  published  in  pamphlet 
form  an  essay  bearing  the  same  title,  and  giving  his 
more  fully  matured  views  upon  the  question.  If  the 
genesis  and  enunciation  of  the  Imperial  Federation 
idea  in  its  modern  form  is  to  be  credited  to  any  one, 
it  must  be  assigned  to  Joseph  Howe  for  this  early 
and  comprehensive  statement  of  the  main  issues  in- 
volved. The  study  of  the  utterances  of  this  great 
colonist,  this  champion  of  colonial  rights,  may  be 
commended  to  those  shallow  critics  who  profess  to 
believe  that  the  proposal  for  national  unity  is  an  out- 
come of  Imperial  selfishness,  and  that  its  operation 
would  tend  to  cramp  colonial  development. 

Mr.  Howe  had  none  of  the  illusions  which  prevail  in 
some  parts  of  the  colonies  about  the  possibility  of 
enjoying  peace  without  taking  the  steps  necessary  to 
secure  it.  '  We  have  no  security  for  peace/  he  says, 
'  or  if  there  be  any,  it  is  only  to  be  sought  in  such  an 
organization  and  armament  of  the  whole  Empire  as 
will  make  the  certainty  of  defeat  a  foregone  conclusion 
to  any  foreign  power  that  may  attempt  to  break  it.' 
And  again,  '  The  question  of  questions  for  us  all,  far 
transcending  in  importance  any  other  within  the  range 
of  domestic  or  foreign  politics,  is  not  how  the  Empire 
can  be  most  easily  dismembered,  not  how  a  province 


CH.  Ill]  DEFENCE.  73 

or  two  can  be  strengthened  by  a  fort,  or  by  the  ex- 
penditure of  a  million  of  dollars,  but  how  the  whole 
Empire  can  be  so  organized  and  strengthened  as  to 
command  peace  or  be  impregnable  in  war.' 

After  discussing  the  best  method  of  securing  the 
representation  of  colonial  ideas  in  influencing  the 
general  policy  of  the  country,  a  condition  which  he 
believes  necessarily  precedent  to  joint  expenditure, 
Mr.  Howe  then  boldly  grapples  with  the  question  of 
provision  for  defence. 

1  By  another  bill,  to  operate  uniformly  over  the 
whole  Empire  (India  being  excepted,  as  she  provides 
for  her  own  army)  the  funds  should  be  raised  for  the 
national  defence.  This  measure,  like  the  other,  should 
be  submitted  for  the  sanction  of  the  colonial  govern- 
ments and  legislatures.  This  tax  should  be  distin- 
guished from  all  other  imposts,  that  the  amount 
collected  could  be  seen  at  a  glance,  and  that  every 
portion  of  the  whole  people  might  see  what  they  paid 
and  what  every  other  portion  had  to  pay. 

'  This  fund  could  either  be  raised  as  head  money 
over  the  whole  population,  in  the  form  of  a  property 
or  income  tax,  or  [as  Mr.  Howe  preferred]  by  a  certain 
percentage  upon  imports;  constituting, next  to  existing 
liabilities,  a  first  charge  upon  colonial  revenues,  and 
being  paid  into  the  military  chest  to  the  credit  of  the 
Lords  Commissioners  of  the  Treasury.' 

Two  important  qualifications  Mr.  Howe  suggests 
as  to  the  incidence  of  this  national  taxation  upon  the 
colonies. 


74  IMPERIAL   FEDERATION.  [Cn.  Ill 

'As  the  great  arsenals,  dockyards,  depots,  and 
elaborate  fortifications  are  in  these  islands  ;  as  the 
bulk  of  the  naval  and  military  expenditure  for  arms, 
munitions,  and  provisions  occurs  here,  where  are  the 
great  fleets  and  camps,  the  people  of  Great  Britain  and 
Ireland  ought  to  be  prepared  to  pay.  and  I  have  no 
doubt  would,  a  much  larger  proportion  towards  this 
fund  than  it  would  be  fair  to  exact  from  the  outlying 
provinces,  where,  in  time  of  peace,  there  is  but  little  of 
naval  or  military  expenditure. 

*  In  another  respect  a  wise  discrimination  should  be 
exercised.  Within  the  British  Islands  are  stored  up 
the  fruits  of  eighteen  centuries  of  profitable  industry. 
All  that  generations  of  men  toiled  for,  and  have  be- 
queathed, is  now  in  possession  of  the  resident  popula- 
tion here,  including  all  that  was  created  and  left  by 
the  forefathers  of  those  by  whom  the  British  colonies 
have  been  founded.  Taking  into  view,  then,  the  com- 
parison which  these  wealthy  and  densely  peopled 
islands  bear  to  the  sparsely  populated  countries  be- 
yond the  sea,  it  would  seem  but  fair  that  they  should 
assume,  in  proportion  to  numbers,  a  much  larger 
share  of  the  burthens  of  national  defence.' 

He  then  sums  up  :  'If  the  general  principle  be 
admitted,  we  need  not  waste  time  with  the  details, 
which  actuaries  and  accountants  can  adjust.  Fair 
allowance  being  made  under  these  two  heads,  I  can 
see  no  reason  why  the  colonists  should  not  contribute 
in  peace  and  war  their  fair  quotas  towards  the  defence 
of  the  Empire. 


CH.  Ill]  DEFENCE.  75 

'  But  the  question  may  now  be  asked,  and  everything 
turns  upon  the  answer  that  may  be  given  to  it,  will 
the  colonies  consent  to  pay  this  tax,  or  to  make 
any  provision  at  all  for  the  defence  of  the  Empire? 
It  must  be  apparent  that  no  individual  can  give  an 
answer  to  this  question  ;  that  the  Cabinet,  were  they 
to  propound  this  policy,  even  after  the  most  anxious 
enquiry  and  full  deliberation,  could  only  wait  in  hope 
and  confidence  for  the  response  to  be  given  by  so 
many  communities,  so  widely  dispersed  and  affected 
by  so  many  currents  of  thought.  .  .  .  That  it  is  the 
duty,  and  would  be  for  the  interest,  of  all  Her  Majesty's 
subjects  in  the  outlying  provinces,  fairly  admitted  to 
the  enjoyment  of  the  privileges  indicated,  to  make  this 
contribution,  I  have  not  the  shadow  of  doubt.  .  .  . 
Without  efficient  organization  they  cannot  lean  upon 
and  strengthen  each  other  or  give  to  the  mother- 
country  that  moral  support  which  in  peace  makes 
diplomacy  effective,  and  in  war  would  make  the  con- 
test short,  sharp,  and  decisive.  ...  If  once  organized 
and  consolidated,  under  a  system  mutually  advan- 
tageous and  generally  known,  there  would  be  an  end 
to  all  jealousies  between  the  taxpayers  at  home  and 
abroad.  We  should  no  longer  be  weakened  by  dis- 
cussions about  defence  or  propositions  for  dismember- 
ment, and  the  irritation  now  kept  up  by  shallow 
thinkers  and  mischievous  politicians  would  give  place 
to  a  general  feeling  of  brotherhood,  of  confidence,  of 
mutual  exertion,  dependence,  and  security.  The  great 
powers  of  Europe  and  America  would  at  once  recog- 


76  IMPERIAL   FEDERATION.  [Cn.  Ill 

nize  the  wisdom  and  forethought  out  of  which  had 
sprung  this  national  combination,  and  they  would  be 
slow  to  test  its  strength.  We  should  secure  peace  on 
every  side  by  the  notoriety  given  to  the  fact  that 
on  every  side  we  were  prepared  for  war.' 

One  more  quotation  is  necessary  to  place  before  the 
reader  the  full  breadth  and  courage  of  Mr.  Howe's 
reasoning  : — 

'  But  suppose  this  policy  proposed  and  the  appeal 
made,  and  that  the  response  is  a  determined  negative. 
Even  in  that  case  it  would  be  wise  to  make  it,  because 
the  public  conscience  of  the  mother-country  would 
then  be  clear,  and  the  hands  of  her  statesmen  free,  to 
deal  with  the  whole  question  of  national  defence  in 
its  broadest  outlines  or  in  its  bearings  on  the  case  of 
any  single  province  or  group  of  provinces,  which 
might  then  be  dealt  with  in  a  more  independent 
manner. 

'  But  I  will  not  for  a  moment  do  my  fellow-colonists 
the  injustice  to  suspect  that  they  will  decline  a  fair 
compromise  of  a  question  which  involves  at  once  their 
own  protection  and  the  consolidation  of  the  Empire. 
At  all  events,  if  there  are  any  communities  of  British 
origin  anywhere,  who  desire  to  enjoy  all  the  privileges 
and  immunities  of  the  Queen's  subjects  without  paying 
for  and  defending  them,  let  us  ascertain  who  and  what 
they  are— let  us  measure  the  proportions  of  political 
expenditure  now,  in  a  season  of  tranquillity,  when  we 
have  the  leisure  to  gauge  the  extent  of  the  evil  and 
apply  correctives,  rather  than  wait  till  war  finds  us 


CH.  Ill]  DEFENCE.  77 

unprepared  and  leaning  upon  presumptions  in  which 
there  is  no  reality.' 

No  apology  seems  needed  for  placing  before  the 
reader  at  such  length  the  views  held  on  this  crucial 
question  of  national  defence  by  one  of  the  great  fathers 
of  Responsible  Government  in  the  colonies,  a  man 
whose  whole  life  was  marked  by  absolute  devotion  to 
the  principles  of  popular  government  and  to  colonial 
interests. 

Joseph  Howe  spoke  and  wrote  of  conditions  exist- 
ing before  that  great  period  of  Canadian  development 
and  expenditure  which  followed  upon  the  confedera- 
tion of  the  different  provinces.  This  probably 
accounts  in  large  measure  for  the  different  view  of 
the  situation  taken  and  the  different  solution  of 
the  question  suggested  by  his  distinguished  suc- 
cessor, Sir  Charles  Tupper.  The  right  and  duty 
of  the  colonies  to  contribute  to  the  general  strength 
of  the  Empire  which  guarantees  them  security  is 
admitted  as  fully  by  Sir  Charles  Tupper  as  by 
Joseph  Howe.  Of  the  most  expedient  method  for 
utilizing  the  young  energy  and  growing  resources  of 
the  colonies  he  takes  a  different  view.  In  an  article 
recently  published  in  a  leading  magazine l  he  says  : — 

'  Many  persons,  I  am  aware,  both  in  the  colonies 
and  here,  have  looked  upon  the  question  of  the 
defence  of  the  Empire  as  best  promoted  and  secured 
by  a  direct  contribution  to  the  support  of  the  army 
and  navy  of  this  country.  That  I  regard  as  a  very 

1  Nineteenth  Century,  Oct.  1891. 


78  IMPERIAL   FEDERATION.  [CH.  Ill 

mistaken  opinion,  and  I  believe  that  there  is  a  much 
more  effective  way  of  promoting  the  object  in  view. 
In  my  opinion,  no  contribution  to  the  support  of 
the  army  and  navy  of  England  on  the  part  of 
Canada  would  have  contributed  to  the  defence  of  the 
Empire  in  a  greater  degree  than  the  mode  in  which 
the  public  money  in  Canada  has  been  expended  for 
that  purpose.  We  have  expended,  in  addition  to 
an  enormous  grant  of  land,  over  a  million  pounds 
sterling  per  annum,  from  the  first  hour  that  we 
became  a  united  country  down  to  the  present  day, 
in  constructing  a  great  Imperial  highway  across 
Canada  from  ocean  to  ocean,  not  only  furnishing  the 
means  for  the  expansion  of  the  trade  and  the  de- 
velopment of  Canada,  but  providing  the  means  of 
intercommunication  at  all  seasons  between  different 
parts  of  the  country.' 

After  pointing  out  that  the  construction  of  the 
Transcontinental  Railway  enabled  Canada  in  1885 
to  put  down  without  England's  help  the  half-breed 
rebellion,  while  the  previous  outbreak  in  1870  had 
required  the  services  of  General  Wolseley  and  the 
Imperial  troops  for  several  months,  Sir  Charles 
Tupper  goes  on  to  say: — 

'  We  have,  therefore,  not  only  provided  the  means 
of  intercommunication,  the  means  of  carrying  on  our 
trade  and  business,  but  have  also  established  a  great 
Imperial  highway  which  England  might  to-morrow 
find  almost  essential  for  the  maintenance  of  her 
power  in  the  East.  Not  only  has  Canada  furnished 


CH.  Ill]  DEFENCE.  ^  79 

a  highway  across  the  continent,  but  it  has  brought 
Yokahama  three  weeks  nearer  to  London  than  it 
is  by  the  Suez  Canal.  I  give  that  as  an  illustration 
that  there  are  other  means  which,  in  my  judgment, 
may  contribute  much  more  to  the  increased  strength 
and  the  greatness  of  the  Empire  than  any  contribu- 
tion that  could  be  levied  upon  any  of  the  colonies. 
....  The  expenditure  by  the  Government  of  Canada 
that  has  successfully  opened  up  these  enormous  tracts 
of  country  in  the  great  North  West  of  the  Dominion, 
which  promise  to  be  the  granary  of  the  world,  is  of 
itself  the  best  means  of  making  England  strong 
and  prosperous,  as  it  will  attract  a  large  British 
population  thither.' 

Sir  Charles  Tupper  can  also  speak  of  more  direct 
contributions  which  the  Dominion  makes  to  the 
national  strength. 

'  Canada  has  in  addition  expended  since  confedera- 
tion over  forty  millions  of  dollars  upon  her  militia 
and  mounted  police,  and  in  the  establishment  of  a 
military  college,  which,  I  am  proud  to  know  from 
one  of  the  highest  authorities,  is  second  to  no 
military  school  in  the  world,  and  of  nine  other 
military  schools  and  batteries  in  the  various  provinces, 
of  which  the  Dominion  is  composed.  In  1889 
Canada  expended  no  less  than  two  millions  of  dollars 
on  the  militia  and  North  West  mounted  police, 
which  any  one  who  knows  the  country  will  admit 
is  a  most  effective  means  of  defence.  It  is  true 
we  have  a  comparatively  small  permanent  force,  but 


8o  IMPERIAL  FEDERATION.  [Cn.  Ill 

we  have  established  military  schools,  and  we  have 
such  a  nucleus  of  a  further  force  as  in  case  of  need 
would  enable  us  to  develop  the  militia  in  the  most 
effective  manner,  consisting  of  37,000  volunteers  who 
are  trained  annually,  and  a  reserve  of  1,000,000  men, 
liable  to  be  called  upon  should  necessity  arise.' 

Once  more :  '  One  of  the  most  effective  means 
adopted  by  the  Imperial  Parliament  for  the  defence 
of  the  Empire  is  by  subsidizing  fast  steamers  built 
under  Admiralty  supervision,  with  armament  which 
can  be  made  available  at  a  moment's  notice.  These 
steamers  could  maintain  their  position  and  keep  up 
mail  communication  in  time  of  war  or  be  used  for 
the  transport  of  troops.  Canada  has  contributed 
^15,000  a  year  to  a  splendid  line  of  steamers,  such 
as  I  have  described,  now  plying  between  Canada, 
Japan,  and  China,  and  has  offered  no  less  than 
;£i  65,000  per  annum  to  put  a  service  like  the 
Teutonic  between  England  and  Canada,  and  a  fast 
service  between  Canada  and  Australia.  All  these 
splendid  steamers  would  be  effective  as  cruisers  if 
required  for  the  protection  of  British  commerce,  and 
the  transport  of  troops  and  thousands  of  volunteers 
to  any  point  that  the  protection  of  the  Empire 
demanded.' 

It  is  on  grounds  thus  stated  that  Sir  Charles 
Tupper  concludes  that,  '  Instead  of  adding  to  its 
defence,  the  strength  of  a  colony  would  be  impaired 
by  taking  away  the  means  which  it  requires  for  its 
development  and  for  increasing  its  defensive  power, 


CH.  Ill]  DEFENCE.  81 

if  it  were  asked  for  a  contribution  to  the  army  and 
navy.' 

The  argument,  which  may  be  applied  to  all  the 
colonies,  amounts  to  this,  that  it  would  be  true  national 
economy  to  leave  free  at  present  all  the  energies  and 
resources  of  these  young  countries  for  local  defence 
and  for  carrying  on  the  mere  processes  of  growth. 
Obviously  the  fairness  of  this  arrangement,  for  which 
there  is  much  to  be  said,  depends  entirely  on 
the  assurance  that  the  colony  is  to  remain  per- 
manently a  part  of  the  Empire.  There  is  no  reason 
why  Britain  or  any  other  mother-country  should  bear 
any  part  of  the  natural  burdens  of  a  colony  if  the 
colony  is,  nevertheless,  left  free  to  mark  its  adoles- 
cence by  declaring  itself  independent,  or  by  annexing 
itself  to  another  and  perhaps  rival  state.  It  is  equally 
obvious  that  such  an  arrangement  could  in  no  sense 
be  final,  and  that  it  only  shifts  the  question  of  more 
normal  adjustment  of  national  burdens  to  a  time  not 
very  far  remote.  It  could  therefore  in  any  case 
only  be  looked  upon  as  a  temporary  compromise. 
For  instance,  the  whole  volume  of  colonial  trade 
(including  India)  is  to  that  of  the  United  Kingdom 
now  in  about  the  proportion  of  four  to  seven : 
judging  from  the  relative  rate  of  increase  before 
referred  to  the  day  is  not  far  distant  when  they 
will  be  equal.  The  proportion  of  population  is 
also  changing  rapidly.  The  anomaly  of  one  half 
of  the  national  trade  and  one  half  of  the  popula- 
tion bearing  the  direct  naval  expenditure  of  the 

G 


82  IMPERIAL   FEDERATION.  [CH.  Ill 

whole  would  be  very  great  indeed.  This  method, 
too,  would  seem  to  conflict  rather  seriously  with 
a  principle  which  has  become  a  very  fundamental 
idea  in  the  British  mind,  viz.  that  a  bearing  of  bur- 
dens in  some  very  direct  form  must  go  hand  in 
hand  with  representation.  Till  direct  responsibility 
in  general  defence  is  undertaken,  direct  representation 
in  determining  general  policy  can  scarcely  be  conceded. 
To  fix  the  point  at  which  any  colony  should  become 
a  direct  instead  of  an  indirect  contributor  to  the 
nation's  defensive  strength  would  be  a  manifest 
necessity.  To  these  criticisms  Sir  Charles  Tupper 
can  fairly  answer  that  he  deals  in  his  proposition 
only  with  actual  and  not  with  prospective  conditions. 
In  fixing  new  and  permanent  relations,  however,  for 
an  empire  which  is  changing  as  rapidly  as  ours,  the 
future  must  be  kept  in  view  as  much  as  the  present. 
Doubtless  the  true  settlement  of  the  question  lies  in 
a  compromise  between  the  present  and  the  future. 

Not  long  since  one  of  the  most  prominent  of 
English  statesmen  put  the  matter  to  me  in  this  way : 
£  We  in  Great  Britain  know  very  well  that  while  you 
in  the  colonies  are  engaged  in  organizing  great  conti- 
nents and  furnishing  them  with  the  machinery  of 
civilization  we  cannot  expect  you  to  contribute  for 
common  purposes  in  proportion  to  us,  who  start  with 
the  stored  up  resources  and  appliances  of  centuries. 
But  we  know  that  as  you  complete  your  docks, 
harbours  and  lighthouses,  your  railroads  and  canals, 
your  schoolhouses  and  churches,  as  society  becomes 


CH.  Ill]  DEFENCE.  83 

settled  and  the  needs  of  civilization  supplied,  then 
you  will  gradually  become  ready  and  willing  to  bear 
your  full  proportion  of  those  burdens  which  are  the 
token  of  full  and  equal  citizenship.'  With  him,  as 
with  Joseph  Howe,  the  settlement  of  the  central 
principle  of  national  unity  was  the  main  point ;  the 
determination  of  the  details  of  expenditure  was  a 
matter  for  friendly  negotiation — for  actuaries  and 
accountants. 

We  may  now  ask,  as  did  Joseph  Howe,  whether  the 
great  colonies  would  be  willing  to  accept,  either  im- 
mediately or  by  gradual  and  progressive  steps,  any 
further  share  in  the  responsibilities  of  the  nation.  It 
may  be  assumed  that  this  decision  will  be  based  on 
the  facts  and  arguments  of  the  case. 

*  Reason  shows  and  experience  proves  that  no 
commercial  prosperity  can  be  durable  if  it  cannot 
be  united,  in  case  of  need,  to  naval  force.'  This 
remark  of  De  Tocqueville  is  so  fully  proved  by  the 
facts  of  history  that  its  truth  may  be  accepted  as 
axiomatic.  It  is  a  truth  for  the  colonies  to  consider. 
Highly  commercial  already,  their  desire  and  manifest 
destiny  are  to  be  still  more  so.  Canada's  commercial 
navy,  as  has  been  said,  already  ranks  fourth  in  the 
world.  She  is  a  first-class  shipping  power.  Aus- 
tralia's trade  is  perhaps  greater  in  proportion  to 
population  than  that  of  any  other  country.  Alone 
among  all  the  people  of  the  past  or  present,  British 
colonists  have  not  had  to  accept  the  full  respon- 
sibilities of  increasing  commercial  greatness.  The 

G  2 


84  IMPERIAL   FEDERATION.  [Cn.  Ill 

little  republic  of  Chili,  with  a  trade  of  ,£26,000,000, 
and  a  population  of  about  3,000,000  maintains  40,000 
tons  of  armed  shipping,  at  a  large  annual  expense. 
The  other  republics  of  South  America  bear  like  bur- 
dens. Australia,  with  its  much  larger  volume  of  sea 
trade  and  far  greater  of  revenue,  pays  only  £126,000 
for  naval  defence,  strictly  confined  to  its  own  shores. 
Canada,  with  its  remarkable  tonnage  of  ocean  ship- 
ping, its  great  interests  at  stake  on  its  eastern  and 
western  coasts,  leans  almost  entirely  for  defence  of 
commerce  and  fisheries  upon  British  ironclads  paid 
for  exclusively  by  the  people  of  the  United  Kingdom. 

The  deceptive  argument,  drawn  from  the  example 
of  the  United  States  at  some  periods  of  their  history, 
that  a  degree  of  isolation  gives  immunity  from  such 
burdens,  has  now  lost  its  force.  The  policy  of  the 
Great  Republic  has  been  sharply  reversed,  and  the 
creation  of  a  powerful  navy  has  become  an  object 
of  national  ambition,  and  is  apparently  the  outcome 
of  national  necessities  developed  by  the  widening  of 
commercial  relations. 

Judged,  then,  by  all  historical  precedent,  the  great 
colonies  must  in  the  natural  course  of  events  accept 
naval  defence  as  a  part  of  their  ordinary  burdens. 
That  they  have  escaped  this  form  of  expense  hitherto 
is  manifestly  due  almost  entirely  to  the  fact  that  as 
parts  of  the  empire  they  have  been  so  fortunate  as  to 
enjoy  without  cost  the  protection  of  a  supreme  naval 
power.  Will  they  secure  the  most  effective  defence, 
the  best  return  for  the  money  they  spend,  within  the 


CH.  Ill]  DEFENCE.  85 

Empire  or  without  ?  Within  the  Empire  they  would 
have  the  advantage  of  naval  bases  in  every  important 
corner  of  the  world.  The  portion  of  force  contributed 
by  themselves  would  have  the  prestige  of  the  whole 
to  make  it  most  effective.  They  would  have  the 
advantage  of  all  the  stored-up  skill  and  experience 
of  the  greatest  school  of  naval  training  that  the  world 
has  ever  known.  They  would  have  the  direction  of 
naval  experience  absolutely  unique.  They  would  be 
able  at  once  in  spending  their  money  to  avail  them- 
selves of  the  best  results  of  naval  experiments  carried 
on  by  the  United  Kingdom  at  enormous  cost. 
Alike  in  cheapness  and  efficiency  they  would  enjoy 
the  advantages  which  come  from  co-operation  on  a 
great  scale. 

There  is,  of  course,  an  opposing  view.  Stated  in 
its  extreme  form  it  was  put  thus,  three  or  four  years 
ago,  to  the  Legislature  of  Quebec  by  Mr.  Mercier  :— 

*  Up  to  the  present  time  we  have  lived  a  colonial 
life,  but  to-day  they  wish  us  to  assume,  in  spite  of  our- 
selves, the  responsibilities  and  dangers  of  a  sovereign 
state,  which  will  not  be  ours.  They  seek  to  expose 
us  to  vicissitudes  of  peace  and  war  against  the  great 
powers  of  the  world ;  to  rigorous  exigencies  of 
military  service  as  practised  in  Europe ;  to  disperse 
our  sons  from  the  freezing  regions  of  the  North  Pole 
to  the  burning  sands  on  the  desert  of  Sahara  ;  an 
odious  regime  which  will  condemn  us  to  the  forced 
impost  of  blood  and  money,  and  wrest  from  our 
arms  our  sons,  who  are  the  hope  of  our  country  and 


86  IMPERIAL  FEDERATION.  [CH.  Ill 

the  consolation  of  our  old  days,  and  send  them  off 
to  bloody  and  distant  wars,  which  we  shall  not  be 
able  to  stop  or  prevent.' 

Probably  Mr.  Mercier's  auditors  were  well  enough 
acquainted  with  history  to  detect  at  once  the  obvious 
fallacy  of  his  argument. 

Still,  it  is  worth  while  to  remind  colonial  writers 
and  speakers  when  they  assert,  as  they  sometimes 
do,  that  a  union  of  defence  with  Britain  means  the 
dragging  away  of  Canadians  or  Australians  to  fight  in 
Europe  or  Asia,  that  Britain  is  the  one  country  in 
the  world  that  has  never,  in  modern  times,  been  com- 
pelled to  resort  to  conscription  ;  that  no  one  is  asked 
to  fight  in  the  ranks  of  her  army  or  in  her  fleet  ex- 
cept those  who  wish  to,  and  that  on  these  terms  she 
has  been  able  to  put  into  the  field  and  on  the  sea 
all  the  soldiers  and  sailors  she  requires.  This  is  as 
true  of  her  large  native  Indian  armies  as  it  is  of  her 
English,  Scotch,  Welsh,  or  Irish  regiments.  Britain 
knows  nothing  of  the  conscription  which  prevails  in 
Germany,  France,  and  Russia,  which  even  the  United 
States  found  necessary  in  the  War  of  Secession.  The 
men  whom  Australia  sent  to  the  Soudan  she  sent 
of  her  own  accord,  and  not  at  Britain's  request,  much 
less  her  command  ;  the  numerous  Canadian  officers 
now  holding  commissions  and  in  the  active  service  of 
the  Empire  are  there  by  their  own  individual  choice. 
There  is  not  the  slightest  reason  to  suppose  that  the 
British  system  of  a  purely  voluntary  service  would 
be  changed  under  any  new  political  conditions  im- 


CH..III]  DEFENCE.  87 

posed  by  closer  union.  The  career  of  a  soldier  is 
one  which  has  for  many  minds  a  great  attraction. 
With  the  progress  of  military  science,  it  now  offers 
in  many  of  its  departments,  as  never  before,  a  field 
for  the  highest  intellectual  qualities  and  scientific 
attainments.  To  say  the  very  least,  to  be  a  de- 
fender of  one's  country  is  a  not  unworthy  ambition. 
It  is  therefore  extremely  likely  that  into  the  great 
career  offered  by  an  Imperial  service  many  colonists 
with  military  predilections  would  be  drawn.  Even  if 
their  sole  object  were  to  prepare  themselves  for  the 
service  of  the  particular  part  of  the  Empire  to  which 
they  belonged,  the  wider  training  to  be  obtained  in  the 
highly  organized  system  of  a  great  state  would  be  in- 
valuable. But  once  more  I  repeat  that  the  service 
would  be  purely  voluntary.  If  Mr.  Mercier  and  those 
of  his  compatriots  who  think  with  him  have  lost  what 
was  once  supposed  to  be  an  instinct  of  their  race,  they 
have  the  opportunity  within  the  British  Empire,  which 
they  could  not  depend  upon  having  in  France,  of 
following  their  inclination.  Mr.  Goldwin  Smith  states, 
though  I  think  incorrectly,  that  colonists  are  essen- 
tially non-military.  If  his  view  is  true,  then  the  task 
of  defending  the  Empire  will  naturally  gravitate  into 
the  hands  of  those  in  whom  the  military  instinct  is 
strong,  of  whom  the  Empire  has  always  as  yet  found 
enough  for  all  its  needs. 

Again,  in  a  somewhat  similar  connection  Mr.  Smith 
speaks  of  '  the  heavy  weight  of  a  constant  liability  to 
entanglements  in  the  quarrels  of  Eagland  all  over  the 


88  IMPERIAL   FEDERATION.  [CH.  Ill 

world,  with  which  Canada  has  nothing  to  do,  and 
about  which  nothing  is  known  by  her  people.  Her 
commerce  may  any  day  be  cut  up  and  want  brought 
into  her  homes  by  a  war  about  the  frontier  of 
Afghanistan,  about  the  treatment  of  Armenia  or 
Crete  by  the  Turks,  about  the  relation  of  the 
Danubian  Principalities  to  Russia,  or  about  the 
balance  of  power  in  Europe.'  Let  us  put  against  this 
flight  of  imagination  the  solid  facts  of  history  and  see 
if  Canada  has  had  any  reason  to  feel  this  pressure  of 
dread  from  her  connection  with  Britain.  In  1813 
British  troops  assisted  Canadians  in  repelling  what  Mr. 
Smith  himself  describes  as  '  unprincipled  aggression.' 
Since  that  time  under  the  British  flag  Canada  has 
known  a  continuance  of  peace  absolutely  without 
parallel  for  a  corresponding  period  among  all  the 
nations  of  the  world.  The  last  European  war  in 
which  England  took  part  was  that  with  Russia,  closed 
in  1856.  The  effect  upon  Canada  of  that  war  was  a 
stimulus  given  to  her  timber  and  provision  trade  by 
the  closing  of  Baltic  and  Black  Sea  ports.  One  of 
Canada's  own  sons,  General  Williams,  the  hero  of 
Kars,  won  in  that  war  a  fame  of  which  every  Canadian 
is  proud.  Since  1856  there  has  been  an  Austro-Italian 
war,  an  Austro-Prussian  war,  a  Franco-Prussian  war, 
a  Russo-Turkish  war.  No  British  sword  was  drawn, 
no  Canadian  interest  touched  in  all  of  these.  The 
gigantic  civil  war  of  secession  shook  the  American 
union  to  its  foundations ;  Britain  took  no  part,  and 
Canadians  along  *vith  her  lived  in  peace.  In  India 


CH.  Ill]  DEFENCE.  89 

Britain  was  compelled  in  1856-7  to  go  through  a 
strain  of  agony  and  effort  to  maintain  her  place  of 
power,  Canada's  sole  part  was  to  weep  at  the  fate, 
to  glory  in  the  heroism  of  those  who  suffered  or  who 
won  at  Lucknow,  Cawnpore,  Delhi,  and  a  hundred 
other  scenes  of  conflict.  With  England's  numerous 
petty  wars  with  barbarian  tribes  on  the  fringe  of 
advancing  civilization,  mostly  undertaken  in  behalf  of 
colonists,  Canada  has  had  nothing  to  do1.  When  she 
had  her  first  half-breed  rebellion  British  troops  were 
promptly  sent  to  put  it  down.  So  far,  then,  Canada 
has  not  had  '  want  brought  into  her  homes  '  through 
her  connection  with  Britain,  but  on  the  contrary  has 
enjoyed  a  peace  and  security  that  might  well  be  the 
envy  of  the  world.  Like  the  United  States,  Canada 
enjoys  the  advantage  of  isolation  from  European 
strife,  together  with  the  further  advantage  of  connec- 


1  While  these  pages  are  going  through  the  press  there  comes,  as  if 
to  qualify  what  is  here  said,  the  news  that  a  young  Canadian,  Captain 
William  H.  Robinson,  of  the  Royal  Engineers,  has  met  a  soldier  s 
death  while  leading,  with  conspicuous  courage,  an  attack  on  Tambi  in 
Sierra  Leone.  Trained  in  Canadian  schools,  and  graduated  with  the 
highest  honours  from  the  Canadian  Military  College  at  Kingston, 
he  had  steadily  pushed  his  way  forward  in  the  Imperial  service  and 
had  for  some  time  been  in  charge  of  the  important  fortifications  in 
course  of  construction  at  Sierra  Leone.  In  the  ardent  pursuit  of 
his  profession  he  had  specially  volunteered  for  the  service  on  which 
he  was  engaged  when  he  met  his  end.  As  his  teacher  I  had  occasion 
to  watch  over  the  early  development  of  his  very  exceptional  powers. 
Britain  has,  first  and  last,  sacrificed  many  precious  lives  on  Canadian 
soil,  but  in  Captain  Robinson  Canada  has  begun  to  repay  the  debt  to 
the  mother-land  with  one  of  the  most  promising  of  the  sons  she  has 
yet  produced. 


90  IMPERIAL   FEDERATION.  [CH.  Ill 

tion  with  a  power  whose  flag  gives  to  Canadian  ships 
and  commerce  on  every  ocean  the  surest  guarantee  of 
safety  at  present  existing  in  the  world  ;  a  guarantee 
the  importance  and  significance  of  which  will  increase 
with  the  growth  of  Canadian  commerce  ;  a  guarantee 
which  she  could  not  possibly  find  under  an  indepen- 
dent flag,  nor  yet  under  the  flag  of  the  United 
States,  whose  one  weakness,  by  the  admission  of 
American  authorities  themselves,  lies  in  the  want  of 
those  naval  bases  which  are  everywhere  the  necessary 
adjuncts  of  extended  maritime  security. 

But  even  when  the  extraordinary  immunity  from 
the  risks  of  war  which  the  colonies  have  enjoyed 
under  the  British  flag  has  been  demonstrated  it  seems 
well  to  give  due  weight  to  any  honest  objection 
which  exists  to  committing  themselves  entirely  to 
the  military  policy  of  the  Empire  at  large,  until,  at 
least,  the  sense  of  national  unity  has  had  time  to 
become  fully  developed.  That  the  colonies  will 
refuse  to  contribute  to  Imperial  defence,  as  is  some- 
times asserted,  I  do  not  believe,  and  facts  are  them- 
selves now  beginning  to  disprove  the  statement.  That 
they  may  contribute  enormously  to  the  national 
strength  without  offending  the  prejudices  of  even  the 
most  sensitive  may  also  be  shown.  Lord  Thring  has 
made  a  suggestion  upon  this  point  which  seems  to  me 
exceedingly  interesting  and  helpful.  After  pointing 
out  the  overwhelming  common  interest  which  all  parts 
of  the  Empire  have  in  resisting  attack  from  without, 
he  proposes  that  in  each  of  the  great  colonies  willing 


CH.  Ill]  DEFENCE.  91 

to  enter  into  the  arrangement  defensive  forces  should 
be  created  which  would  be  recognized  parts  of  the 
Imperial  army  and  navy.  These  forces  should  not 
primarily  be  under  a  compulsory  obligation  to  serve 
out  of  their  own  countries,  or  beyond  their  own  limits, 
but  when  called  out  for  Imperial  purposes  within  their 
limits  they  should  form  a  part  of  the  Imperial  army 
and  navy,  and  be  under  the  same  general  control. 
But  the  colonial  forces  should  be  empowered  to 
volunteer  for  the  common  national  service  out  of  their 
own  limits,  and  on  so  doing  they  should  be  regarded 
as  an  integral  part  of  the  nation's  defensive  force. 

A  national  military  and  naval  organization  such  as 
that  here  suggested  would  appeal  directly  to  that 
local  patriotism,  instinctive  in  all,  which  considers 
no  sacrifice  too  great  if  it  is  made  for  the  defence 
of  men's  own  homes  and  firesides ;  it  furnishes  the 
opportunity  for  that  wider  national  patriotism  which 
knows  that  the  safety  of  the  parts  depends  upon  the 
safety  of  the  whole  ;  and  it  meets  the  objection  which 
has  been  mentioned  before,  and  is  often  made,  to 
young  communities  being  compelled  against  their 
will  to  take  an  active  part  outside  their  own  borders 
in  wars  in  which  their  concern  is  only  indirect.  The 
actual  defensive  force  of  the  Empire  would  be 
immensely  increased  by  the  effective  organization  of 
each  part  under  a  common  direction,  a  necessity  so 
often  and  strenuously  insisted  upon  by  Sir  Charles 
Dilke  and  others  who  have  thought  and  written  upon 
national  defence ;  its  contingent  force  would  be  still 


92  IMPERIAL   FEDERATION.  [Cn.  Ill 

more  increased  in  the  event  of  a  war  which  appeals  to 
the  reason  and  sympathy  of  the  several  great  com- 
munities. 

Those  who  argue  for  separation  in  the  colonies,  as 
well  as  men  like  the  late  Mr.  Bright  at  home,  rest 
their  case  largely  upon  the  view  that  the  mother- 
country  carries  permanently  along  with  her  the  en- 
tanglements of  a  traditional  foreign  policy  which  is 
chiefly  European,  and  with  which  it  is  unfair  to  in- 
volve young  communities  in  parts  of  the  world  remote 
from  Europe 1.  This  view  seems  based  on  past  history 
more  than  on  the  facts  of  the  present.  More  and 
more  every  day  Britain  tends  to  become  a  world 
power,  and  it  is  this  fact  rather  than  her  European 
position  which  dominates  her  policy.  She  faces  Europe 
much  more  in  the  interest  of  her  colonies  than  in  the 
support  of  ancient  traditions.  We  have  only  to  read 
the  news  from  day  to  day,  or  the  summary  of  national 
policy  for  a  year  as  it  is  presented  in  a  Queen's  Speech, 
to  see  that  Lord  Salisbury  was  within  the  strict  limit 
of  fact  when  he  told  a  deputation  but  a  few  months 
since  that  his  work  in  the  Foreign  Office  had  made  him 

1  '  I  should  like  to  ask  the  friends  of  federation  whether  the 
colonies  of  this  country — Canada,  and  the  great  colonies  which 
cluster  in  the  South  Pacific  and  in  Australia— whether  these  colonies 
would  be  willing  to  bind  themselves  to  the  stupid  and  regrettable 
foreign  polic}'  of  the  Government  of  this  country  ?  Will  they  take 
the  responsibility  of  entering  into  wars  which  will  be  10,000  miles 
away,  and  in  which  they  can  have  no  possible  interest  or  influence, 
and  in  which  they  could  have  been  in  no  degree  consulted  as  to  the 
cost  ?  My  opinion  is  that  the  colonies  will  never  stand  a  policy  of 
that  kind.1— John  Bright  at  Birmingham,  March  28th,  1888. 


CH.  Ill]  DEFENCE.  93 

deeply  sensible  of  'the  large  portion  of  our  foreign 
negotiations,  our  foreign  difficulties,  and  the  danger 
of  foreign  complications  which  arise  entirely  from  our 
colonial  connections ;  and  the  effect  is  that  from  time 
to  time  we  have  to  exercise  great  vigilance  lest  we 
should  incur  dangers  which  do  not  arise  from  any 
interest  of  our  own,  but  arise  entirely  from  the  in- 
terests of  the  important  and  interesting  communities 
to  which  we  are  linked.' 

The  difficulty  with  the  United  States  in  the  Behring 
Sea  and  the  Gulf  of  St.  Lawrence,  and  with  the  French 
in  Newfoundland  ;  the  complicated  negotiations  with 
Germany,  Portugal,  and  other  powers,  European  and 
native,  in  Africa,  chiefly  entered  into  in  behalf  of 
colonies  or  colonizing  companies,  are,  to  take  the 
very  latest  illustrations,  quite  sufficient  to  give  de- 
finiteness  to  Lord  Salisbury's  statement 1. 

To  some  sincere  thinkers  in  the  colonies  the  value 
of  British  protection  seems  slight  compared  with  the 
risks  entailed  by  the  Imperial  connection.  They  be- 
lieve that  the  true  and  evident  policy  for  these  young 
countries  is  to  break  off  this  connection  and  so  free 

1  A  Liberal  Foreign  Minister  has  lately  expressed  the  same  thought 
in  other  words.  'Our  great  Empire  has  pulled  us,  so  to  speak,  by 
pthe  coat-tails  out  of  the  European  system;  and  though  with  our  great 
predominance,  our  great  moral  influence,  and  our  great  fleet,  with  our 
traditions  in  Europe  and  our  aspirations  to  preserve  the  peace  of 
Europe,  we  can  never  remove  ourselves  altogether  from  the  European 
system,  we  must  recognise  that  our  foreign  policy  has  become  a 
colonial  policy,  and  is  in  reality  at  this  moment  much  more  dictated 
from  the  extremities  of  the  empire  than  it  is  from  London  itself.' — 
Lord  Rosebery  to  the  City  Liberal  Club,  March  asrd,  1892. 


94  IMPERIAL   FEDERATION.  [CH.  Ill 

themselves  from  its  dangers.  Having  no  reason  to 
quarrel  with  anybody  they  anticipate  with  indepen- 
dence not  only  the  immunity  which  they  have  enjoyed 
from  war,  but  the  further  relief  from  the  fear  of  war.^. 
Commerce  carried  on  without  naval  protection ;  in- 
ternal safety  secured  without  expense  on  military 
organization ;  a  neutral  flag  respected  by  all  belli- 
gerents ;  the  settlement  of  all  differences  by  friendly 
arbitration,  seem  to  them  not  unreasonable  expecta- 
tions. 

The  dread  of  some  Englishmen,  on  the  other  hand, 
is  that  they  may  be  drawn  into  wars  in  which  they 
have  no  direct  interest  by  the  action  of  individual 
colonies. 

Each  of  these  opinions  has  some  superficial  ground 
of  justification;  each  process  of  reasoning  has,  if  pushed 
to  its  final  conclusions,  fatal  defects.  But  is  there  not 
reason  to  believe  that  the  growth  of  the  Empire  is 
bringing  us  to  a  point  when  the  policy  of  England  and 
her  colonies  may  be  entirely  coincident  on  the  great 
questions  of  peace  or  war  ? 

In  the  desperate  struggle  for  existence  which  Eng- 
land in  past  centuries  has  often  had  to  carry  on,  in 
those  contests  which  have  toughened  the  fibre  of  her 
children  and  fitted  them  to  be  of  the  ruling  races  of 
the  world,  she  has  often  had  to  make  combinations 
or  enter  into  agreements  with  the  European  nations 
around  her  from  which  she  would  gladly  have  kept 
herself  free.  But  with  the  spread  of  the  Empire 
abroad  England  is  every  day  becoming  more  able 


CH.  Ill]  DEFENCE.  95 

to  look  away  from  Europe,  to  stand  aloof  from  purely 
European  disputes,  and  to  secure  all  the  strength  she 
requires  from  combination  with  communities  which 
are  her  own  offspring. 

Such  an  outcome  of  the  nation's  life  would  be  the 
best  justification  for  all  that  England  has  suffered 
and  spent  in  building  up  the  Empire.  But  it  is  not 
for  colonists  to  forget  that  she  has  spent  and  suffered 
much. 

At  Melbourne  two  years  ago,  in  a  lecture  intended  to 
refute  the  arguments  for  British  unity,  and  to  point  out 
the  danger  to  Australia  of  remaining  connected  with  the 
Empire,  Sir  Archibald  Michie,  with  great  apparent  de- 
liberation, said  :  '  As  the  miserable  result  of  her  (Eng- 
land's) past  foreign  policy,  as  ineffectual  to  any  good 
purpose  as  it  has  proved  expensive,  she  is  indebted  to 
the  amount  of  some  £700,000,000  to  the  public  creditor, 
the  National  Debt.  To  what  an  extent  does  not  this 
one  miserable  fact,  so  disgusting  to  all  Chancellors  of 
the  Exchequer,  cripple  the  strength  and  movements  of 
the  mother-country,  and  weaken  her  influence  with 
the  world  at  large.'  Were  this  the  thought  of  a  single 
man  it  would  be  scarce  worth  while  to  recall  it.  But 
in  some  of  the  colonies  similar  reference  to  the  National 
Debt  is  found  not  infrequently  in  journals  which  must 
be  taken  seriously,  and  in  the  mouths  of  men  who 
influence  public  opinion.  Often  it  is  emphasized  by 
a  triumphant  allusion  to  the  different  application  of 
colonial  borrowings,  represented  as  they  are  by  assets 
in  the  form  of  railways,  canals,  harbour  improvements, 


96  IMPERIAL   FEDERATION.  [CH.  Ill 

telegraph  systems,  and  public  works  of  many  kinds. 
The  criticism  and  comparison  seem  misleading  in  the 
last  degree. 

We  may  make  a  liberal  allowance  for  mistakes  in 
British  foreign  policy.  We  may  criticise  things  done 
in  the  heat  of  national  passion,  or  at  times  when  Britain 
was  carrying  on  a  struggle  for  existence.  We  may 
leave  out  of  our  reckoning  the  glory  of  having  saved 
the  liberties  of  Europe  when  other  nations  were  yield- 
ing in  despair,  when  British  subsidies  alone  brought 
their  armies  into  the  field,  and  British  resolution 
inspired  them  with  new  courage.  Yet,  when  all  this 
allowance  has  been  made,  we  may  say  that  a  colonist 
is  perhaps  the  last  man  in  the  world  to  sneer  at  the 
public  debt  of  England.  She  came  out  of  the  prolonged 
and  tremendous  struggle  which  piled  up  her  debt 
possessing  as  an  asset  to  show  for  it  about  one-fifth  of 
the  known  world.  Professor  Seeley  has  proved  con- 
clusively that  England's  great  continental  wars,  the 
chief  causes  of  her  vast  expenditures,  were  in  large 
measure  contests  for  colonial  supremacy.  From  those 
wars  she  gained  the  power  to  give  Canada  to  the 
Canadians,  Australia  to  the  Australians,  vast  areas  and 
limitless  resources  in  many  lands  to  those  of  her  people 
who  have  gone  to  inhabit  them,  and  so  to  complete 
by  industry  the  conquest  begun  by  arms.  From  those 
wars  she  emerged  with  a  command  of  the  sea  which 
has  enabled  her  to  supplement  her  gift  of  territory 
with  a  guarantee  of  safety  which  has  secured  it  from 
attack  during  the  early  stages  of  settlement  until  the 


CH.  Ill]  DEFENCE.  '    97 

present  time.  The  National  Debt  would  seem  to  be 
a  natural  mortgage  upon  the  territories  acquired  by 
war  expenditure,  yet  the  gift  of  Crown  lands  which  was 
made  to  the  colonies  acquiring  responsible  government 
was  made  absolutely  free  from  this  mortgage.  These 
Crown  lands  in  all  the  colonies  are  sold  and  used 
entirely  for  local  benefit,  while  the  whole  incidence  of 
taxation  for  what  may  fairly  be  called  the  interest  of 
the  purchase-money  falls  upon  the  United  Kingdom 
alone. 

The  expense  of  the  great  expeditions  which  culmin- 
ated in  the  victory  on  the  Plains  of  Abraham  is  a  con- 
siderable item  in  the  National  Debt,  but  half  a  continent 
now  held  by  Canadians  is  no  insignificant  item  to  set 
against  it.  If  the  expenditure  for  the  American  War 
be  put  down  as  a  mistake,  it  must  be  remembered  that 
the  United  States  themselves,  no  less  than  Canada, 
reaped  the  advantage  from  the  previous  expenditure 
which  set  the  Anglo-Saxon  on  the  American  continent 
free  from  French  rivalry1. 

Fifty  years  ago  the  French  Government  asked  the 
British  Foreign  Office  how  much  of  the  vast  unoccu- 

1  American  writers  admit  this.  '  The  Seven  Years'  War  made 
England  what  she  is.  It  crippled  the  commerce  of  her  rival,  ruined 
France  in  two  continents,  and  blighted  her  as  a  colonial  power.  It 
gave  England  the  control  of  the  seas,  and  the  mastery  of  North 
America  and  India,  made  her  the  first  of  commercial  nations,  and 
prepared  the  vast  colonial  system  that  has  planted  New  Englands  in 
every  part  of  the  globe.  And  while  it  made  England  what  she  is  it 
supplied  to  the  United  States  the  indispensable  condition  of  their  greatness, 
if  not  of  their  national  existence' — Introduction  to  Montcalm  and 
Wolfe  (Parkman). 

H 


98  IMPERIAL   FEDERATION.  [Cn.  Ill 

pied  areas  of  Australia  it  claimed.  '  The  whole  of  it,' 
was  the  prompt  reply.  No  doubt  the  recollection  of 
the  Plains  of  Abraham,  of  Trafalgar,  of  Waterloo,  had 
something  to  do  with  the  acceptance  of  that  reply  as 
conclusive. 

If  the  colonies  are  able  to  expend  their  borrowings  on 
reproductive  works  alone,  this  advantage  is  not  entirely 
due  to  their  own  superior  prudence,  but  in  part  at  least 
to  the  circumstance  that  they  have  been  protected  by 
a  great  Imperial  power  not  afraid  to  go  into  debt  for 
national  ends.  Gibraltar  and  Malta,  Aden,  Singapore, 
and  Hong  Kong,  the  Cape  and  St.  Helena,  stations  in 
every  corner  of  the  world  for  the  protection  of  the 
commerce  of  the  colonies  as  much  as  that  of  the 
United  Kingdom,  are  the  best  answers  to  those  who 
sneer  at  the  National  Debt  of  Great  Britain. 

The  United  States  incurred  a  war  debt  of  more  than 
2000,000,000  dollars,  not  indeed  in  carrying  out  a 
foreign  policy,  right  or  wrong,  but  in  remedying  mis- 
takes of  internal  policy.  The  war  brought  no  vast 
addition  of  territory ;  it  simply  saved  the  state  from 
disruption.  No  one  doubts  that  the  expenditure  has 
been  more  than  repaid  by  the  national  unity  and 
greatness  which  it  secured.  But  the  very  people  who 
were  crushed  by  that  vast  outlay  have  been  obliged, 
since  they  remain  within  the  nation,  to  contribute  to 
the  payment  of  the  debt  incurred. 

They  are  obliged  to  contribute  their  share  of  the  vast 
pension  roll,  amounting  to  much  more  than  100,000,000 
dollars  per  annum,  paid  to  the  soldiers  of  the  Union 


CH,  III]  DEFENCE.  99 

who  crushed  them.  Compared  with  this,  the  magna- 
nimity of  the  mother-land  in  handing  over  to  her 
younger  communities,  absolutely  free  from  incum- 
brance  either  of  mortgage,  of  military  responsibility, 
or  of  commercial  restraint,  the  major  part  of  those 
vast  assets  which  she  had  to  show  for  her  national 
debt,  seems  to  me  amazing.  A  colonist,  reproaching 
England  with  her  foreign  policy  and  the  debt  which  it 
led  to,  cuts  a  sorry  figure  in  the  face  of  these  facts. 
And  if  we  put  the  .£30,000,000  added  to  the  debt  of 
England  in  order  to  extinguish  slavery  beside  the 
price  paid  by  the  United  States  for  the  same 
national  purification,  we  shall  discover  reasons  for 
thinking  that  there  may  be  national  mistakes  worse 
than  those  to  be  discovered  in  the  foreign  policy  of 
Britain. 

Sir  Charles  Dilke  says1:  'It  is  a  remarkable 
instance  of  past  Imperial  carelessness  that  the  very 
principles  upon  which  the  burden  of  defence  should 
be  divided  between  ourselves  and  colonies,  and  the 
proportions  in  which  it  should  be  borne,  have  never 
been  settled.' 

And  again  2 :  '  It  is  not  the  United  Kingdom  only 
but  the  whole  British  Empire  which  needs  consistent 
and  united  organization  for  defence.  The  colonies 
should  be  represented  on  our  great  General  Staff,  and 
the  principle  of  self-preservation,  applied  to  the 
Empire,  should  be  disentangled  from  the  petty 

1  Problems  of  Greater  Britain,  vol.  ii.  522. 

2  United  Service  Magazine,  April,  1890. 

H  1 


TOO  IMPERIAL   FEDERATION.  [Cn.  Ill 

political  questions  by  which  the  relations  between  the 
mother-country  and  her  children  are  often  hampered 
and  sometimes  embittered.  .  .  .  Unfortunately,  con- 
siderations of  Imperial  defence,  which  should  be 
regarded  from  the  point  of  view  of  common  self- 
interest,  are  apt  to  become  mixed  up  with  the  in- 
dividual and  fleeting  interests  of  various  portions  of 
the  Empire.  If,  as  I  hope,  we  are  to  continue  to 
stand  together  as  a  confederacy  holding  the  future  of 
the  greater  portion  of  the  world  in  its  hands,  the 
inhabitants  of  the  home  islands  and  of  the  colonies 
must  come  to  an  understanding  for  mutual  support 
during  the  crisis  of  civilization  in  which  we  may  find 
ourselves  at  any  moment.' 

I  have  often  had  occasion  to  quote  Sir  Charles 
Dilke's  opinions  on  questions  which  have  come 
within  the  range  of  this  discussion.  The  luminous 
and  exhaustive  statement  of  the  condition  and 
resources  of  the  Empire  contained  in  the  two  volumes 
of  the  '  Problems  of  Greater  Britain,'  though  some- 
what weighted  by  detail,  and  in  my  opinion  weakened 
by  an  imperfect  balancing  of  the  primary  and 
secondary  forces  at  work  in  the  colonies,  is  still  by  far 
the  most  valuable  contribution  yet  made  to  the  study 
of  our  national  position.  The  line  of  argument  by 
which  the  author  proves  the  necessity  for  closer 
defensive  organization  of  the  different  parts  of  the 
Empire  seems  to  me  overwhelming  in  its  conclusive- 
ness.  His  demand  that  the  colonies  should  be  repre- 
sented on  the  General  Staff  which  is  to  constitute  the 


CH.  Ill]  DEFENCE.  101 

brain  of  the  nation  in  military  questions,  his  impres- 
sive warnings  that  the  mother-land  and  colonies  must 
stand  side  by  side  in  protecting  the  commerce  and 
civilization  which  both  have  borne  a  part  in  building 
up,  make  it  very  difficult  to  understand  the  hesitating 
and  irresolute  attitude  which  he  takes  in  his  chapter 
(vol.  ii.  part  vii.)  on  *  Future  Relations '  to  the 
question  of  Federation,  or  any  defined  system  of 
political  union.  Military  combination,  even  for  defen- 
sive purposes  alone,  must  certainly  mean  a  common 
foreign  policy  and  the  joint  expenditure  which  is 
necessary  to  make  it  effective ;  a  common  foreign 
policy  and  expenditure  imply  some  means  of  giving 
adequate  expression  to  the  will  of  all  the  communities 
concerned  ;  and  to  most  minds  that,  I  think,  will  point 
directly  and  inevitably  to  some  form  of  common 
representation.  Military  authorities  may  plan  and 
advise,  but  under  any  British  system  of  government 
political  authorities  who  derive  their  mandate  directly 
from  the  citizens  can  alone  make  the  plan  effective. 
Mere  alliance  could  never  accomplish  all  that  the 
author  of  the  '  Problems  of  Greater  Britain '  believes 
essential  to  the  safety  of  the  Empire.  Alliance  is 
temporary  and  easily  revocable,  and  therefore  by  no 
means  a  settlement  of  permanent  national  questions. 
The  moment  that  an  attempt  is  made  to  remedy  the 
carelessness  complained  of,  to  settle  the  principles 
upon  which  the  burden  of  defence  is  to  be  divided 
between  the  mother-land  and  colonies, '  to  come  to  an 
understanding  for  mutual  support,'  it  will  be  found 


102  IMPERIAL   FEDERATION. 

that  immediately  behind  the  military  problem  is  the 
political  problem  1. 

1  Since  the  above  was  written  a  very  distinct  advance  of  thought 
on  the  question  of  British  unity  has  been  indicated  in  the  work  on 
'  Imperial  Defence,'  just  published  by  Sir  Charles  Dilke  and  Mr. 
Spencer  Wilkinson.  The  authors  say  (p.  54)  :  '  It  is  enough  to  say, 
that  the  great  question,  perhaps  the  greatest  question,  which  has  to 
be  answered  by  the  present  generation  of  Englishmen,  is  whether 
the  British  Empire  is  to  become  a  series  of  independent,  though, 
perhaps,  friendly  states,  or  to  make  a  reality  of  the  military  unity 
which  at  the  present  time  is  rather  a  sentiment  than  a  practical 
institution.  It  is  evidently  impossible  to  organise  the  defences  of  the 
Empire  until  this  prior  question  has  been  settled,  and  it  is  quite  im- 
possible until  it  has  been  faced  to  determine  properly  the  policy  of 
Great  Britain.  If  the  principle  of  the  unity  of  the  Empire  and  the 
unity  of  its  defences  is  maintained  the  greatest  conceivable  degree  of 
security  would  have  been  gained  for  the  whole  and  for  every  part, 
and  the  British  Empire  could  afford,  as  against  the  attack  of  any  single 
power,  to  steer  clear  of  all  alliances  and  to  pursue  a  policy  solely  to 
the  immediate  welfare  of  its  subjects.  .  .  .  Before,  then,  the  defence 
of  the  British  Empire  can  be  placed  throughout  on  a  permanently 
satisfactory  footing,  it  seems  necessary  that  the  great  political  question 
of  the  century  should  be  settled,  and  that  Englishmen  all  over  the 
world  should  make  up  their  minds  as  to  the  real  nature  of  Greater 
Britain.'  The  most  ardent  Federationist  could  not  wish  for  a  more 
succinct  statement  of  the  national  position  than  this. 


CHAPTER    IV. 

THE   UNITED   KINGDOM. 

To  understand  the  relation  of  the  United  Kingdom 
to  the  question  of  national  unity  we  must  try  to  grasp 
the  main  features  of  the  astonishing  and  unparalleled 
change  which  in  the  last  half  or  three  quarters  of  a 
century  has  come  over  the  industrial  condition  of  the 
British  Islands.  This  change  has  left  them  in  a 
position  absolutely  unique  among  the  nations  of  the 
present  day,  a  position,  moreover,  to  which  history 
furnishes  no  parallel. 

It  has  been  estimated  that  when  the  Queen  came 
to  the  throne,  of  the  working  population  of  the 
country  one-third  were  agricultural  labourers,  and 
one-third  were  artizans.  There  has  since  been  an 
addition  of  from  12,000,000  to  15,000,000  to  the 
whole  population,  and  at  the  end  of  this  period  of 
remarkable  growth  we  find  ourselves  face  to  face 
with  the  overwhelming  fact  that  of  all  the  working 
classes  of  Great  Britain  only  an  eighth  are  agricultural 
labourers  while  three-fourths  are  artizans.  What  this 
means  is  in  no  way  more  tersely  described  than  when 
we  say  that  Britain  has  become  the  workshop  of  the 


io4  IMPERIAL   FEDERATION.  [CH.  IV 

world.  What  it  involves  is  the  conclusion  that  never 
in  the  history  of  the  human  race  has  any  great  nation 
lived  under  such  artificial  conditions  as  do  British 
people  at  the  end  of  this  period  of  extraordinary 
industrial  development,  a  period  which  has  its  limit 
well  within  the  century.  All  the  circumstances  of 
national  existence  have  been  revolutionized. 

After  the  application  to  the  soil  of  intense  culture, 
of  scientific  skill,  of  abundant  capital,  of  cheap  labour, 
only  about  8,000,000  or  9,000,000  quarters  of  wheat 
are  produced  out  of  the  28,000,000  quarters  which 
now  represent  the  annual  consumption.  The  rest 
comes  from  the  far  distant  prairies  of  the  United 
States  and  Canada,  from  India,  South  Australia, 
New  Zealand,  the  Black  Sea  and  the  Baltic.  With 
other  cereals  it  is  the  same,  the  demand  for  those 
which  cannot  be  produced  at  all  in  Great  Britain, 
such  as  rice  and  maize,  being  immense. 

Cheap  ocean  freights,  which  make  it  possible  to 
transfer  a  bushel  of  wheat  by  sea  from  Montreal  or 
New  York  to  London  at  a  lower  price  than  it  can 
be  carried  by  rail  from  some  English  counties  to 
London,  handicap  the  English  producer  still  more. 
It  seems  as  if  the  dependence  upon  the  outside  world 
for  grain  supplies  were  likely  to  increase,  not  merely 
with  the  rapid  increase  of  population  which  is  still 
going  on,  but  with  the  necessity  of  applying  the  land 
to  more  profitable  forms  of  production  as  ocean  transit 
is  still  further  cheapened,  and  as  increasing  prosperity 
leads  to  a  greater  consumption  of  animal  food. 


CH.  IV]  THE   UNITED   KINGDOM.  105 

As  with  grain  foods  so  with  meat.  Hundreds  of 
thousands  of  live  cattle,  many  hundred  thousand 
tons  of  meat,  chilled,  frozen,  salted,  or  tinned,  pour 
into  the  country  every  year  from  across  the  sea. 
Canada  alone  last  year  sent  123,000  head  of  cattle; 
New  Zealand  nearly  1,500,000  frozen  carcasses  of 
sheep.  It  has  been  estimated  that  the  quantity  of 
meat  food  in  the  United  Kingdom  at  any  time  is 
only  sufficient  to  supply  the  market  for  three  months ; 
beyond  that  all  must  come  from  without. 

So  also  with  cheese,  fruit,  and  other  staple  articles 
of  consumption.  Still  more  striking  is  the  dependence 
on  distant  lands  for  a  wide  range  of  articles  once 
esteemed  luxuries,  but  now  reckoned  among  the 
comforts,  if  not  the  necessities,  of  daily  life,  such  as 
sugar,  tea,  and  coffee.  If  the  massing  of  facts  into 
figures  best  conveys  to  some  minds  the  nature  of 
the  situation  it  may  be  put  in  the  statement  that 
every  year  the  United  Kingdom  pays  for  articles 
used  for  food  brought  from  abroad  the  sum  of 
£153,000,000  sterling.  Or  it  may  be  better  illus- 
trated by  a  comparison.  Draw  around  almost  any 
other  nation  or  country  of  modern  times — Germany, 
Italy,  Russia,  the  United  States,  Canada,  Australia — 
a  barrier  preventing  the  ingress  of  any  food  supply 
from  the  outer  world.  There  will  be  inconvenience, 
some  measure  of  restriction  of  consumption  in  a 
few  particulars,  but  the  condition  is  one  which  could 
be  endured  not  merely  for  months  but  for  years. 
Place  a  like  barrier  around  the  British  Islands  and 


io6  IMPERIAL   FEDERATION.  [Cn.  IV 

in  six  weeks  the  pressure  of  want  will  begin  to  be 
felt ;  in  six  months  starvation  will  be  the  prevalent 
condition  of  the  population. 

Such  a  picture  is,  of  course,  imaginary — the  fact 
which  lies  behind  it  is  stern  reality. 

The  illustration  emphasizes,  but  does  not  exag- 
gerate, the  absolutely  unique  nature  of  the  national 
position. 

For  the  first  time  in  the  course  of  human  history 
we  have  had  in  the  last  half  century  presented  to 
us  in  the  British  Islands  the  spectacle  of  a  great 
people  depending  for  its  existence  upon  the  safe 
and  continuous  transport  from  the  most  remote 
corners  of  the  globe  of  about  two-thirds  of  the  chief 
articles  of  daily  consumption. 

That  the  outlook  of  such  a  people  upon  the  world 
should  differ  fundamentally  from  that  of  any  other 
people  of  past  times  or  of  the  present  day  is  manifest. 
What  has  been  said  is  not  meant  to  prove  that  the 
situation  is  one  which  should  necessarily  induce  ex- 
traordinary anxiety.  Difficulties  are  to  be  measured 
by  the  resources  at  hand  to  grapple  with  them. 
Danger  only  comes  when  the  sense  of  proportion 
between  the  two  is  lost. 

Food  is  not  all.  Britain  the  workshop  of  the  world, 
and  three-fourths  of  its  working  population  artizans ! 
Upon  what  do  these  vast  armies  of  industry,  these 
millions  of  working  men  and  women,  spend  their 
toil  to  earn  the  wages  that  buy  the  food  thus 
brought  to  them  from  such  great  distances  and  at 


CH.  IV]  THE   UNITED    KINGDOM.  107 

such  expense?  Once  more  we  find  the  ends  of  the 
earth  scoured  to  furnish  them  with  the  raw  material 
upon  which  they  work.  Wool  from  Australia,  New 
Zealand,  India,  Africa,  South  America ;  cotton  from 
the  Southern  States,  India,  Egypt ;  timber  from 
Canada,  Russia,  Scandinavia,  Honduras ;  precious 
metals,  ores,  jute,  hemp  and  other  fibres,  oils,  gums, 
ivory,  shells,  hides,  furs,  precious  stones — everything 
that  can  be  moulded  for  use  or  beauty,  all  productions 
of  land  and  sea,  are  poured  forth  day  by  day  from 
the  holds  of  a  thousand  ships  in  the  greater  ports 
of  the  United  Kingdom  to  be  transferred  to  the 
centres  of  British  industry. 

The  critical  character  of  this  dependence  for  a 
perfectly  steady  supply  of  raw  material  is  under 
modern  conditions  as  striking  as  the  extent  of  the 
dependence.  The  great  Yorkshire  woollen  spinners 
tell  us  that  to  be  cut  off  even  for  three  or  four  weeks 
from  the  supplies  of  Australian  wool  would  mean 
the  closing  of  hundreds  or  thousands  of  factories  and 
a  widespread  paralysis  of  industry.  They  point  out 
that  when  the  regularity  of  sea  transport  depended 
upon  wind  and  weather,  or  when  the  home  market 
supplied  a  larger  share  of  the  material,  common 
prudence  made  it  necessary  to  lay  in  heavy  stocks 
to  provide  against  contingencies  for  many  months. 
So  fixed  has  now  become  the  habit  of  depending 
upon  the  regular  arrival  of  ocean  steam-ships  from 
week  to  week,  the  regular  sequence  of  great  wool 
sales  at  frequent  stated  periods,  that  it  is  possible 


io8  IMPERIAL   FEDERATION.  [CH.  IV 

in  manufacturing  to  live  as  it  were  from  hand  to 
mouth ;  that,  as  a  matter  of  fact,  a  large  proportion 
of  manufacturers  do  so  live,  purchasing  only  enough 
for  their  immediate  wants,  and  renewing  their  stock 
at  very  short  intervals.  Thus  the  effect  of  any 
stoppage  of  sea-transport  would  be  disastrously  felt 
at  once,  reaching  in  its  influence  alike  the  manu- 
facturing capitalist  and  the  workman  in  his  cottage. 

A  group  of  manufacturers  at  Galashiels,  one  of  the 
important  Scottish  centres  of  the  wool  trade,  told 
me  that  nine  out  of  every  ten  pounds  of  wool  they 
used  was  Australian.  The  proportion  can  scarcely 
be  less  in  the  Bradford  district  and  other  large  areas 
of  Yorkshire.  Nor  are  such  illustrations  of  the  com- 
pleteness of  dependence  on  supplies  abroad  excep- 
tional or  confined  to  wool.  Cut  off  Dundee  from 
its  importations  of  Indian  jute  and  the  collapse  of 
its  main  industry  would  be  sudden  and  general. 
Lancashire  is  not  likely  to  forget  what  it  means  to 
lose  control  of  her  ordinary  markets  for  obtaining 
raw  cotton.  We  may  put  together  once  more  the 
figures  which  express  this  marvellous  relation  to 
British  industry  to  the  remoter  parts  of  the  world. 

For  wool  last  year  Britain  paid  £26, 000,000  ;  for 
raw  cotton  .£40,000,000 ;  wood  ,£14,000,000 ;  metals 
£23,000,000  ;  flax,  hemp,  and  jute  £io,coo,ooo  ;  and 
so  on. 

But  even  what  has  been  said  of  food  and  raw 
material  of  manufacture  exhibits  but  one  side  of  the 
national  position.  To  be  the  workshop  of  the  world 


CH.  IV]  THE    UNITED   KINGDOM.  109 

implies  access  to  the  markets  of  the  world.  I  say 
nothing  of  the  vast  centres  of  commerce  abroad 
which  serve  as  the  main  points  of  distribution.  But 
go  to  the  loneliest  Australian  or  New  Zealand  bush  ; 
to  the  backwoods  and  remote  prairies  of  Canada  ;  to 
distant  South  African  gold  and  diamond  diggings, 
and  we  find  the  shelves  of  the  humblest  shop  filled 
with  the  products  of  the  looms  of  Yorkshire,  Lanca- 
shire, or  Paisley,  of  the  factories  everywhere  scattered 
throughout  the  United  Kingdom  where  the  vast 
inflow  of  raw  material  is  worked  up.  To  foreign 
countries,  as  well  as  to  those  inhabited  by  British 
people,  to  every  civilized  or  uncivilized  continent, 
district,  or  island,  however  remote,  these  manufactures 
penetrate,  and  must  continue  to  penetrate,  if  the  vast 
fabric  of  British  industry  is  to  be  maintained. 

Once  more,  the  figures  which  represent  the  annual 
aggregate  of  export  trade  are  immense  :  cotton  goods 
£70,000,000  ;  woollen  goods  £26,000,000 ;  iron  and 
steel  £28,000,000  ;  machinery  £13,000,000. 

Between  this  great  inflow  of  raw  material  and 
food,  and  the  equally  great  output  of  manufactured 
goods,  has  sprung  up  yet  another  prime  factor  in 
Britain's  industrial  position,  her  shipping  interests. 
She  has  become  by  far  the  greatest  of  ocean  carriers. 
It  is  not  merely  that  scores  of  millions  of  capital 
are  invested  in  ships  alone  ;  that  60  per  cent,  of  all 
the  steam  tonnage  of  the  world  and  a  large  propor- 
tion of  its  sailing  tonnage  are  under  the  British 
flag ;  that  tens  of  thousands  of  men  find  employ- 


no  IMPERIAL   FEDERATION.  [Cn.  IV 

ment  upon  the  seas,  and  tens  of  thousands  more  in 
the  immediate  handling  of  ships  and  their  cargoes 
around  British  harbours  and  docks.  The  mere  con- 
struction of  ships  and  their  equipment  for  this  vast 
carrying  trade  gives  an  impulse  to  almost  every  form 
of  British  industry.  The  shipyards  of  the  Clyde 
alone  turn  out  at  times  a  thousand  tons  or  more 
of  iron  or  steel  shipping  for  every  working  day  of 
the  year.  The  vast  aggregate  for  the  whole  country 
forms  a  large  element  in  the  industrial  life  of  the 
nation. 

Here,  then,  in  roughest  outline,  is  a  picture  of  the 
unique  position  which  the  British  Islands  hold  in  the 
world  to-day.  Let  us  remind  ourselves  once  more 
that  the  extreme  singularity  of  this  situation  has 
been  created  well  within  the  span  of  an  ordinary  life, 
for  the  sea-borne  commerce  of  the  United  Kingdom, 
which  to-day  has  an  annual  value  of  more  than 
£7 40,000,000,  was,  when  the  Queen  came  to  the 
throne  in  1837,  only  ,£155,000,000.  The  difference 
between  these  figures  fairly  measures  the  increased 
dependence  of  the  country  upon  its  imports,  exports, 
and  the  carrying  trade. 

Now  for  a  nation  existing  under  conditions  such  as 
have  been  described,  where  the  work  and  wages  and 
food  of  the  masses  of  the  people  depend  on  easy  and 
constant  access  to  the  remotest  corners  of  the  globe, 
it  seems  possible  to  indicate  what  must  be  the  end 
and  aim  of  national  policy — the  supreme  objects  of 
statesmanship.  Surely  the  first  object  must  be  to 


CH.  IV]  THE   UNITED   KINGDOM.  JTI 

secure  the  absolute  safety  for  trading  purposes  of  the 
water-ways  of  the  world. 

Maritime  security  Britain  is  bound  to  maintain  if 
she  is  to  retain  manufacturing  superiority.  The  only 
manufacturing  rival  which  seriously  threatens  her  is 
the  United  States.  It  is  a  friendly  rivalry,  and  should 
remain  such.  But  each  country,  with  what  advantages 
it  has,  will  play  relentlessly  for  its  own  hand,  and  for  the 
welfare,  real  or  supposed,  of  its  own  people.  Britain 
carries  on  the  contest  by  means  of  Free  Trade,  thereby 
cheapening  production,  and  winning  the  market  of  the 
world.  The  United  States  use  for  their  weapon  Pro- 
tection, stimulating  production  till  it  becomes  cheap. 
Britain  also,  under  this  opposing  condition,  depends 
for  food  and  material  on  the  outside  world — the  United 
States  have  the  food  and  most  of  the  material  within 
themselves.  The  first  serious  break  in  Britain's  power 
to  hold  the  waterways  of  the  world  would  place  her 
at  a  fatal  disadvantage.  Safe  in  a  continental  isola- 
tion the  United  States  could  supply  the  customers 
who  came  to  her  for  manufactured  goods  with  what 
they  wanted.  To  be  on  even  terms  Britain  must 
have  maritime  security,  and  this  she  could  not  have 
if  by  the  successive  cutting  away  of  her  great  out- 
lying offshoots  she  should  lose  control  of  those  points 
of  vantage  which  now  are  the  secret  of  her  supremacy 
quite  as  much  as  the  ships  which  she  sends  forth  from 
her  dockyards. 

Second  only  to  maritime  security  seems  to  me  the 
necessity  for  a  country  in  the  position  of  Great  Britain 


ii2  IMPERIAL   FEDERATION.  [Cn.  IV 

to  keep  as  far  as  possible  the  sources  from  which  she 
draws  her  food  and  raw  material  within  the  national 
domain. 

Great  Britain  has  had  at  least  one  sharp  reminder 
of  the  advantage  which  would  accrue  to  a  country  so 
dependent  as  she  is  on  the  outside  world  of  having 
the  areas  of  production  under  the  national  flag.  This 
reminder  was  one  which  gave  a  rough  shock  to  the 
generally  accepted  theory  that  if  the  consumer  wants 
to  buy  and  the  producer  wants  to  sell,  all  the  con- 
ditions for  satisfactory  commercial  intercourse  between 
countries  are  fulfilled  without  reference  to  national 
relationship.  In  1865  the  War  of  Secession  broke  out 
in  America,  and  the  ports  of  the  cotton-producing 
states  were  blockaded.  Millions  of  bales  of  cotton 
were  wasting  on  the  wharves  and  in  the  warehouses 
at  New  Orleans,  Charleston,  and  other  Southern  towns. 
On  the  other  hand,  in  Lancashire  millions  of  spindles 
were  idle,  and  vast  bodies  of  people  were  reduced  to 
extreme  need  or  thrown  for.  a  long  period  upon  the 
charity  of  the  benevolent  from  want  of  the  raw 
material  of  their  industry.  The  producers  certainly 
wished  to  sell,  the  consumers  to  purchase.  English 
manufacturers  had  money  with  which  to  buy — Eng- 
lish shippers  had  the  vessels  to  carry — the  English 
Government  had  the  men-of-war  which  could  easily 
have  forced  a  way  to  the  supplies  which  were  needed. 
Between  was  the  barrier  of  international  law  and 
national  honour,  which  forbid  a  neutral  nation  to 
interfere  with  belligerents.  The  barrier  was  respected, 


CH.  IV]  THE   UNITED   KINGDOM.  113 

and  England  passed  triumphantly  through  the  moral 
strain  involved  in  resisting  the  temptation  to  go  to  war 
for  an  industrial  end  alone.  The  lesson  to  be  learned 
from  such  an  example  appears  manifest.  The  reten- 
tion of  the  national  right  to  keep  open  the  communi- 
cation between  the  centre  of  consumption  and  the 
areas  of  supply  is  alike  desirable  for  the  industry  of  the 
one  and  of  the  other.  To  give  an  obvious  illustration. 
The  vast  woollen  industries  of  Yorkshire  are  supplied 
almost  exclusively  from  regions  now  within  the  Em- 
pire—  New  Zealand,  Australia,  India,  and  South 
Africa.  So  long  as  these  countries  remain  under  a 
common  British  flag  the  working  man  who  produces 
the  wool  and  the  working  man  who  spins  it  retain  the 
national  right  to  keep  their  industries  in  touch  with 
each  other :  the  moment  they  pass  out  from  under 
the  flag  that  right  is  given  up.  Great  Britain  would 
have  no  more  right  to  force  her  way  into  the  ports  of 
an  independent  Australia  or  New  Zealand,  blockaded 
by  a  German,  French,  or  Chinese  fleet,  than  she  had 
to  force  her  way  into  the  harbours  of  Louisiana  or 
South  Carolina.  The  neutral  flag  may  furnish  a  way 
of  escape  for  Britain's  industry  when  she  is  herself  in 
direct  conflict  with  another  power ;  it  gives  no  assist- 
ance when  a  nation  with  which  she  is  at  peace  chooses 
to  close  the  ports  of  a  country  from  which  she  draws 
her  food  or  the  material  of  her  industry.  The  reader 
will  find  that  the  illustration  is  a  far-reaching  one  if 
he  extends  it  to  the  whole  range  of  Britain's  wants 
either  for  supply  or  for  markets  for  her  manufactured 

I 


n4  IMPERIAL   FEDERATION. 

goods ;  and  to  the  whole  range  of  colonial  necessity 
for  a  market  for  their  staple  products,  and  a  supply 
of  what  they  do  not  produce. 

Still  more  significant  is  the  illustration  if  he  re- 
member that  as  regards  food  supply  the  Empire  might, 
in  an  emergency,  soon  become  entirely  independent 
of  foreign  countries,  while,  with  the  single  exception 
of  cotton,  we  could  tide  over  an  indefinite  period  even 
in  the  matter  of  raw  material  for  manufacture. 


CHAPTER  V. 

CANADA. 

WHEN  we  come  to  regard  our  question  from  the 
colonial  point  of  view  the  first  place  in  any  considera- 
tion must  obviously  be  given  to  Canada.  The 
national  problem  is  there  presented  to  us  in  a  crucial 
form.  The  growth  and  consolidation  of  the  Dominion 
have  done  more  than  anything  else  to  make  manifest 
the  anomalous  condition  of  the  Empire.  In  it  we  have  a 
colony  with  a  population  twice  as  large  as  the  United 
States  had  when  they  became  independent,  larger 
than  that  of  England  in  Elizabeth's  time,  or  than  that 
of  some  considerable  European  States  at  the  present 
day.  It  is  a  population  which  has  proved  itself  equal 
to  the  highest  duties  of  citizenship.  The  slowness  of 
earlier  growth  has  not  been  without  advantage,  since 
it  has  unquestionably  given  steadiness  and  maturity 
to  political  thought.  With  comparative  suddenness 
Canada  has  now  caught  the  inspiration  of  a  large 
national  life.  Vast  undertakings  in  the  direction  of 
material  progress  are  entered  upon  with  confidence 
and  executed  with  success.  On  political  lines  her 
people  have  been  the  first  to  prove  by  actual  experi- 

I  3 


IMPERIAL   FEDERATION.  [Cn.  V 

ment  on  a  large  scale  the  adaptability  of  a  federal 
system  to  British  methods  of  representative  and 
responsible  government.  Since  confederation  was 
entered  into  nearly  twenty-five  years  ago  self- 
reliance  has  become  the  key-note  of  Canadian  life 
and  has  produced  its  legitimate  and  ordinary  results. 
In  material  development,  in  political  organization, 
in  the  spirit  of  the  people,  the  Dominion  has  reached 
the  stage  looked  forward  to  by  early  thinkers  on 
colonial  problems  as  the  one  at  which  it  might 
reasonably  be  expected  to  assume  an  indepen- 
dent national  existence.  It  must  therefore  soon 
bring  to  the  test  the  theories  of  these  thinkers  as  to 
the  results  of  national  expansion. 

The  position  of  Canada  is  made  unique  among 
British  colonies  by  another  condition.  She  is  so 
placed  geographically  that  annexation  to  another 
kindred  state  is  a  manifestly  possible  alternative  to 
either  independence  or  continued  British  connection. 
Whether  independence,  annexation  to  the  United 
States,  or  a  closer  and  permanent  union  with  the 
Empire  is  most  consistent  with  the  honour  and 
interest  of  the  Canadian  people,  and  whether  the 
separation  of  Canada  from  the  Empire  is  a  matter 
of  indifference  to  the  British  nation  at  large,  are 
questions  to  be  here  discussed. 

Facts  of  geography,  facts  of  history,  and  questions  of 
trade  relations,  must  enter  chiefly  into  the  consideration. 

There  is  an  advantage  in  giving  the  first  place  to 
geography. 


CH.  V]  CANADA.  117 

A  glance  at  the  map  shows  the  relation  of  Canada 
to  the  Oceanic  Empire  of  which  it  now  forms  a  part. 
It  fronts  towards  Europe  on  the  Atlantic  and  towards 
Asia  on  the  Pacific.  On  both  oceans  it  gives  the 
finest  naval  positions  that  a  great  maritime  power 
could  desire,  and  the  only  positions  possible  for 
British  people  on  the  American  continent.  A  wonder- 
ful system  of  waterways  penetrates,  from  the  Atlantic 
frontage,  unto  the  very  heart  of  the  continent,  to 
prairies  which  are  the  greatest  undeveloped  wheat  area 
in  the  world,  lands  capable  of  supporting  a  large  popu- 
lation and  of  proved  capacity  to  yield  a  vast  surplus  of 
food  products.  The  trend  of  the  Great  Lakes  and  of 
the  St.  Lawrence  towards  the  point  which  gives  the 
shortest  sea  connection  with  Europe  indicates  the 
natural  direction  in  which  this  food  surplus  will  chiefly 
flow.  Should  the  still  open  question  of  the  summer 
navigation  of  Hudson's  Bay  by  grain  vessels  be  settled 
in  the  affirmative,  even  the  facilities  offered  by  the 
Great  Lakes  and  the  St.  Lawrence  for  cheap  transit 
would  be  eclipsed,  and  western  wheat  placed  on 
English  markets  at  a  rate  hitherto  unknown.  But 
this  is  a  contingency,  and  it  is  perhaps  better  to  confine 
the  attention  to  settled  facts. 

The  significance  of  Canada's  geographical  position, 
facing  and  commanding  the  two  great  northern  oceans 
at  the  points  nearest  to  the  opposite  continents  of 
Europe  and  Asia,  is  supplemented  by  geological  facts 
of  extreme  national  interest.  At  the  very  point  where 
the  Dominion  stretches  out  furthest  towards  Europe, 


u8  IMPERIAL   FEDERATION.  [Cn.  V 

and  where  the  maritime  provinces  furnish  open 
harbours  all  the  year  round,  we  find  in  Nova  Scotia 
and  Cape  Breton  inexhaustible  supplies  of  excellent 
coal.  The  coal  areas  of  this  region  are  the  only  sources 
of  supply  in  Eastern  America  northward  of  Pennsyl- 
vania, and  the  only  sources  directly  upon  the  eastern 
coast  of  the  continent,  where  they  seem  to  give  a  sin- 
gular advantage  for  both  transatlantic  and  transcon- 
tinental trade.  Crossing  now  the  3800  miles  which 
measure  the  breadth  of  the  continent,  we  come  to  the 
Pacific  coast,  and  the  excellent  harbours  with  which  it 
also  is  everywhere  indented.  The  importance  to  the 
Empire  of  these  harbours  is  manifest,  since  they  are 
the  only  ports  under  the  British  flag  on  the  whole 
Pacific  coast  of  America  from  Cape  Horn  to  the 
Behring  Sea,  the  only  base  of  naval  supply,  the  only 
means  the  Empire  has  of  matching  the  Russian  depot 
Vladivostock  (soon  to  be  in  direct  connection  with 
St.  Petersburg  itself),  over  which  they  have  the  great 
advantage  of  being  open  all  the  year  round.  They 
furnish  the  base  from  which  the  trade  of  the  North 
Pacific  is,  and  must  be,  protected.  For  the  defence 
and  prosecution  of  trade,  still  more  important  than 
the  harbours  themselves  is  the  fact  that  in  the  Island 
of  Vancouver,  where  Canada  stretches  out  so  as  to 
give  the  shortest  route  to  Japan  and  China,  we  have 
again  an  abundance  of  coal.  The  importance  of  these 
deposits  is  enhanced  by  the  circumstance  that  all 
other  coal  found  on  the  Pacific  coast  from  Cape  Horn 
northward  to  Puget  Sound  is  of  an  inferior  quality, 


CH.  V]  CANADA.  119 

and  limited  in  quantity.  San  Francisco  itself  obtains 
a  large  part  of  its  coal  from  Vancouver  Island  in  the 
north,  or  from  the  British  colony  of  New  South  Wales 
on  the  other  side  of  the  Pacific. 

Looking  East  and  West,  then,  the  Dominion  has 
its  maritime  position  confirmed  by  its  supplies  of 
coal.  This  is  not  all.  Deposits  extending  over 
thousands  of  square  miles  have  been  discovered 
midway  in  the  great  prairie  region,  at  once  solving 
the  fuel  problem  for  a  treeless  country  and  supplying 
the  force  that  carries  trade  and  population  across  the 
continent.  Later  discoveries  in  the  Rocky  Mountains 
indicate  the  presence  there  of  an  anthracite  coal 
peculiarly  adapted  to  naval  use,  and  likely  to  supply 
our  ships  in  the  Pacific  with  fuel  of  a  quality  equal 
to  any  that  British  mines  can  furnish. 

The  facts  of  Canada's  maritime  position  thus 
broadly  stated  will,  I  think,  leave  on  most  minds 
the  impression  that  should  the  country  pass  under  a 
foreign  flag,  so  that  British  ships  could  claim  only 
the  rights  of  aliens  in  the  harbours  of  the  Atlantic 
and  Pacific,  or  even  under  an  independent  flag,  when 
they  could  enjoy  only  the  rights  of  neutrals,  the 
change  would  mean  a  complete  revolution  in  the 
conditions  under  which  British  commerce  is  pro- 
tected, and  the  influence  of  the  nation  maintained  on 
the  two  oceans. 

There  is,  again,  a  military  as  well  as  a  naval  aspect 
from  which  to  regard  Canada's  geographical  relation 
to  the  Empire. 


120  IMPERIAL   FEDERATION.  [Cn.  V 

The  energy  of  the  Canadian  people  has  within  a 
few  years  linked  together  the  Pacific  and  Atlantic 
frontages  of  the  Dominion  by  a  great  railway 
system.  The  new  line  has  the  advantage  of  being 
shorter  than  any  other  transcontinental  route,  and 
crosses  the  Rocky  Mountains  at  a  level  1500  feet  be- 
low any  line  further  south.  The  anticipated  obstacle 
of  snow  blockade  in  the  mountain  district  has  been 
effectually  overcome  ;  in  the  Eastern  or  Intercolonial 
section,  where  alone  this  difficulty  recurs  from  drifting 
snow,  it  is  being  reduced  to  a  minimum.  Practically 
it  now  amounts  to  the  possibility  of  one  or  two  days' 
delay  twice  or  thrice  during  the  winter  months,  and 
apparently  even  this  might  be  obviated  by  the  more 
liberal  use  of  snow-sheds.  A  winter  often  passes 
without  any  obstruction  worth  mentioning.  The  line 
is  unquestionably  the  most  effective  among  those 
which  cross  the  American  continent.  It  has  enabled 
English  letters  to  reach  Japan  in  twenty-one  days 
instead  of  the  forty  required  by  the  old  routes.  Mili- 
tary authorities  pronounce  it  a  valuable  addition  to 
the  Empire's  means  of  communication  with  the  East. 
Its  climatic  advantage  over  the  Cape  of  Good  Hope 
and  Suez  Canal  routes  at  some  seasons  of  the  year 
may  yet  add  strength  to  its  other  recommendations. 
Compared  with  these  routes  it  is  also  the  safest,  since 
furthest  removed  from  the  possibility  of  European 
attack.  Of  its  military  efficiency  there  can  be  no 
reasonable  doubt.  The  manager  of  the  Canada  Pacific 
Railway  told  me  that  his  company  had  made  repre- 


CH.  V]  CANADA.  121 

sentations  to  the  Imperial  Government  that  it  would 
undertake  to  transport  men  in  blocks  of  5000  from 
troop-ships  at  Halifax  to  troop-ships  at  Vancouver 
within  seven  days.  His  statement  is  justified  by  the 
fact  that  a  single  train  has  already  carried  600  marines 
and  blue-jackets  with  their  officers  from  the  Pacific  to 
the  Atlantic  within  that  time.  Such  trains  can  be 
indefinitely  multiplied.  Thus  a  squadron  at  Van- 
couver could  be  reinforced  from  Portsmouth  in  about 
a  fortnight  by  this  route,  a  squadron  in  the  China 
Seas  in  a  little  more  than  three  weeks.  A  fifty  days' 
voyage  in  the  first  case  by  Cape  Horn,  a  forty  days' 
voyage  in  the  latter  by  the  Suez  Canal,  has  hitherto 
been  the  rule.  Such  facts  illustrate  the  greatness  of 
the  changes  which  are  taking  place  in  the  conditions 
of  our  naval  defence.  The  swift  steamships  which 
complete  the  Eastern  connection  are  constructed  for 
immediate  transformation  in  case  of  necessity  into 
armed  cruisers  for  the  transport  of  troops  and  for 
the  protection  of  the  commerce  which  they  are 
themselves  creating.  Supplemented  by  ships  of  a 
corresponding  character  on  the  Atlantic,  such  a 
route  might  in  a  national  emergency  prove  an 
immense  addition  to  the  military  resources  of  the 
Empire,  and  especially  for  the  defence  of  India.  The 
mere  fact  of  its  existence  adds  to  the  nation's  military 
prestige,  and  the  consequent  hesitation  of  any  other 
power  in  making  attack. 

A  word  should  be  added  about  Canada's  geogra- 
phical   relation    to    the   telegraphic   system    of    the 


122  IMPERIAL   FEDERATION.  [Cn.  V 

Empire.  The  existing  lines  of  communication  between 
the  United  Kingdom  and  the  Australasian  colonies 
and  India  have  never  yet  been  tested  by  the  chances 
of  a  European  war.  In  all  cases  they  pass  over 
foreign  countries  or  through  shallow  seas  whence 
they  could  be  easily  fished  up  and  cut.  What  an 
entire  break  of  this  connection  would  mean  in  the 
commercial  world  may  be  judged  from  the  fact  that 
even  now  more  than  a  thousand  pounds  a  day  are 
spent  on  cablegrams  between  Britain  and  the  Austra- 
lasian colonies  alone. 

What  it  would  mean  in  the  emergencies  of  war 
may  be  left  to  the  imagination.  The  panic  caused  in 
Australia  a  few  years  since  by  an  accidental  break  in 
the  line  at  a  time  when  war  with  Russia  seemed 
imminent  clearly  proved  the  importance  of  the 
question. 

These  considerations  sufficiently  indicate  the  im- 
mense advantage  and  greater  security  which  would 
come  from  an  alternative  route  across  Canada.  The 
case  was  clearly  stated  by  Mr.  Sandford  Fleming,  the 
distinguished  Canadian  engineer,  in  an  address  to 
the  Colonial  Conference  of  1887,  to  which  he  was  a 
delegate :  '  The  western  terminus  of  the  Canadian 
Pacific  Railway — Vancouver — is  in  telegraphic  com- 
munication with  London.  Communications  have 
passed  between  London  and  Vancouver,  and  replies 
returned  within  a  few  minutes.  From  Vancouver 
cables  may  be  laid  to  Australasia  by  way  of  Hawaii 
or  they  may  be  laid  from  one  British  island  to 


CH.  V]  CANADA.  123 

another,  and  thus  bring  New  Zealand  and  all  the 
Australasian  colonies  directly  into  telegraphic  con- 
nection with  Great  Britain,  without  passing  over  any 
soil  which  is  not  British,  and  by  passing  only  through 
seas  as  remote  as  possible  from  any  difficulties  which 
may  arise  in  Europe. 

(  Again,  India  can  be  reached  from  Australasia  by 
the  lines  of  the  Eastern  Telegraphic  Company;  South 
Africa  can  be  reached  through  the  medium  of  the 
Eastern  and  South  African  Company :  and  thus,  by 
supplying  the  one  link  wanting,  the  Home  Govern- 
ment will  have  the  means  provided  to  telegraph  to 
every  important  British  colony  and  dependency 
around  the  circumference  of  the  globe,  without 
approaching  Europe  at  any  point.' 

The  advantages,  commercial  and  military,  of  a  line 
of  communication  thus  isolated  and  national,  as  com- 
pared with  those  which  pass  through  or  near  the 
political  storm-centres  of  Europe,  are  too  obvious 
to  require  elaboration.  Since  1887  a  survey  of  this 
route  has  been  going  on,  though  far  too  slowly, 
under  the  direction  of  the  Admiralty ;  groups 
of  islands  useful  for  operating  the  line  have  been 
annexed,  and  the  laying  of  the  cable  seems  only  to 
depend  on  a  more  general  recognition  of  its  national 
necessity. 

What  has  now  been  said  indicates  roughly  Canada's 
geographical  relation  to  the  question  of  a  united 
oceanic  empire,  of  which  she  may  fairly  be  regarded 
as  the  key-stone.  What  is  next  to  be  considered  is 


1 24  IMPERIAL   FEDERATION.  [CH.  V 

her  relation  to  the  great  state  which  lies  along  her 
southern  border,  and  which  divides  with  her  about 
equally  the  bulk  of  the  North  American  continent. 
Here  our  study  of  the  map  must  go  hand  in  hand 
with  the  study  of  Canadian  history. 

A  series  of  great  lakes  and  rivers,  and,  for  the  rest, 
astronomical  or  arbitrary  boundary  lines,  constitute 
the  only  geographical  divisions  between  the  United 
States  and  Canada.  The  political  and  moral  line  of 
separation  is  due  to  the  fact  that  more  than  a 
century  ago  the  colonies  which  formed  the  germ  of 
the  United  States  revolted  and  threw  off  their  con- 
nection with  Great  Britain  ;  those  which  formed  the 
nucleus  of  Canada  elected  to  remain  united  with  the 
mother-land  and  to  work  out  their  political  destiny 
in  accordance  with  British  institutions. 

The  geographical  boundary,  like  those  which  divide 
many  other  nations,  seems  indefinite  and  artificial 
to  the  mere  student  of  maps  ;  it  has  been  engraved 
deeply  enough  in  the  hearts  of  Canadian  people. 
It  had  to  be  defended  in  1775,  and  once  more  in  the 
war  of  1812,  at  much  expense  of  life  and  treasure. 
Crossing  it  in  1783  and  succeeding  years,  the  per- 
secuted Loyalists  of  the  American  Revolution  found 
safety  and  freedom  under  the  British  flag l.  Again  it 

1  '  Mob  violence  and  many  forms  of  injustice,  made  life  almost 
intolerable  for  them  in  their  homes,  and  emigration  to  British  terri- 
tory took  place  on  a  scale  which  has  been  hardly  paralleled  since  the 
Huguenots.  It  has  been  estimated,  apparently  on  good  authority, 
that  in  the  two  provinces  of  Nova  Scotia  and  New  Brunswick  alone, 
the  Loyalist  emigrants  and  their  families  amounted  to  not  less  than 


CH.V]  CANADA.  125 

had  to  be  defended  from  the  Fenians  organized  in 
1866  on  American  soil.  Fishing  disputes  and  bound- 
ary disputes,  embittered  by  Canadian  dissatisfac- 
tion with  the  methods  of  American  diplomacy, 
have  kept  attention  fixed  upon  the  line  of  national 
demarcation.  Still  more  sharply  has  it  been  defined 
by  national  habits  of  thought.  South  of  the  line, 
for  at  least  three-quarters  of  a  century  after  the 
Revolution,  on  a  thousand  fourth  of  July  platforms 
dislike  and  hatred  of  all  things  British  have  been 
studiously  inculcated.  Even  now  an  appeal  to  anti- 
British  feeling  may  decide  the  fate  of  a  Presidential 
election,  and  has  been  the  winning  trick  of  party 
politics.  North  of  the  line,  at  every  public  gathering 
and  on  every  public  holiday  up  to  the  present  moment, 
loyalty  to  the  British  nationality  for  which  such 
sacrifices  were  made,  and  allegiance  to  institutions 
which  have  borne  thoroughly  the  test  of  application 
in  a  new  country,  are  recognized  as  of  the  very 
essence  of  the  popular  life.  The  mere  suspicion 
that  these  principles  were  being  trifled  with  by  a 
few  erratic  and  irresponsible  members  of  a  great  and 
otherwise  perfectly  loyal  political  party  has  excluded 
that  party  from  power  for  a  period  almost  beyond 
the  limit  of  political  experience  in  British  countries. 
It  is  scarcely  possible  to  imagine  conditions  under 
which  communities  kindred  in  race,  language,  and 

35,000  persons,  and  the  total  number  of  refugees  cannot  have  been 
much  less  than  100,000.' — Jones'  '  History  of  New  York,'  ii.  259, 
268,  500,  509.  An  American  authority  quoted  by  Mr.  Lecky. 


126  IMPERIAL   FEDERATION.  [Cn.  V 

literature  could  have  had  a  more  decisive  and  di- 
vergent bias  given  to  their  history,  to  national 
traditions  and  enthusiasms,  to  everything  that  lies 
at  the  roots  of  individual  political  life.  They 
have  prevailed  decisively  against  contiguity,  against 
commercial  intercourse,  social  intercourse,  literary 
intercourse,  against  a  considerable  interchange  of 
population.  Those  who  know  best  the  passions 
which  control  the  popular  mind  in  Canada  are 
fixed  in  the  belief  that  the  retention  of  a  political 
individuality  independent  of  the  United  States  has 
become  the  touchstone  of  Canadian  national  honour. 

To  understand  why  this  is  so  we  must  recall  and 
account  for  one  primary  fact,  remarkable  enough  in 
itself  and  probably  unique  in  history.  We  can  easily 
understand  that  it  requires  no  very  marked  natural 
boundary  to  form  the  line  of  division  between  nations 
which  differ  in  language,  religion,  and  descent,  as  in 
the  case  of  European  states.  But  in  America  we  see 
that  an  almost  purely  artificial  line  of  division  has 
for  more  than  a  century  been  drawn  across  the 
breadth  of  a  continent,  and  between  two  peoples 
who  speak  the  same  language,  study  the  same 
literature,  and  are  without  any  decisive  distinctions 
of  religious  creed.  There  has  been  a  great  drawing 
together  between  the  United  States  and  Canada, 
as  between  England  and  Canada,  during  the  last 
twenty-five  years,  but  it  is  no  greater  in  the  one 
case  than  the  other,  and  proceeds  on  social  and 
literary,  not  on  political  lines.  Evidently  there 


CH.  V]  CANADA.  127 

is  in  addition  to  the  geographical  line  some  funda- 
mental principle  or  fact  which  separates  the  two 
countries. 

The  same  profound  national  convulsion  which  gave 
birth  to  the  United  States  gave  birth  to  the  real 
life  of  Canada  as  well.  As  much  principle  and  as 
much  self-sacrifice  were  involved  in  the  act  of  the 
Loyalists  who  gave  to  British  Canada  its  peculiar 
character  as  in  the  struggles  of  the  Revolutionists 
who  founded  the  American  Union.  For  what  he 
believed  a  great  principle,  the  Revolutionist  broke 
down  an  old  loyalty,  cut  his  ties  with  the  past,  and 
engaged  in  the  battle  for  independence.  The  Loyalist, 
on  the  other  hand,  with  an  abiding  faith  in  the  in- 
stitutions of  his  mother-land,  not  to  be  shaken  by  the 
single  mistake  of  a  king,  a  minister,  or  a  parliament, 
elected  to  stand  by  the  losing  side,  to  depend  upon 
constitutional  agitation  to  secure  the  full  political 
liberty  he  too  desired,  and  so  sacrificed  his  all  to 
retain  his  connection  with  the  past,  and  came  to 
Canada.  No  victory  that  Britain  ever  won  by  land 
or  sea  is  more  worthy  to  be  blazoned  on  the  pages 
of  her  history  than  the  loyal  devotion  of  that  great 
body  of  men  and  women,  who,  refusing  to  abjure 
their  ancient  allegiance,  after  the  Revolutionary  war, 
gave  up  their  homes,  their  professions,  and  all  that 
made  life  comfortable,  crossed  over  into  what  was 
then  a  forest  wilderness,  and  built  up  those  Canadian 
provinces  which  have  since  grown  into  a  great  British 
confederation. 


128  IMPERIAL   FEDERATION.  [Cn.  V 

Who  will  venture  to  say  that  the  faith  of  the 
Loyalist  has  not  been  as  fully  justified  as  that  of 
the  Revolutionist?  American  institutions  have  not 
developed  any  higher  forms  of  political  or  religious 
freedom  than  those  which  are  found  in  Canada  and 
in  other  colonies  of  the  Empire  to-day  under  British 
institutions.  They  have  not  produced  a  higher 
tone  of  public  morals  or  a  greater  purity  of  social 
life.  They  have  not  even  diminished  the  risk  of 
great  national  convulsion.  They  have  not  made 
impossible  the  oppression  or  abuse  of  inferior  races, 
black,  red,  or  yellow.  They  have  not  rendered 
statesmanship  more  noble  and  unselfish,  justice  more 
incorruptible,  human  life  more  sacred,  domestic  ties 
more  holy,  the  people  more  God-fearing.  I  do  not 
believe  that  there  is  a  Canadian  from  one  end  of 
the  Dominion  to  the  other  who  honestly  believes 
that  American  institutions  have  equalled,  much  less 
surpassed,  his  own  in  any  one  of  these  particulars. 
If  these  are  the  things  which  ennoble  a  nation — if 
these  are  marks  of  true  success — the  descendants  of 
the  Loyalists  have  no  reason  to  regret  the  choice 
which  their  ancestors  made  at  the  time  of  the 
Revolutionary  war. 

The  strain  under  which  that  choice  was  made,  and 
the  courageous  loyalty  which  inspired  it,  have  never 
had  the  recognition  throughout  the  Empire  which 
they  deserved.  One  English  historian,  howrever,  has 
done  justice  to  the  United  Empire  Loyalists.  Mr. 
Lecky  says :  *  There  were  brave  and  honest  men 


CH.  V]  CANADA.  129 

in  America,  who  were  proud  of  the  great  and  free 
Empire  to  which  they  belonged,  who  had  no  desire 
to  shrink  from  the  burden  of  maintaining  it,  who 
remembered  with  gratitude  all  the  English  blood 
that  had  been  shed  around  Quebec  and  Montreal, 
and  who,  with  nothing  to  hope  for  from  the  Crown, 
were  prepared  to  face  the  most  brutal  mob  violence, 
and  the  invectives  of  a  scurrilous  press,  to  risk  their 
fortunes,  their  reputations,  and  sometimes  even  their 
lives,  in  order  to  avert  civil  war  and  ultimate  separ- 
ation. Most  of  them  ended  their  days  in  poverty 
and  exile,  and,  as  the  supporters  of  a  beaten  cause, 
history  has  paid  but  a  scanty  tribute  to  their  memory, 
but  they  comprised  some  of  the  best  and  ablest  men 
America  has  ever  produced,  and  they  were  contending 
for  an  ideal  which  was,  at  least,  as  worthy  as  that 
for  which  Washington  had  fought.' 

That  ideal  was  the  conception  of  a  United  Empire. 

How  profoundly  this  great  Loyalist  tradition,  rein- 
forced as  it  has  been  by  many  other  considerations 
and  circumstances,  has  affected  Canadian  life,  can 
be  gauged  only  by  the  actual  state  of  Canadian 
feeling.  Mr.  Goldwin  Smith  has  spared  no  endeavour 
to  prove  that  the  assimilation  of  Canadian  and 
American  sentiment  is  well-nigh  complete.  Let 
us,  instead  of  consulting  his  imaginative  statements, 
study  the  actual  and  quite  recent  expressions  of  repre- 
sentative public  men  and  bodies. 

Commencing  in  Eastern  Canada,  we  find  Attorney- 
General  Longley,  of  Nova  Scotia,  a  pronounced 

K 


130  IMPERIAL   FEDERATION.  [Cn.  V 

opponent  of  the  present  Dominion  Government,  who 
in  past  times  has  seemed  to  approach  very  nearly 
to  the  advocacy  of  annexation,  now  writing  in  the 
Fortnightly  for  March,  1891  :  'There  is  still  a  deep- 
seated  objection  in  the  minds  of  a  large  majority  of 
the  people  of  Canada  to  union  with  the  United 
States.  It  may  be  unphilosophical,  it  may  be  ir- 
rational, but  it  exists.  ...  It  is  not  very  easy  to  blot 
out  a  century  of  history  in  a  day,  and  the  record  of 
the  past  hundred  years  has  had  a  constant  tendency 
to  confirm  British  Americans  in  their  devotion  to 
British  as  agai.nst  American  interests  .  .  .  .  It  is  simply 
not  a  practical  solution  of  the  future  of  Canada  to 
suggest  political  union  with  the  United  States, 
because  the  preponderating  majority  of  the  people 
will  not  hear  of  it.  Time  is  the  great  miracle  worker 
and  may  change  all  this  ;  but  we  must  speak  of  things 
as  they  are.  No  material  considerations  will  induce 
the  Canadian  people  at  present  to  accept  political 
union  with  the  United  States.' 

Archbishop  O'Brien;  also  a  Nova  Scotian,  and  the 
most  representative  and  influential  Roman  Catholic 
of  Eastern  Canada,  has  in  many  public  utterances 
expressed  his  conviction  that  annexation  to  the 
United  States  would  involve  for  Canada  moral 
damage  and  political  degradation. 

New  Brunswick,  out  of  its  sixteen  Parliamentary 
representatives,  had  in  the  last  Parliament  one  whose 
attitude  was  ambiguous,  since  as  an  editor  he  seemed 
to  advocate,  as  a  politician  he  abjured,  the  idea  of 


CH.  V]  CANADA.  131 

annexation.  Journalistic  ability  of  a  high  order  and 
the  fact  that  he  represented  a  commercial  constituency 
having  closer  trade  connection  with  the  New  England 
ports  than  any  other  Canadian  town  made  tenable 
for  a  time  this  anomalous  position.  A  decisive  vote 
in  the  last  election  left  him  out  of  public  life,  and 
thus  deprived  Mr.  Goldwin  Smith  of  perhaps  the 
only  illustration  of  his  claim  that  the  advocacy  of 
annexation  does  not  exclude  from  the  Dominion 
Parliament. 

Passing  on  to  Quebec  we  find  Mr.  Mercier,  till 
lately  the  local  French  Canadian  leader,  hastening  to 
supplement,  as  he  not  long  since  did  in  Paris  to  a 
Times  correspondent,  an  expression  of  opposition  to 
Imperial  Federation  by  the  statement  that  there  is 
'  no  party  in  Canada  ....  in  favour  of  annexation 
to  the  United  States.'  In  Ontario  we  find  Mr. 
Blake,  the  strongest  man  of  the  Liberal  party,  with- 
drawing from  public  life  because  he  thought  he 
discovered,  in  the  policy  of  his  political  friends, 
a  tendency  towards  annexation.  This,  at  least, 
is  the  interpretation  which  suggests  itself  to  the 
ordinary  reader  of  his  published  explanation.  The 
repudiation  of  any  desire  for  annexation  was  general, 
vehement,  and  doubtless  sincere,  on  the  part  of  the 
more  conspicuous  Liberal  leaders  against  whom  it 
had  been  charged. 

Mr.  Mowat,  the  Liberal  Premier  of  Ontario,  has 
lately  written  a  letter  for  publication,  in  which  he 
says :  '  There  are  in  most  counties  a  few  annexa- 

K  2 


132  IMPERIAL   FEDERATION.  [CH.  V 

tionists,  in  some  counties  more  than  in  others ;  but 
the  aggregate  in  the  Dominion,  I  am  sure,  is  small 
when  compared  with  the  aggregate  population.  The 
great  majority  of  our  people,  I  believe  and  trust,  are 
not  prepared  to  hand  over  this  great  Dominion  to  a 
foreign  nation  for  any  present  commercial  consider- 
ation which  may  be  proposed.  We  love  our  Sovereign 
and  are  proud  of  our  status  as  British  subjects.  The 
Imperial  authorities  have  refused  nothing  in  the  way 
of  self-government  which  our  representatives  have 
asked  for.  .  .  .  To  the  United  States  and  its  people 
we  are  all  most  friendly.  We  recognize  the  advan- 
tages which  would  go  to  both  them  and  us  from 
extended  trade  relations,  and  we  are  willing  to  go  as 
far  in  that  direction  as  shall  not  involve,  now  or  in 
the  future,  political  union  ;  but  there  Canadians  of 
every  party  have  hitherto  drawn  the  line  ....  North 
America  is  amply  large  enough  for  two  independent 
nations,  and  two  friendly  nations  would  be  better  for 
both  populations  than  one  nation  embracing  the  whole 
continent.'  In  another  formal  statement  of  the  policy 
of  the  Liberal  party  in  Canada,  Mr.  Mowat  has  said  : 
'  We  are  as  much  attached  to  our  nation  as  the 
people  of  the  United  States  are  to  theirs.  The 
attachment  to  their  nation  does  our  neighbours 
honour,  and  intelligent  men  amongst  them  cannot 
regard  otherwise  our  attachment  to  our  nation.  As 
no  commercial,  or  other  material  advantage,  real  or 
supposed,  would  induce  the  people  of  the  United 
States  to  change  their  allegiance,  so  neither,  I  hope, 


CH.  V]  CANADA.  133 

will  the  prospect  of  some  material  advantage  induce 
Canadians  to  change  their  allegiance  to  the  Empire. 
....  For  the  Liberal  party  or  any  important  section 
of  it  to  favour  political  union  with  the  United  States 
would  be  death  to  all  hope  of  Liberal  ascendancy  in 
the  Councils  of  the  Dominion.' 

Going  still  further  West  to  the  prairie  regions  and 
British  Columbia,  hitherto  relied  upon  by  Mr.  Goldwin 
Smith  for  producing  a  population  free  from  the 
political  traditions  and  prejudices  of  the  East,  we  find 
a  compact  vote  recorded  for  a  Government  which 
makes  the  maintenance  of  British  connection  the 
corner-stone  of  its  policy,  and  a  chief  ground  of 
appeal  to  the  constituencies. 

Lastly,  we  come  back  to  the  Dominion  Parliament 
itself.  There,  in  1890,  Liberal  and  Conservative, 
Frenchman  and  Englishman  alike,  by  an  absolutely 
unanimous  vote,  given  with  the  avowed  object  of 
silencing  discussion  upon  the  point,  united  in  de- 
claring their  unwavering  faith  in  the  advantage  foi 
Canada  of  its  existing  national  connection.  Mr. 
Smith  claims  that  geography  is  too  strong  for 
national  sentiment,  but  these  are  the  hard  facts  which 
he  has  to  confront  in  Canada  at  the  end  of  more  than 
a  century  of  her  separate  existence.  Evidence  could 
scarcely  be  more  conclusive  that  the  main  facts  are 
those  to  which  he  resolutely  shuts  his  eyes. 

The  expressions  which  I  have  given  are  those  of 
moderate  and  distinctly  representative  men,  but  there 
is  a  deeper  passion  which  must  be  taken  into  account. 


134  IMPERIAL   FEDERATION.  [Cn.  V 

Could  annexation  under  any  circumstances  be 
effected  peacefully  and  at  the  ballot-box  ?  I  doubt  it. 
If  a  day  should  ever  come  when  a  bare  majority  of 
Canadians  voted  for  annexation,  would  such  a  decision 
be  accepted  by  the  minority  ?  To  many  it  would  mean 
Revolution  and  would  be  treated  as  such.  It  must 
be  remembered  that  nationality  is  based  on  feelings 
which  often  lie  too  deep  for  mere  argument  or 
discussion.  In  all  ages  of  the  world  it  has  been  a 
fighting  issue,  a  question  on  which  minorities  yielded 
only  on  compulsion.  Against  mere  numbers,  more- 
over, intensity  of  passion  and  depth  of  conviction 
weigh  heavily.  I  have  never  heard  the  question 
openly  discussed,  and  express  an  opinion  upon  it  with 
some  diffidence,  but  to  me  it  seems  certain  that  only 
coercion  would  make  a  very  large  and  influential 
section  of  Canadian  population  submit  to  the  changes 
which  annexation  would  involve.  And  I  think  such 
a  minority  would  be  justified  in  the  eyes  of  all  who 
place  honour  and  devotion  to  lofty  national  tradition 
before  material  gain. 

Living  close  to  the  United  States,  Canadians  can 
see  many  practical  reasons,  outside  of  sentimental 
ones,  why  they  should  not  commit  the  fortunes  of 
their  country  to  an  alliance  with  those  of  the  great 
republic.  Assuming  commercial  advantage,  the 
political  objections  might  well  seem  decisive  as  a 
counterbalance.  The  price  which  the  States  have  to 
pay  for  their  wonderful  career  of  prosperity  is  not  yet 
clear.  The  amazing  flood  of  immigration  with  which 


CH.  V]  CANADA.  135 

it  has  been  attended  is  steadily  diluting  the  Anglo- 
Saxon  element  and  diminishing  the  relative  influence 
of  the  native  American.  A  well-known  Mayor  of 
Chicago  not  long  since  outlined  for  me  the  elements 
of  the  population  over  which  his  municipal  rule 
extended.  The  analysis  would  form  a  curious  study 
for  those  who  would  forecast  the  American  type  of 
the  next  century.  A  recent  event  has  revealed  the 
fact  that  America's  population  includes  a  great  mass 
of  Italians,  little  in  sympathy  with  the  institutions 
under  which  they  live,  and  reinforced  by  emigrants 
who  crowd  every  steamer  that  leaves  the  Mediter- 
ranean to  cross  the  Atlantic. 

I  lately  heard  a  representative  American  writer  and 
thinker  in  England  say  that  in  his  judgment  the 
Irish  question  was  becoming  a  more  disturbing  factor 
in  American  politics  and  a  more  difficult  one  to  deal 
with,  than  it  has  been  for  Great  Britain.  Of  the 
value  of  this  sincerely  held  opinion  an  outsider  cannot 
perhaps  form  a  just  estimate,  but  we  know  that  a  split 
in  Tammany  may  practically  decide  a  Presidential 
election,  and  a  Canadian  may  fairly  think  that  any 
problem  of  race  or  creed  with  which  he  has  to  deal  is 
not  more  perplexing. 

There  still  remains  the  race  issue  in  the  South. 
The  war  of  Secession  settled  the  slavery  question  :  it 
left  the  negro  question  as  a  dead  weight  upon  the 
future.  Thoughtful  Americans  themselves  are  among 
the  first  to  confess  that  they  have  not  yet  seriously 
attempted  to  grapple  with  it.  In  the  first  outburst 


136  IMPERIAL  FEDERATION.  [Cn.  V 

of  generosity,  or  as  a  move  in  the  game  of  party 
politics,  the  franchise  was  given  along  with  liberty, 
and  the  result  no  one  as  yet  foresees.  Clearly  the 
country  has  to  face  the  prospect  of  a  steadily 
consolidating  zone  of  black  population  stretching 
far  across  the  continent.  Should  the  Dominion  be 
annexed  to  the  United  States  all  the  voting  weight 
of  Canada  within  the  union  would  for  a  generation  to 
come  scarcely  balance  this  single  negro  element  of 
America's  population,  supposing  that,  in  accordance 
with  Canadian  ideas  of  political  justice,  the  negroes 
should  be  allowed  (as  they  are  not  now)  to  exercise 
their  legal  right. 

The  violence  and  insecurity  of  life  which  have 
marked  the  settlement  of  the  West,  and  still  prevail 
over  whole  States  in  the  South,  are  unknown  in 
Canada.  People  ask  why  lynch  law,  as  little  known 
in  new  British  countries  like  Canada,  New  Zealand, 
Australia,  and  South  Africa,  as  it  is  in  Britain  itself,  is 
still  a  common  phenomenon  in  the  administration  of 
American  justice.  Canada  has  managed  a  large 
Indian  population  with  little  serious  difficulty  ;  her 
neighbours  during  the  same  years  have  been  engaged 
in  a  series  of  wars  of  extermination,  apparently  the 
outcome  for  the  most  part  of  maladministration  in 
Indian  affairs.  The  confusion  of  marriage  and  divorce 
laws  throughout  the  various  states  has  become  a 
serious  evil,  for  which  no  remedy  has  yet  been  de- 
vised. If  Canadians  have  sometimes  to  wrestle  with 
political  corruption,  they  at  least  do  so  resolutely  and 


CH.  V]  CANADA.  137 

effectively,  while  there  is  a  widespread  belief  that 
among  their  neighbours  it  is  a  permanent  and  accepted 
factor  in  party  government. 

These  points  are  not  dwelt  upon  in  a  spirit  of  petty 
criticism,  but  it  seems  fair  to  mention  them  as  facts 
which  influence  powerfully  Canadian  judgment  in 
forming  an  opinion  on  the  comparative  merits  of  the 
political  systems  which  they  see  working  side  by  side. 

One  other  consideration  beyond  that  of  commercial 
advantage  has  often  been  thrust  upon  Canadians  as 
a  reason  why  they  should  seek  annexation.  They  are 
told  that  so  long  as  they  remain  politically  connected 
with  Britain  they  will  be  exposed  to  the  chances  of 
war  with  the  United  States,  since  the  Dominion  would 
naturally  be  made  the  first  point  of  attack  should 
differences  arise  between  the  two  countries.  It  is 
urged  that  resistance  to  such  an  attack  would  be  use- 
less and  absurd,  and  that  Canada's  only  guarantee  of 
safety  from  future  subjugation  and  the  military  occu- 
pation of  the  country  is  to  form  as  quickly  as  she  can 
and  on  the  best  terms  she  can,  a  civil  union  with  the 
power  that  thus  threatens  her. 

If  the  appeal  to  mere  commercial  advantage  seemed 
mercenary,  this  appeal  to  cowardice  seems  base.  Cer- 
tainly it  is  one  which  has  never  made  any  impression 
on  the  Canadian  mind.  Perhaps  this  is  mere  reckless- 
ness. It  might  be  argued,  however,  that  4000  miles 
of  frontier  are  as  perplexing  for  attack  as  for  defence. 
Canadians  remember  that  in  1812  they  successfully 
faced  a  corresponding  danger  when  the  odds  were  as 


138  IMPERIAL   FEDERATION.  [CH.  V 

much  against  them,  and  numbers  as  disproportionate, 
as  they  are  to-day.  They  remember  that  to  crush 
the  Southern  States,  fighting  without  outside  help, 
required  the  most  expensive  and  destructive  war  of 
modern  times,  prolonged  over  renewed  campaigns. 
They  know  at  any  rate  that  the  task  of  subduing  them 
is  one  which  would  not  be  lightly  undertaken.  But 
picture  the  worst  that  such  a  war  could  bring :  defeat, 
military  occupation,  complete  subjugation.  If  war 
between  Britain  and  the  United  States  be,  as  is 
claimed,  a  possibility  of  the  future,  would  not  each 
and  all  of  these  be  for  Canadians  infinitely  preferable 
to  placing  themselves  in  such  a  position  that,  having 
abandoned  a  country  which  they  loved  and  joined 
themselves  to  a  country  which  they  feared,  they  would 
by  that  act  be  pledged  to  use  their  arms,  their 
means,  their  collective  forces  as  a  people,  against  the 
land  that  gave  them  birth,  that  had  extended  over 
them  the  strong  shield  of  her  protection  through 
a  hundred  years  of  struggling  infancy,  and  had  freely 
given  them  the  best  she  had  to  give  of  perfect  freedom 
and  noble  institutions  ? 

I  am  satisfied  that  this  argument  alone  is  quite 
sufficient  to  make  annexation  to  the  United  States 
a  moral  impossibility  for  the  Canadian  people.  They 
may  join  heartily  in  every  process  by  which  their 
mother-land  and  the  great  republic  are  drawn  more 
closely  together  ;  they  may  even  be  in  no  small  degree 
the  link  which  binds  them  together  in  friendly  feeling. 
But  to  expose  themselves  to  the  possibility  of  hostile 


CH.V]  CANADA.  139 

conflict  with  that  mother-land  for  the  sake  of  a  tem- 
porary commercial  advantage  or  from  motives  of 
cowardice  would  make  them  incur  the  contempt  of 
the  people  they  leave  and  the  contempt  of  the  people 
they  join.  In  the  long  run  it  may  be  taken  for  granted 
that  the  path  of  commercial  and  every  other  prosperity 
will  be  found  along  the  path  of  national  honour.  That 
national  honour  is  looked  upon  as  the  issue  at  stake 
there  can  be  no  reasonable  doubt. 

In  considering  more  closely  the  question  of  com- 
mercial advantage  it  may  in  the  outset  be  remarked 
that  no  truly  noble  individual  life,  much  less  any  truly 
noble  national  life,  was  ever  yet  built  up  on  principles 
and  purposes  entirely  mercenary.  The  landmarks  in 
history  to  which  the  human  heart  everywhere  turns 
with  a  thrill  of  instinctive  pride  are  the  periods  when 
nations  have  forgotten,  for  a  time,  self-interest  and  the 
love  of  gain,  and  in  the  glow  of  patriotic  enthusiasm 
have  made  great  sacrifices  from  motives  of  principle, 
affection,  honour,  and  loyalty.  British  Canada  owes 
its  foundation  to  such  an  outburst  of  lofty  spirit.  The 
United  States  themselves  were  founded,  as  a  nation, 
upon  what  seemed  at  the  time  an  utter  defiance  of 
commercial  advantage,  and  the  heroic  periods  of  that 
country,  as  of  every  other,  the  periods  which  gave 
birth  to  all  that  is  noblest  and  purest  in  it,  were  not 
the  times  of  its  wealth  and  luxury,  but  the  times  of 
its  self-denial,  suffering,  effort,  and  sacrifice.  Pros- 
perity must  be  an  incident  of  noble  national  life  ;  not 
the  sole  foundation  on  which  it  is  built. 


140  IMPERIAL   FEDERATION.  [Cn.  V 

Again,  while  it  would  be  absurd  to  undervalue 
material  prosperity,  we  must  constantly  remember 
that  its  highest  value  consists  as  much  in  the  discipline 
of  the  powers  required  for  its  acquisition  as  in  the 
acquisition  or  possession  itself.  This  must  be  as  true 
of  nations  as  daily  experience  shows  it  to  be  in  the 
case  of  individuals.  When  Canadians  are  told  that 
they  must  look  to  political  union  with  the  United 
States  for  any  increase  of  commercial  prosperity,  and 
that  such  a  connection  will  at  once  draw  them  into 
a  tide  of  greater  business  energy,  I  cannot  but  think 
that  a  prosperity  purchased  by  such  means  is  obtained 
by  the  sacrifice  of  that  which  gives  prosperity  its 
greatest  worth.  Speaking  as  a  Canadian  to  Canadian 
audiences,  I  have  sometimes  put  the  argument  in  this 
way  :  '  We  have  a  country  with  enormous  capacity  for 
development.  The  field  is  large  enough  and  varied 
enough  to  satisfy  the  greatest  energy  and  every  form 
of  it.  The  consolidation  of  a  national  strength,  the 
linking  together  of  our  widespread  provinces  by  rail- 
way systems,  the  opening  up  of  our  great  North-West, 
seem  to  have  removed  the  chief  obstacles  which  have 
hitherto  stood  in  our  way.  Under  such  circumstances, 
or  under  any  circumstances,  would  it  not  be  infinitely 
more  worthy  of  us,  would  it  not  be  a  far  better  national 
training  and  discipline,  to  set  ourselves  resolutely  to 
work  to  supply  that  in  which  we  are  deficient,  rather 
than  to  seek  it  ignominiously  at  the  hands  of  our 
neighbours?  Can  it  be  true  that  we  have  not  the 
strength  of  brain  or  hand  to  wrest  from  nature  the 


CH.  V]  CANADA.  141 

success  and  prosperity  which  others  have  won?  If 
we  have  not,  then  let  us  not  add  to  our  weakness  a 
spirit  of  mean  dependence.' 

Looking  at  the  question  under  aspects  such  as  these, 
I  find  it  impossible  to  conceive  that  Canadians,  who 
have  for  more  than  a  century  received  their  national 
impulse  and  development  from  a  political  system 
which  they  believe  the  best  in  the  world,  for  which 
they  have  continued  to  profess  the  most  devoted 
regard,  and  to  which  they  are  tied  by  a  thousand 
bonds  of  affectionate  sympathy,  will  deliberately,  in 
cold  blood,  and  for  commercial  reasons  only,  dissolve 
that  connection,  and  join  themselves  to  a  state  with  the 
history  and  traditions  of  which  they  have  little  sym- 
pathy, and  to  whose  form  of  government  they  object. 
To  take  such  a  course  would  indicate  an  extraordinary 
degradation  of  public  sentiment. 

When,  therefore,  I  am  told  that  geography  and 
commercial  tendencies  are  strong,  I  can  only  reply 
that  the  bias  of  national  life  and  loyalty  to  the  spiritual 
forces  which  give  a  people  birth  are  stronger  still.  A 
sensitive  regard  for  public  honour  is  infinitely  stronger. 

But  even  the  question  of  commercial  advantage  has 
two  aspects. 

Comparing  the  relative  advantages  of  the  United 
States  and  the  British  Empire  we  find  that  with  the 
former  lies  that  of  continental  isolation — a  position 
so  secure,  peopled  as  the  country  now  is,  that  no 
external  power  could  hope  to  shake  it.  Attack  might 
be  annoying  and  detrimental,  but  by  no  means  fatal, 


142  IMPERIAL   FEDERATION.  [CH.  V 

for  the  chief  dependence  of  the  country  is  not  upon 
external  trade.  Even  a  blockade  of  all  its  ports 
would  stimulate  internal  activity,  for  the  United 
States  are  almost  self-sufficing  in  the  matter  of  pro- 
duction, and  manufacturing  industry  would  have  the 
whole  union  entirely  to  itself.  A  very  remarkable 
and  advantageous  position  we  must  admit  this  to  be, 
freeing  the  country  from  external  dangers  to  which 
other  nations  are  subject,  and  so  leaving  it  in  a  better 
position  to  grapple  with  those  vast  internal  problems 
of  race  and  colour  which  confront  it. 

Very  different  indeed  is  the  advantage  which  Britain 
enjoys.  She  has,  however,  no  reason  to  envy  the 
great  Republic.  Instead  of  continental  compactness 
she  has  world-wide  diffusion — precisely  that  kind  of 
diffusion  which  satisfies  the  necessities  of  countries 
which  depend,  and  must  always  to  a  considerable 
degree  depend,  upon  external  trade.  It  would  be 
too  much  perhaps  to  say  that  at  the  present  moment 
the  British  Empire  possesses  the  same  security  on 
the  ocean  that  the  United  States  have  on  their  con- 
tinent, but  it  is  not  too  much  to  affirm  that  with  her 
command  of  the  strongest  maritime  positions  of  the 
world,  her  backing  of  vigorous  and  growing  popula- 
tions, and  her  resources  in  money  and  trained  men  for 
naval  equipment,  she  could  soon  become  so.  This 
is  the  kind  of  security  which  Britain  requires  with 
her  vast  outflow  of  merchandise — her  inflow  of  food 
and  raw  material.  It  is  the  kind  of  security  needed 
by  countries  like  Australia,  New  Zealand,  or  South 


CH.V]  CANADA.  143 

Africa,  which  have  an  enormous  export  of  special 
products  for  which  the  character  of  the  country  is 
specially  adapted.  If  no  question  of  national  honour 
were  involved,  and  if  Canada  had  to  make  a  choice 
purely  upon  grounds  of  national  security  between 
what  is  offered  to  her  from  connection  with  the 
United  States  and  with  the  Empire,  the  decision 
would  depend  upon  whether  she  aspired  to  great  com- 
mercial connections  or  would  -be  content  with  merely 
continental  relations.  It  is  certain  that  if  the  United 
States  ever  regain  control  of  their  own  carrying  trade, 
or  if  by  the  development  of  manufacturing  energy 
they  are  led  to  look  largely  to  outside  markets,  they 
will  feel  more  and  more  the  limitations  imposed  by 
a  purely  continental  position.  Canada  has  at  the 
present  time  large  maritime  interests.  Her  great 
length  of  sea  coast,  the  productive  fisheries  east  and 
west,  the  facility  for  ship-building  given  by  her  forests, 
have  stimulated  her  maritime  activity  to  such  an 
extent  that  in  tonnage  of  shipping  she  now  ranks 
fourth  among  the  nations  of  the  world,  counting  the 
United  Kingdom  as  one.  Her  sailing  ships  are  found 
in  every  quarter  of  the  world,  taking  part  in  the 
carrying  trade.  Several  great  steam-ship  lines  cross 
the  Atlantic,  another  connects  the  Pacific  coast  with 
Japan  and  China — a  line  is  projected  to  Australasia — 
others  carry  on  trade  with  the  eastern  and  western 
coasts  of  America  and  with  the  West  Indies.  The 
instincts  and  conditions  which  have  made  British 
people  a  maritime  and  trading  race  are  renewed  in 


144  IMPERIAL   FEDERATION.  [Cn.  V 

the  Dominion.  Canada's  interest  is  to  retain  the 
national  connection  which  gives  her  commerce  the 
best  opportunities,  her  fleets  the  surest  protection  in 
all  parts  of  the  world. 

The  Canadian  shipmaster  or  trader  knows  that  at 
ports  all  over  the  world,  at  Hong  Kong  and  Calcutta, 
at  Malta  or  Melbourne,  at  the  Cape  or  Auckland,  in 
a  word,  at  all  the  great  centres  of  the  world's  ocean 
commerce,  he  can  claim  the  protection  of  the  national 
flag,  he  has  a  right  to  apply  to  the  British  consul, 
he  can  rely  on  the  prestige  of  the  British  name. 
These  are  rights  of  which  the  Canadian  knows  the 
value.  They  are  rights  which  he  is  not  likely  to 
relinquish,  for  they  have  been  honestly  won,  first  by 
retaining  his  allegiance  at  the  price  of  much  sacrifice 
in  the  revolution  of  1776,  and  then  by  steady  per- 
sistence in  that  allegiance  at  all  costs  through  more 
than  a  century.  He  knows  they  are  rights  that  no 
other  nation  can  give  him  in  equal  degree. 

It  is  in  trade  relations,  however,  that  Canada's 
interest  is  supposed  to  look  away  from  Great  Britain 
or  the  rest  of  the  Empire,  and  towards  the  United 
States.  Twenty  years  ago  the  American  Republic 
entered  upon  its  policy  of  excluding  as  far  as  possible 
the  products  of  other  countries,  and  among  them 
those  of  Canada,  by  a  high  protective  tariff.  That 
policy  has  been  steadily  maintained  until  it  has 
reached  a  climax  in  the  McKinley  tariff.  It  had 
previously  forced  a  protective  policy  upon  Canada 
itself.  It  seems  clear  that  the  Dominion  has  suffered 


CH.  V]  CANADA.  145 

to  some  extent  commercially  by  this  exclusion  from 
the  markets  of  her  own  continent,  by  the  resolute 
determination  of  their  neighbours  that  Canadians 
shall  not,  as  Canadians,  have  any  share  in  the 
prosperity  of  the  United  States.  That  she  has 
gained  in  energy,  self-reliance,  and  national  purpose 
is  equally  clear  to  any  one  who  attempts  to  measure 
the  splendid  and  successful  efforts  which  she  has 
since  confederation  and  under  this  exclusion  made 
at  self-development.  That  the  moral  gain  infinitely 
outweighs  the  commercial  loss,  I,  for  one,  firmly 
believe.  But  there  are  those  who  argue  that  for  the 
commercial  advantage  which  it  is  anticipated  would 
flow  from  union  with  the  United  States,  the  con- 
tinental independence  of  the  country,  its  historical 
traditions,  its  political  institutions,  its  nationality, 
should  be  abandoned.  In  Great  Britain  itself  there 
are  found  many  who  assume  as  a  matter  of  course 
that  commercial  attraction  will  inevitably  lead  to  the 
political  absorption  of  the  Dominion  into  the  United 
States.  I  believe  that  the  opinion  is  a  mistaken  one. 
The  grounds  upon  which  it  is  based  deserve  examina- 
tion. Let  it  be  remembered  that  no  one  now  ventures 
to  bring  forward  in  support  of  this  proposition  any 
argument  based  on  the  superior  freedom  or  excellence 
of  American  institutions,  social  or  political.  The  day 
for  that  is  past.  We  can  assert,  without  fear  of  con- 
tradiction, that  the  condition  of  the  self-governing 
colonies  of  Britain  finds  no  parallel  in  the  world  in 
making  government  an  immediate  reflection  of  the 

L 


146  IMPERIAL   FEDERATION.  [Cn.  V 

popular  will,  and  so  in  giving  the  utmost  possible 
freedom  and  weight  of  influence  to  the  individual 
citizen.  When  Lord  DufTerin  told  an  American 
audience  at  Chicago  that  Canadians  would  not 
breathe  freely  in  a  country  where  the  Executive  was 
placed  for  years  together  beyond  the  reach  of  the 
popular  will,  and  was  not  under  the  constant  super- 
vision of  the  Legislative  bodies^  he  indicated  a  vital 
difference  which  distinguishes  the  form  of  popular 
government  in  British  countries  from  the  American 
system,  a  difference  which  colonists  think  is  all 
in  favour  of  the  former.  If  the  government  of  any 
self-ruling  dependency  of  England  is  bad,  the  fault 
lies  in  the  character  of  the  constituency,  not  in  the 
form  of  government. 

The  question,  then,  is  purely  one  of  commercial 
advantage,  a  certain  supposed  and  possibly  temporary 
per-centage  of  trade  gain  which  Canadians  would 
secure  by  abjuring  their  national  allegiance. 

Grounds  are  not  wanting  for  the  belief  that  the  in- 
evitable tendency  of  several  very  great  trade  interests 
of  Canada  is  more  towards  Great  Britain  and  some 
of  the  British  dependencies  than  towards  the  United 
States.  From  their  position  and  physical  character 
Canada  and  the  United  States  must  in  many  ways  be 
rival  producers.  Both  are  great  grain  and  cattle 
raising  countries.  Both  wish  their  surplus  of  agricul- 
tural productions  to  reach  the  consuming  millions  of 
the  old  world,  or  the  tropical  countries  like  the  West 
Indies  where  they  may  be  exchanged  for  articles  of 


CH.  V]  CANADA.  147 

use  or  luxury.  Certain  it  is  that  the  United  States 
now  export  to  Great  Britain  many  millions  of  pounds' 
worth  of  those  very  products  which  Canada  sends  in 
smaller  quantities  to  the  States.  Such  a  fact  scarcely 
bears  out  the  assertion  that  the  United  States  furnish 
the  natural  market  of  Canada.  It  rather  suggests 
that  better  organization  for  transport  and  greater 
commercial  enterprize  would  make  the  English 
market  the  more  valuable  of  the  two  for  Canada. 

But  while  urging  this  view  of  ultimate  trade 
tendencies  there  is  no  need  to  under-estimate  the 
present  advantage  and  convenience  which  Canada 
would  derive  from  the  freest  possible  access  to 
American  markets.  These  may  be  at  once  admitted, 
the  only  qualification  being  that  Canada  cannot  afford 
to  purchase  advantage  and  convenience  at  the  price  of 
national  dishonour  or  humiliation.  Let  us  remember, 
however,  that  advantage  and  convenience  are  not 
confined  to  one  side. 

It  is  already  true,  it  is  becoming  increasingly  true, 
that  the  United  States  must  have  Canadian  products. 
They  leap  over  even  the  barrier  of  a  McKinley  tariff. 
American  forests  are  nearly  exhausted — those  of 
Canada  are  not  only  still  of  immense  extent,  but 
practically  inexhaustible,  since  nature  has  reserved 
by  conditions  of  soil  and  climate,  large  areas  ex- 
clusively for  the  growth  of  trees.  Canadian  waters 
have  well  nigh  a  monoply  of  the  best  fish  of  the 
American  continent.  From  Nova  Scotia  northward 
gulf  and  bay  swarm  with  fish  which  pour  downwards 

L  3 


148  IMPERIAL   FEDERATION.  [CH.  V 

from  the  cold  Arctic  regions  in  numbers  that  never 
fail,  and  of  the  best  quality.  The  lakes  and  rivers  of 
the  north-west  might  well  supply  the  whole  of  the 
centre  of  the  continent  with  fresh-water  fish.  On  the 
Pacific  the  Canadian  monopoly  is  not  so  complete 
since  the  purchase  of  Alaska  by  the  United  States, 
but  the  fisheries  of  British  Columbia  have  a  great 
future.  On  the  Atlantic  and  Pacific  coasts  and  in  the 
inland  prairie  region  Canada  can  supply  coal  in 
abundance  to  regions  in  the  United  States  without 
deposits  of  their  own.  American  brewers  find  it 
necessary  to  have  Canadian  barley,  and  are  earnestly 
petitioning  Congress  to  reduce  the  duty  from  thirty 
to  the  old  rate  of  ten  cents  per  bushel.  So  too 
with  farm  produce  of  other  kinds.  American  con- 
sumers now  pay  a  higher  price  for  the  eggs  and 
poultry  once  drawn  from  Canada  but  driven  by  the 
McKinley  tariff  to  seek  new,  and  as  it  turns  out,  fairly 
satisfactory  markets  in  Great  Britain.  That  tariff 
must  inevitably  result  in  a  largely  increased  develop- 
ment of  manufacturing  industry,  a  closer  pressure  of 
consumption  upon  producing  power  in  the  matter  of 
food  in  the  United  States,  and  a  consequent  increase 
in  the  demand,  already  very  noticeable  in  New  Eng- 
land towns,  for  easy  access  to  Canadian  supplies. 
The  freedom  of  the  markets  of  the  continent  is 
likely  ere  long  to  be  a  stronger  election  cry  in  the 
United  States  than  it  has  been  in  the  Dominion 1. 

1  Since  writing  the  above  I  have  found  the  case  thus  put  from  the 
United    States   point   of  view  in    the   North   American   Review    for 


CH.  V]  CANADA.  149 

Something  ought  perhaps  to  be  said  in  reference  to 
the  part  which  Canada  seems  likely  to  take  in  sup- 
plying food  to  the  United  Kingdom.  The  area  of 
wheat  production  has  shifted  rapidly  on  the  American 
continent,  first  westward  from  New  York  State  to 
Ohio,  Illinois,  and  Iowa,  then  northward  to  Wisconsin, 
Minnesota,  and  Dakota.  Till  within  a  few  years 
past  these  northern  states  of  the  Union  were  sup- 
posed to  mark  the  limit  of  successful  wheat  cultivation. 
Actual  experience  has  now  proved  that  it  is  several 
hundreds  of  miles  further  north,  and  that  in  Canadian 
territory  is  included  the  largest  and  richest  unde- 
veloped wheat  area  in  the  world.  Allowance  must 
be  made  for  occasional  early  frosts,  which  are, 

August,  1890  : — '  The  exhaustion  of  the  forests  of  Maine,  the  dis- 
appearance of  the  forests  in  the  Saginaw  valley,  and  the  utter  disre- 
gard for  the  future  by  which  the  policy  of  protection  has  stimulated 
the  policy  of  destruction,  will  in  a  quarter  of  a  century  result  in 
denuding  vast  areas  of  the  United  States  of  the  timber  supply 
available  within  reasonable  reach  of  its  great  points  of  demand.  All 
the  industries  dependent  upon  timber,  if  they  are  to  grow  in  the  next 
twenty  years,  will  need  new  resources  for  the  supply  of  the  raw 
material.  Whence  can  these  be  obtained  except  from  the  portion 
of  the  continent  outside  of  the  United  States  ?  .  .  .  When  one  recalls 
the  vast  stretches  of  treeless  prairies  within  the  United  States,  in 
which  shelter  must  be  provided,  the  necessities  and  exhaustion  of 
rainless  regions  resulting  from  the  destruction  of  forests,  and  the 
rapid  growth  of  vast  cities  on  the  lakes  and  plains,  and  also  the  fact 
that  from  the  northern  part  of  the  continent  above  is  a  supply  of 
timber  certain  for  all  future  time,  the  necessity  for  the  extension  of 
commerce  so  as  to  include  these  areas  is  apparent  .... 

'The  exhaustion  of  wheat  lands  is  a  consideration  of  the  most  vital 
importance  in  relation  to  the  future  supply  of  the  food  of  this  con- 
tinent. It  is  a  startling  fact,  not  yet  fully  realized  by  the  people  of 
this  country,  that  at  the  present  rate  of  procedure  the  United  States 


150  IMPERIAL   FEDERATION.  [On.  V 

however,  not  so  disastrous  as  Indian  or  Australian 
droughts,  and  may  apparently  be  successfully  com- 
bated by  fall  ploughing  and  early  sowing.  When  this 
allowance  is  made,  it  seems  clearly  proved  that  in 
both  quantity  and  quality  the  north-western  provinces 
and  territories  of  Canada  will  soon  take  a  leading 
place  in  grain  supply.  The  railway,  which  opened  up 
the  country  to  settlement,  was  completed  in  1885. 
Yet  in  1887  the  districts  which  it  reached,  with  but 
a  scattered  population,  yielded  12,000,000  bushels 
of  surplus  wheat;  in  1890,  16,000,000  bushels;  and 
the  estimate  for  1891  is  21,000,000  bushels.  Eight 
times  this  quantity  would  supply  the  whole  British 
demand.  At  the  present  average  of  production 
100,000  farmers  thrown  into  the  north-west,  which 

may  be  a  large  importer  of  breadstuff's.  The  growth  of  population  is 
so  rapid,  the  exhaustion  of  arable  land  so  constant,  that  without  new 
and  cultivable  territory  the  sources  for  the  supply  of  food  products 
will  soon  be  below  the  local  demand.  .  .  .  When  it  is  recalled  that  the 
best  wheat-producing  region  of  the  world  is  found  just  north  of  the 
Minnesota  line,  and  that  in  the  new  provinces  and  territories  of  the 
Canadian  north-west  there  is  a  possible  wheat-supply  for  all  time,  it 
will  be  seen  how  important  has  been  the  provision  of  nature  for  the 
food  of  mankind.' 

And  again  : — '  Cheap  food  for  New  England  is  the  necessity  of  the 
hour  in  that  region.  ...  In  the  Maritime  Provinces  are  abundant 
sources  of  food  supply.  No  other  country  in  the  world  can  produce 
potatoes,  apples,  oats,  hay,  poultry,  dairy  produce,  and,  still  more 
important,  the  finest  fish  food,  equal  to  Nova  Scotia,  New  Brunswick 
and  Prince  Edward  Island.  ...  In  the  unlimited  supply  of  cheap  raw 
material  from  Canada,  in  the  unrestricted  output  of  fish  and  food 
products,  and  the  constant  employment  of  cheap  labour  from  the 
north,  the  new  hope  of  New  England  may  be  found.  Without  these 
her  manufacturing  prospects  are  gloomy  indeed.' 


Cii.V]  CANADA.  15  r 

is  capable  of  absorbing  many  hundreds  of  thousands, 
would  raise  all  the  wheat  that  now  comes  into  the 
United  Kingdom.  Statisticians  are  already  forecasting 
the  date  when  the  growth  of  population,  going  on  side 
by  side  with  the  exhaustion  of  the  more  fertile  prairie 
lands  in  the  United  States,  will  equalize  production 
and  consumption  in  that  country,  and  leave  it  unable 
to  furnish  the  supplies  on  which  Britain  has  hitherto  so 
largely  depended.  Speaking  to  a  Yorkshire  audience 
not  long  since,  Sir  Lyon  Playfair  suggested  twenty 
years  hence  as  the  probable  period  to  the  time  when 
England  could  expect  to  draw  wheat  supplies  from 
the  United  States,  after  which  she  would  have  to 
depend  on  Canada,  India,  and  other  countries  chiefly 
within  the  Empire.  On  the  same  question  Mr.  Bryce, 
in  speaking  of  the  United  States,  says :  '  High 
economic  authorities  pronounce  that  the  beginnings 
of  this  time  of  pressure  lie  not  more  than  thirty 
years  ahead.  Nearly  all  the  best  arable  land  of  the 
West  is  already  occupied,  so  that  the  second  and 
third  best  will  soon  begin  to  be  cultivated ;  while  the 
exhaustion  already  complained  of  in  farms  which  have 
been  under  the  plough  for  three  or  four  decades  will 
be  increasingly  felt.'  Like  opinions  have  been  ex- 
pressed by  American  writers.  Whatever  may  be 
thought  about  the  precise  point  of  time,  the  tendency 
is  manifest.  Within  a  measurable  time  the  Empire 
will,  by  the  natural  progress  of  events,  mainly  supply 
its  own  markets  with  wheat,  and,  it  may  be  added, 
with  its  second  most  important  article  of  consumption 


i?2  IMPERIAL   FEDERATION. 

meat.  The  argument  which  I  have  used  in  another 
place,  pointing  to  the  advantage  and  greater  security 
for  both  producer  and  consumer,  of  having  so  far  as 
possible  the  areas  which  furnish  the  raw  material  of 
manufacture  under  the  protection  of  the  national  flag, 
applies  with  equal,  if  not  greater  force,  to  food  supply. 


CHAPTER    VI. 

FRENCH   CANADA. 

CANADA  has  had  a  two-fold  history:  French  and 
English.  The  two  elements  of  the  population  have 
not  amalgamated  to  any  appreciable  extent,  the 
hindrance  arising  from  religion  rather  than  race.  We 
have  then  to-day  a  French-speaking  Canada  and  an 
English-speaking  Canada.  It  is  important  to  keep  in 
the  mind  a  clear  idea  of  the  proportion  of  the  one  to 
the  other.  The  tendency  of  the  French  population  to 
remain  concentrated  in  a  single  province  or  its  im- 
mediate neighbourhood,  (I  do  not  forget  the  Acadian 
French,  but  they  cannot  seriously  affect  the  position), 
makes  it  easy  to  indicate  this  proportion,  and  its 
fluctuation.  In  1759  Quebec  was  Canada — a  Canada 
entirely  French  and  Roman  Catholic.  In  1791  Ontario 
was  set  off  as  a  separate  province,  and  within  fifty  years 
was  of  itself  equal  to  the  French  province  in  population 
and  superior  in  wealth.  To-day  Quebec  is  the  only 
French-speaking  province  among  the  seven  which 
make  up  the  Confederation.  An  overflow  into  a  few 
of  the  border  counties  of  Ontario,  a  limited  and 


154  IMPERIAL   FEDERATION.  [Cn.  VI 

scattered  migration  to  the  north-west,  mark  the  only 
further  expansion  of  the  French  population  over  new 
areas  in  Canada.  A  considerable  migration  to  New 
England,  where  the  Quebec  peasant  becomes  a  factory 
operative,  is  interesting,  because  it  shows  that  he 
resists  amalgamation  in  the  United  States  as  steadily 
as  in  Canada.  Quebec,  then,  still  represents  French 
Canada.  It  has  a  population  of  1,500,000,  of  whom 
1,200,000  are  French.  It  should  be  added  that  the 
wealth  and  influence  of  the  great  and  growing  city  of 
Montreal  are  in  the  hands  of  the  English  minority,  as 
were  the  wealth  and  influence  of  the  city  of  Quebec 
in  its  days  of  greatest  prosperity.  A  certain  unpro- 
gressive  spirit  hampers  the  Frenchman,  and  gives  a 
striking  commercial  and  industrial  advantage  to  the 
English  population.  Perhaps  this  contrast  may  in 
part  be  explained  by  the  fact  that  the  conquest  of 
1759  was  followed  by  the  return  to  France  of  a  small, 
but  intellectually  and  commercially  important  ele- 
ment of  French  Canadian  society,  while  the  English 
population  was  reinforced  a  few  years  later  by  an 
influx  of  loyalist  energy  and  ability. 

Roughly  speaking,  therefore,  the  French  of  Canada 
stand  to  the  whole  people  as,  at  the  most,  a  million 
and  a  half  to  five  millions.  The  many  provinces  which 
are  still  to  be  carved  out  of  the  north-west  will  be 
English  speaking.  It  is  true  that  the  French  habitans 
have  large  families,  and  the  natural  increase  of  the  race 
is  somewhat  greater  than  that  of  British  colonists,  but 
on  the  other  hand  the  whole  inflow  of  immigration  in- 


CH.VI]  FRENCH   CANADA.  155 

creases  the  weight  of  the  English-speaking  provinces  ; 
the  outflow  to  New  England  lessens  that  of  Quebec. 
The  relative  influence  and  numbers  of  the  French 
element  in  Canada  will  never  be  greater  than  they  are 
at  present,  but  rather  less,  partly  owing,  as  I  have  said, 
to  the  formation  of  new  provinces,  but  even  more  to 
the  hesitation  of  French  Canadians  to  follow  the  advice 
of  their  wiser  leaders  like  Mr.  Laurier,  and  throw 
themselves  more  entirely  than  they  have  hitherto  done 
into  the  tide  of  Anglo-Saxon  movement  on  the  con- 
tinent. More  than  one  historian  has  pointed  out  that 
the  efforts  of  French  kings  and  ministers  to  make 
Quebec  a  preserve  for  a  single  set  of  ideas  paralyzed 
the  energies  of  the  colonists  in  early  days.  There  seems 
to  me  to  be  a  like  danger  now,  arising  from  similar 
causes,  that  it  may  become  the  less  energetic  com- 
munity of  a  strenuously  progressive  continent.  But  it 
can  never  dominate  Canadian  development,  or  perma- 
nently block  the  general  movement  of  the  Dominion 
in  any  given  direction. 

From  another  point  of  view  French  Canada  to-day 
represents  one  of  the  most  interesting  triumphs  of 
British  constitutional  government.  When  the  Pro- 
vince of  Quebec  came  under  British  dominion  in 
1763,  it  had  never  known  what  free  government  by 
the  people  meant.  Governors  and  Intendants,  with 
almost  despotic  power,  or  taking  their  orders  even  in 
minute  detail  from  a  French  king  or  minister  in  Paris, 
left  no  room  for  popular  control.  Striking  indeed  was 
the  contrast  which  the  province  presented  to  the 


156  IMPERIAL   FEDERATION.  [Cn.  VI 

English  colonies  further  south,  which  from  their  very 
foundation  began  to  organize  a  system  of  local  self- 
government.  In  Quebec  the  beginnings  of  self-govern- 
ment had  still  to  be  made  after  1763,  or,  rather,  after 
1774,  the  date  of  the  Quebec  Act.  Yet  the  remark 
of  Montalembert,  that  the  Frenchman  in  Canada  under 
British  institutions  has  attained  a  liberty  which  the 
Frenchman  of  France  never  knew,  is  in  strict  accord 
with  fact.  France,  which  seems  to  have  wasted  few 
regrets  on  a  colony  which  had  always  been  poor  and 
a  drain  upon  her  resources,  plunged  into  all  the 
horrors  of  the  Revolution  to  win  a  liberty  which  after 
all  for  more  than  a  century  has  wavered  between  name 
and  reality.  The  people  of  her  surrendered  colony, 
carrying  on.  along  with  the  British  provinces,  the 
agitation  for  responsible  government  by  methods  en- 
tirely constitutional,  save  for  the  slight  outbreak  of 
1837,  have  gained  and  continue  in  the  secure  enjoy- 
ment of  a  popular  freedom  as  complete  as  that  of  any 
country  in  the  world  ;  a  recognition  for  their  religion 
such  as  that  religion  cannot  command  in  France. 
Between  the  European  Frenchman,  moreover,  and  the 
French  Canadian  is  the  barrier  raised  by  the  Revo- 
lution. Modern  France  does  not  send  emigrants  to 
Quebec,  where,  indeed,  they  would  scarcely  be  wel- 
come. The  typical  French  republican,  with  his 
atheism,  his  free  life,  and  his  contempt  for  religious 
forms,  would  be  curiously  out  of  place  in  the  average 
French  Canadian  community,  devout,  moral,  and  con- 
servative. He  would,  indeed,  run  no  slight  risk  of 


CH.  VI]  FRENCH   CANADA.  157 

being  boycotted  by  clerical  orders.  The  sentimental 
tie  with  France  of  race  and  language  remains,  and 
to  the  honour  of  French  Canadians  be  it  said,  is 
fondly  cherished,  though  it  is  not  sustained  by  that 
constant  intercourse  and  hearty  literary  sympathy 
which  so  bind  the  English  world  together.  The 
reasoned  political  allegiance  of  the  people  goes 
out  to  the  British  connection,  which  gives  steadi- 
ness to  their  public  and  security  to  their  religious 
life. 

Once  more,  French  Canadians  have  profound  ob- 
jections to  annexation  to  the  United  States.  They 
go  in  numbers  to  work  in  the  mills  and  factories  of 
New  England,  or  in  the  forests  of  Michigan  or  Maine 
for  a  few  months  or  a  few  years,  forming  a  large 
proportion  of  the  so-called  exodus,  but  those  who 
become  naturalized  American  citizens  have  hitherto 
been  an  unimportant  fraction  of  the  whole.  Many 
return,  the  movement  to  and  fro  being  continuous. 
Those  who  stay  form  more  or  less  distinct  communities 
of  their  own,  to  which  cohesion  is  given  by  the  ctire, 
who  follows  to  supply  the  ministrations  of  their  re- 
ligion. The  simple  loyalty  of  the  habitant  to  his 
Canadian  home  and  to  his  religion  is  no  slight 
offset  to  his  narrowness  of  political  outlook  and  his 
somewhat  unprogressive  habit  of  mind.  It  made  him 
fight  against  American  aggression  in  1774;  it  added 
a  bright  page  to  Canadian  history  by  the  heroic  part 
taken  in  the  war  of  1812,  when  400  French  Canadians 
under  de  Salaberry  defeated  at  Chateauguay  an  army 


158  IMPERIAL   FEDERATION.  [Cn.  VI 

of  3000  Americans.  Happily  we  need  not  now  think 
of  like  aggression,  but  should  danger  ever  again 
threaten  Canada,  there  are  the  strongest  reasons  to 
believe  that  the  Frenchman  even  of  the  United  States 
would  soon  find  his  place  beside  his  compatriot  in 
the  old  home,  fighting  for  the  land  he  loves  with 
a  passionate  affection. 

It  is  only  natural  that,  with  race,  language,  and 
religion  on  the  one  side,  and  on  the  other  a  heritage 
of  free  political  institutions  giving  security  to  all  of 
these,  we  should  find  fluctuations  of  expression  among 
an  excitable  people  in  regard  to  national  attachment. 
On  the  whole,  however,  the  steadiness  of  French 
Canadian  loyalty  to  British  institutions  is  remarkable. 
Cardinal  Manning  told  me  in  1886  that  French  Cana- 
dian bishops  and  clergy  had  over  and  over  again 
assured  him  that  their  people  were  practically  a  unit 
in  preferring  British  to  French,  or  any  other  connec- 
tion, and  since  that  time  the  pastoral  addresses  of  the 
highest  ecclesiastics  have  more  than  once  confirmed 
this  statement  in  explicit  terms. 

Sir  George  Cartier  described  himself  as  an  English- 
man speaking  French,  and  he  no  doubt  meant  it  as 
a  sincere  indication  of  the  drift  of  French  Canadian 
thought.  When  a  conspicuous  French  politician — not 
a  Conservative — told  me  in  Ottawa  three  years  since 
that  he  would  not  be  afraid  to  stand  on  any  platform 
in  Quebec  and  affirm  that,  in  the  event  of  war  between 
France  and  England,  other  things  being  equal,  four 
French  Canadians  out  of  every  five  would  not  only 


CH.  VI]  FRENCH   CANADA.  159 

sympathize  with,  but  prefer  to  fight  for  England,  the 
energy  of  the  statement  was  a  surprise  to  me ;  but 
I  have  no  reason  to  doubt  the  speaker's  sincerity. 
The  absolute  truth  of  the  statement  cannot  be  ques- 
tioned, if  the  supposed  contest  involved  the  substitu- 
tion in  Quebec  of  anti-religious  French  Republicanism, 
which  the  French  Canadian  hates,  for  the  tolerant 
system  of  Britain.  Looking  back  upon  all  that  has 
happened  in  France  since  1789,  looking  even  at  the 
condition  of  the  Republic  to-day  and  its  attitude 
towards  religion,  the  French  Canadian  may,  and,  it 
may  be  added,  often  does,  sincerely  echo  the  thought 
of  the  brilliant  historian  of  the  French  occupation  of 
America  when  he  says  that  *  a  happier  calamity  never 
befell  a  people  than  the  conquest  of  Canada  by  the 
British  arms.' 

In  criticism  of  what  has  so  far  been  said  of  French 
Canada  it  will  no  doubt  be  replied  that  Mr.  Mercier, 
the  late  leader  of  the  French  Nationalist  party  in 
Quebec,  has  taken  occasion  to  denounce  the  proposal 
to  work  out  some  scheme  of  British  unity,  and  has 
pointed  to  independence  as,  in  his  opinion,  the  ideal 
future  for  Canada.  No  doubt  Mr.  Mercier  was  for  a 
time  able  to  introduce  new  features  into  the  political 
life  of  Quebec,  but  there  is  no  reason  to  suppose 
that  he  broke  down  even  for  a  moment  the  traditional 
policy  of  his  people,  who  have  long  looked  upon  their 
British  connection  as  the  chief  safeguard  for  the  rights 
which  they  most  value.  The  exposure  of  Mr.  Mercier's 
political  methods  and  the  collapse  of  his  system  make 


160  IMPERIAL    FEDERATION.  [CH.  VI 

it  perhaps  unnecessary  to  discuss  his  views  on  national 
affairs. 

Mr.  Laurier,  the  exceedingly  able  and  fair  minded 
leader  of  the  opposition  in  the  Canadian  Parliament, 
is  described  in  '  The  Problems  of  Greater  Britain,'  as 
'  more  or  less  in  favour  of  Imperial  Federation.  He 
has  lately,  probably  under  the  pressure  of  political 
events  in  the  Dominion,  expressed  the  opinion  that 
independence,  rather  than  Federation  with  the  Empire, 
was  the  more  desirable  end  of  Canadian  development, 
basing  his  argument  chiefly  upon  the  idea  that  Canada 
would,  in  a  federated  empire,  be  drawn  into  European 
wars.  I  have  dealt  with  this  objection  in  another 
place.  Mr.  Laurier  is  devoted  to  the  honour  and 
the  interest  of  Canada,  and  it  may  be  taken  for 
granted  that  if  these  can  be  proved  to  coincide 
with  the  honour  and  interest  of  the  Empire,  any 
difficulty  which  he  sees  in  British  unity  would 
disappear. 

It  will  be  admitted  that  the  experience  of  Sir  John 
Macdonald  in  dealing  with  the  French  Canadian 
people,  and  his  knowledge  of  French  Canadian 
sentiment  towards  the  Empire  and  the  Dominion 
were  unique.  As  a  statesman  he  had  every  reason 
to  consider  and  conciliate  the  French  vote,  by  which 
his  parliamentary  majority  was  in  part  maintained 
throughout  his  career.  Yet  he  never  saw  in  French 
Canadian  feeling  any  bar  to  a  united  Empire.  In 
1889,  at  a  time  when  certain  Quebec  politicians,  and 
even  members  of  his  own  Cabinet,  were  declaiming 


CH.  VI]  FRENCH   CANADA.  161 

rather  vigorously  against  the  idea  of  Imperial  Feder- 
ation, I  had  an  opportunity  of  asking  his  opinion 
as  to  the  ultimate  attitude  which  Quebec  was  likely 
to  take  towards  the  question.  His  reply,  given 
without  reserve  or  hesitation,  was  marked  by  a 
decision  which  was  manifestly  the  outcome  of  much 
thought  upon  the  question.  I  try  to  reproduce  this 
opinion,  not  so  much  to  attach  to  it  the  weight  of 
his  great  name,  as  because  it  bears  upon  the  face 
of  it  the  recommendation  of  reason  and  truth.  '  The 
relation  of  Quebec  towards  the  Empire  is  fixed,' 
said  he,  '  by  the  facts  of  history  and  the  aspirations 
of  the  people  themselves.  The  controlling  idea  of 
the  French  Canadian  is  to  retain  his  language, 
religion  and  civil  institutions,  necessarily  held  under 
a  critical  tenure  on  a  continent  in  the  main  Anglo- 
Saxon.  But  he  has  in  the  treaty  of  1763  and  the 
Quebec  Act  founded  upon  it  a  Magna  Charta  as 
dear  to  him  as  is  to  an  Englishman  that  won  from 
King  John.  By  that  treaty  the  honour  of  England 
was  pledged  to  France  that  the  Frenchmen  of  Quebec 
who  then  became  British  subjects  should  be  continued 
in  the  enjoyment  of  their  religious  and  civil  insti- 
tutions. In  annexation  to  the  United  States  or  in 
Canadian  independence  this  guarantee  would  be  given 
up.  In  the  Great  Republic  the  French  Canadian 
would  run  the  risk  of  being  blotted  out  as  was  the 
Frenchman  of  Louisiana.  In  an  independent  Canada 
he  would  hold  his  own  with  difficulty.  He  must  in 
the  long  run  vote  to  follow  the  Empire  in  whatever 

M 


1 62  IMPERIAL  FEDERATION. 

direction  its  development  may  lead.  This  condition 
is  permanent ;  all  others  are  temporary.  The  interest 
of  the  French  Canadian  will  lie  in  resisting  separ- 
ation, whether  in  the  direction  of  independence  or 
annexation.' 


CHAPTER  VII. 

MR.   GOLDWIN   SMITH. 

No  discussion  of  the  relation  of  Canada  to  the 
Empire,  much  less  any  more  general  discussion  of 
British  unity,  would  be  complete  which  omits  special 
reference  to  Mr.  Goldwin  Smith  and  the  views  on 
national  questions  which  he  has  for  many  years 
persistently  and  strenuously  advocated.  To  these 
views  he  has  challenged  attention  anew  in  his  latest 
volume,  Canada  and  the  Canadian  Qiiestion,  which 
may  fairly  be  supposed  to  condense  all  that  can  be 
said  in  favour  of  the  separation  of  Canada  from  the 
Empire,  and  generally  in  support  of  that  form  of 
national  disintegration  which  is  involved  in  the  great 
colonies  becoming  separate  states  or  annexing  them- 
selves to  other  nations.  Very  considerable  interest 
is  given  to  this  latest  utterance  of  Mr.  Smith  from 
the  fact  that  he  is  almost  the  last  conspicuous 
representative  of  a  school  of  thinkers  which  twenty- 
five  or  thirty  years  ago  appeared  likely  to  dominate 
English  opinion  on  colonial  affairs. 

To  these  men  the  United  Kingdom  was,  and  was 
to  be.  sufficient  unto  itself ;  the  outlying  portions 
of  the  Empire  were  but  incidental  and  temporary 

M  2, 


164  IMPERIAL   FEDERATION.  [Cn.  VII 

connections ;  the  greater  colonies  were  to  be  volun- 
tarily dropped  when  they  had  developed  strength 
to  stand  alone,  or  as  convenient  opportunities  to  get 
rid  of  them  arose. 

The  splendid  edifice  of  Empire  built  up  by  the 
toil  and  statesmanship  of  generations  was  an  illusion 
which  gave  nothing  more  than  a  false  prestige ;  its 
dissolution  was  to  herald  the  dawn  of  a  better  day. 

It  will  be  generally  admitted  that  in  England 
this  school  of  thought  is  practically  dead.  In  his 
vigorous  and  persistent  attempt  to  revive  it  in  Canada 
Mr.  Smith  has  met  with  little  success.  That  one  of 
the  most  brilliant  writers  and  masters  of  style  in 
the  English  world  should  in  a  distant  colony  have 
devoted  well-nigh  twenty  years  of  his  life  to  weaken- 
ing the  political  bond  between  Britain  and  that 
colony  with  practically  no  visible  result,  is  of  itself  a 
phenomenon  which  indicates  the  true  tendency  of 
national  life.  But  that  in  the  pursuit  of  his  fixed 
idea  Mr.  Smith  has  done  much  harm  is,  I  think, 
scarcely  open  to  doubt.  Both  in  Britain  and  the 
United  States  he  has  produced  false  impressions  on 
Canadian  affairs.  The  useful  efforts  which  he  has 
made  for  the  elevation  of  journalism  and  for  the 
purification  of  public  life  in  Canada,  the  greater 
service  which  he  might  have  done  in  giving  high 
ideals  to  the  Young  Dominion,  have  been  neutralized 
or  made  impossible  by  his  intellectual  slavery  to  a 
set  of  ideas  which  rendered  him  incapable  of  entering 
into  or  sympathizing  with  the  deeper  motives  of 


CH.  VII]  MR.   GOLDWIN    SMITH.  165 

Canadian  life.  A  great  contemporary  thinker  and 
satirist,  James  Russell  Lowell,  made  the  'barbed 
arrows  of  his  indignant  wit'  the  terror  of  corrupt 
politicians,  while  still  retaining  the  love  of  the  people 
whom  he  served.  This  he  did  in  virtue  of  his 
constant  sympathy  with  national  aspirations  and  the 
firm  faith  in  his  country's  future  which  shines  through 
every  page  of  his  bitterest  criticisms.  In  a  similar 
sphere  of  effort  Goldwin  Smith  has  failed,  because  he 
has  permitted  an  atrabilious  and  pessimistic  tempera- 
ment, a  preference  of  epigram  to  accuracy,  and  an 
impatience  at  the  non-fulfilment  of  his  own  political 
prophecies  to  distort  his  studies  of  Canadian  problems, 
and  to  take  away  much  of  their  value. 

For  those  many  Canadians  who  welcomed  his 
coming  to  Canada,  as  one  of  the  happiest  omens  for 
the  political  and  intellectual  life  of  the  country,  in 
whom  even  yet  admiration  struggles  with  disappoint- 
ment, the  duty  of  pointing  out  his  unfitness  to 
interpret  the  political  history  and  actual  position  of 
Canada,  is  as  painful  as  it  is  imperative. 

Mr.  Smith's  book  on  Canada  is  manifestly  intended 
primarily  for  readers  in  England.  It  is  to  his  English 
audience  that  he  appeals  when  he  says  that  '  he  does 
not  think  that  the  honour  or  true  interest  of  his 
native  country  can  for  a  moment  be  absent  from  his 
breast.'  Of  this,  Englishmen  must  judge  ;  Canadians, 
who  respect  patriotic  sentiment,  only  ask  of  Mr. 
Smith  (and  they  have  some  reason  for  emphasizing 
the  request)  that  they  may  be  credited  with  sincerity 


166  IMPERIAL   FEDERATION.  [Cn.  VII 

when  they  claim  that  the  honour  and  true  interests  of 
their  native  country  compel  them  to  dispute  his 
arguments  and  repudiate  the  main  conclusions  about 
Canada's  destiny  which  he  outlines  for  his  English 
readers.  Unfortunately  they  must  do  no  more  than 
this.  Mr.  Smith  claims  '  that  he  has  done  his  best  to 
take  his  readers  to  the  heart  of  it  (the  Canadian 
question)  by  setting  the  whole  case  before  them : 
that  his  opinions  have  not  been  hastily  formed :  that 
they  have  not,  so  far  as  he  is  aware,  been  biassed  by 
personal  motives  of  any  kind/  This  is  a  pledge  of 
fairness  and  impartiality  in  discussion.  It  is  a  pledge 
which,  in  Canadian  opinion,  is  not  fulfilled.  No  man 
in  Canada  speaks  or  writes  with  a  deeper  sense  of 
responsibility  than  Principal  Grant,  as  a  clergyman, 
as  the  head  of  an  important  university,  and  as  one  of 
the  most  active  moral  forces  in  the  Dominion.  He 
knows  Canada,  too,  from  end  to  end,  better  than  any 
living  man.  Yet  in  a  formal  review  of  Canada  and  the 
Canadian  Question  Principal  Grant  endorses  the  opinion 
of  another  writer  that  Mr.  Smith's  book  is  'so  brilliant, 
so  inaccurate,  so  malicious  even,  that  it  is  enough  to 
make  one  weep.'  The  criticism  does  not  seem  to  me 
too  strong.  Nor  must  Mr.  Smith  think  that  it  is 
only  upon  super-sensitive  Canadian  minds  that  this 
impression  is  left.  One  of  the  closest  thinkers  and 
most  brilliant  writers  on  political  subjects  in  England, 
a  man  of  cool  judgment,  who  has  observed  Canadian 
institutions  on  the  spot,  said  to  me  after  perusing 
Canada  and  tlie  Canadian  Question  that  he  con- 


CH.VH]  MR.   GOLDWIN   SMITH.  167 

sidered  it  the  most  unfair  book  he  had  ever  read. 
At  the  high  table  of  an  Oxford  college  a  Canadian 
ventured  to  deprecate  the  acceptance  by  English 
people  of  Mr.  Smith's  brilliant  and  epigrammatic 
statement  of  half-truths  as  truths  upon  Dominion 
affairs.  The  reply  of  one  of  the  clearest  thinkers  in 
the  University  was  not  unsatisfactory  to  the  colonist. 
'  We  in  England  know  Mr.  Smith  well,  and  we  know 
that,  where  every  sentence  has  to  be  so  sharply 
pointed  as  his,  a  liberal  allowance  must  be  made  for 
accuracy.  Canadians  need  have  no  fear  that  his  views 
are  accepted  without  question  here/ 

Nor  has  the  impression  been  different  even  at  the 
Antipodes.  We  read  in  the  Australian  Critic \  'To 
say  that  the  book  before  us  is  written  by  Mr.  Goldwin 
Smith  is  to  say  that  it  is  eminently  readable,  that  its 
style  is  forcible  and  epigrammatic,  and  that  its 
historical  descriptions  are  clear  and  vivacious.  But 
we  have  a  right  to  expect  something  more  in  a  book 
describing  the  history  and  institutions  of  a  country. 
We  have  a  right  to  expect  fairness,  and  fairness  in 
this  book  we  do  not  get.' 

This  unfairness  of  statement,  thus  generally  recog- 
nized, and  evident  to  every  reader  from  the  moment 
that  those  phases  of  Canadian  politics  are  dealt  with 
which  led  up  to  and  followed  upon  Confederation, 
accounts  for  the  irritation  so  commonly  manifested  in 
Canadian  criticism  of  Mr.  Smith's  views.  It  is  an 
unfairness  the  more  irritating  because  often  so  clever 
and  subtle  that  it  half  eludes  criticism,  and  because 


168  IMPERIAL   FEDERATION.  [Cn.  VII 

it  is  closely  interwoven  with  much  vigorous  thought 
on  Canadian  affairs.  More  than  this,  many  to  whom 
it  gives  the  greatest  annoyance  hesitate  to  criticise 
it  as  they  would,  from  a  conviction  that  it  is  the 
offspring  of  temperament  and  literary  habit,  rather 
than  deliberate  insincerity1. 

Only  a  few  of  Mr.  Smith's  arguments  can  be  dealt 
with  here,  and  it  is  perhaps  better  first  to  refer  to 
such  as  are  conspicuous  by  their  fallacy  rather  than 
those  marked  by  unfairness. 

I  have  pointed  out  the  remarkable  naval  position 
which  the  Empire  holds  in  the  North  Atlantic  and 
the  North  Pacific  through  the  possession  of  Canada. 
Let  us  see  what  Mr.  Smith  suggests  in  substitution 
for  this  advantage  when,  as  he  proposes,  it  has  been 
voluntarily  abandoned. 

'  Great  Britain  may  need  a  coaling  station  on  the 
Atlantic  coast  of  North  America,  not  for  the  purposes 
of  blockade,  which  could  no  longer  have  place  when 
all  danger  of  war  was  at  an  end  but  for  the  general 
defence  of  her  trade.  Safe  coaling  stations  and 
harbours  of  refuge,  rather  than  territorial  dependencies, 
are  apparently  what  the  great  exporting  country  and 
the  mistress  of  the  carrying  trade  now  wants. 
Newfoundland  would  be  a  safe  and  uninvidious 
possession,  and  it  has  coal,  though  bituminous  and 
not  yet  worked.  The  Americans  do  not  covet  islands, 

1  A  Times'  editorial  has  spoken  of  Mr.  Smith's  views  about  the 
relations  of  Canada  to  the  Empire  as  '  one  of  those  crazes  that  are 
scarcely  intelligible  in  a  man  of  great  intellectual  power.' 


CH.  VII]  MR.    GOLDWIN   SMITH.  169 

for  the  defence  of  which  they  would  have  to  keep  up 
a  navy.  The  island  itself  would  be  the  gainer  :  there 
would  be  some  chance  of  the  development  of  its 
resources ;  with  nothing  but  the  fishing  the  condition 
of  its  people  seems  to  be  poor.  Let  England  then 
keep  Newfoundland.  Cape  Breton  is  rather  too  close 
to  the  coast,  otherwise  it  has  coal  in  itself,  and 
Louisbourg  might  be  restored.'  Clearly  we  have  here 
an  Englishman  who  has  learned  in  his  new  home  to 
talk  a  language  unfamiliar  for  some  centuries  at 
least  to  the  English  ear,  and  one  who  fails  to  grasp 
the  fundamental  conditions  of  England's  existence 
as  a  great  nation.  The  greatest  naval  power  in 
the  world,  bound  to  defend  a  world-wide  commerce 
and  above  all  to  defend  that  main  food  route 
across  the  Atlantic  which  would  almost  certainly  be 
the  first  point  of  attack  in  a  Great  European  war, 
because  it  is  the  one  point  at  which  a  well-nigh 
mortal  blow  could  be  delivered,  is  quietly  asked  to 
hand  over  to  another  nation  her  well-nigh  impreg- 
nable naval  station  at  Halifax,  her  command  of  a 
hundred  minor  ports,  of  the  St.  Lawrence,  and  of 
the  splendid  coal  fields  of  Nova  Scotia  and  Cape 
Breton,  and  to  relegate  herself  to  the  rock-bound, 
fog-encircled  and  sometimes  ice-beset  coasts  of  New- 
foundland :  to  content  herself  with  coal  '  bituminous 
and  not  yet  worked,'  and  all  because  the  possession 
would  be  '  safe  and  uninvidious '  and  because  '  the 
Americans  do  not  covet  islands.'  In  this  casual 
redistribution  of  the  bases  of  naval  power  it  is 


170  IMPERIAL   FEDERATION.  [Cn.  VII 

extremely  characteristic  and  noteworthy  that  on  the 
Pacific  where  the  trade  of  a  great  ocean  is  to  be 
protected,  and  where  Russia  has  a  great  naval  depot, 
not  even  an  island  is  reserved  for  British  people, 
probably  because  again  Vancouver  is  '  rather  too  near 
to  the  coast,'  to  be  outside  the  range  of  American 
covetousness,  and  its  coal  deposits  too  extensive  for  it 
to  be  considered  '  uninvidious.'  In  reading  the  lines  I 
have  quoted  from  Mr.  Smith  expressing  his  conception 
of  the  relation  of  the  United  States  to  Great  Britain, 
it  is  impossible  not  to  recall  the  words  which 
Shakspere  puts  into  the  mouth  of  Cassius  :— 

'  Why,  man,  he  doth  bestride  the  narrow  world 
Like  a  Colossus,  and  we  petty  men 
Walk  under  his  huge  legs,  and  peep  about 
To  find  ourselves  dishonourable  graves.' 

Let  us  not  fail,  however,  to  recognize  that  Mr. 
Smith  does  dimly  see  and  admit  the  conditions  under 
which  Britain  holds  her  maritime  power.  '  Safe 
coaling  stations  and  harbours  of  refuge,  rather  than 
territorial  dependencies  are  apparently  what  the  great 
exporting  country  and  the  mistress  of  the  carrying 
trade  now  wants.'  The  admission  that  British  naval 
power  rests  upon  safe  coaling  stations  and  harbours 
of  refuge  is  fundamental.  But  the  most  superficial 
study  of  the  facts  or  even  a  glance  at  the  map  makes 
it  plain  that  in  the  Empire  the  command  of  these 
positions  is  inseparably  connected  with  territorial 
possession.  Britain  cannot  turn  away  her  great 
colonies  to  work  out  an  independent  destiny  while 


CH.  VII]  MR.    GOLDWIN    SMITH.  171 

at  the  same  time  she  retains  in  each  the  best  points 
in  naval  and  military  vantage  for  the  creation  of  a 
series  of  Gibraltars  such  as  Mr.  Smith  apparently  has 
in  his  mind.  Sir  Charles  Dilke  has  clearly  pointed 
out  that  while  we  cannot  possibly  with  any  regard 
to  commercial  security  give  up  the  military  station 
which  we  hold  at  the  extremity  of  Africa,  on  the 
other  hand  we  cannot  retain  it  permanently  without 
the  friendship  of  the  colonists  and  a  maintenance  of 
national  control  over  the  surrounding  country.  Still 
more  true  is  this  of  Australia,  New  Zealand  and 
Canada.  Let  Mr.  Smith  try  to  arrange  a  plan  by 
which  Australia,  South  Africa  and  Canada  will  accept 
independence  with  its  national  responsibilities  and  at 
the  same  time  hand  over  to  England  their  '  safe 
coaling  stations  and  harbours  of  refuge '  which  he 
himself  admits  are  the  very  conditions  of  her  existence, 
and  he  will  find  himself  face  to  face  with  a  problem 
much  more  difficult  than  any  which  he  propounds  to 
Imperial  Federationists  when  he  demands  of  them  a 
plan. 

'  Surely,'  says  Mr.  Smith,  '  the  appearance  of  a 
world-wide  power,  grasping  all  the  waterways  and  all 
the  points  of  maritime  vantage,  instead  of  propagating 
peace,  would,  like  an  alarm  gun,  call  the  nations  to 
battle.'  To  this  it  must  straightway  be  answered  that 
the  case  is  one  in  which  as  things  stand  no  '  grasping ' 
is  required.  What  British  people  need  for  their  great 
national  purposes  they  hold  already.  Their  posses- 
sions have  been  won  in  a  long  course  of  national 


172  IMPERIAL   FEDERATION.  [Cn.  VII 

development  and  are  held  in  most  cases  under  the 
solemn  confirmation  of  ancient  or  modern  treaty,  or  at 
least  by  the  tacit  consent  of  all  the  nations.  No  title- 
deeds  in  the  world  are  more  secure  according  to  any 
recognized  code  of  international  relation.  Nor  is  her 
moral  right  to  consolidate  her  position  less  strong  or 
more  likely  to  be  questioned.  Self-defence  is  a  primary 
instinct  and  admitted  necessity  of  nature — recognized 
as  such  by  communities  as  well  as  individuals.  '  In 
strengthening  her  navy,  England  is  pursuing  a  policy 
in  the  strict  sense  defensive.  We  threaten  nobody. 
We  cherish  no  ambitious  design.  It  is  more  and  more 
the  wise  policy  of  England  to  keep  out  of  engagements 
in  matters  with  which  neither  we  of  the  mother- 
country  nor  our  sons  in  the  colonies  have  any  concern. 
The  external  policy  of  England  is  directed  to  one 
object,  which  is  to  secure  from  attack  the  highway  of 
the  sea1.'  To  different  nations  the  problem  of  self- 
defence  comes  in  different  forms.  France,  Germany, 
Italy,  Austria,  Russia,  find  vast  military  organization 
the  necessary  condition  of  safe  national  existence.  To 
none  of  them  would  exclusion  from  commerce  with 
the  rest  of  the  world  be  fatal :  their  own  resources  can, 
in  emergency,  supply  their  wants.  Resistance  to  a 
flood  of  hostile  invasion  they  must  be  prepared  to 
make  at  any  moment,  and  to  this  the  public  thought 
is  mainly  directed.  No  one  questions  their  right  to 
equip  themselves  for  this  resistance,  however  much  the 
necessity  may  be  deplored. 

1   Lord  Brassey,  Naval  Annual.  1890. 


CH.  VII]  MR.   GOLDWIN   SMITH.  173 

The  United  States,  again,  have  been  hitherto  com- 
paratively independent  of  external  commerce.  Even 
the  carrying  trade  has  been  allowed  to  slip  chiefly  into 
foreign  hands.  Continental  isolation  and  vast  popula- 
tion give  a  sufficient  range  for  national  industry  and 
sufficient  security  from  hostile  invasion.  They  enable 
the  people  to  turn  their  attention  mainly  to  internal 
development  and  the  complex  or  even  threatening 
problems  involved  in  the  assimilation  and  elevation 
of  the  confluent  races  which  are  taking  possession  of 
the  soil.  Very  different  is  the  position  of  British 
people.  To  them,  whether  at  home  or  abroad,  the 
steady  flow  of  commerce  is  as  the  flow  of  blood 
through  the  veins  ;  the  safety  of  the  waterways '  is 
practically  a  question  of  life  or  death.  The  very  fact 
that  Britain  is  not  compelled  to  be  a  great  military 
power,  in  the  sense  that  European  nations  are  military 
powers,  adds  millions  to  her  armies  of  industry,  in- 
creases indefinitely  her  producing  forces  and  so  makes 
more  imperative  the  necessity  for  absolutely  safe 
commercial  intercourse.  Britain,  as  the  result  of 
natural  growth,  now  possesses  the  unquestionable 
right  and  the  manifest  opportunity,  without  a  single 
stroke  of  aggression,  to  organize  a  naval  power 
adequate  to  the  protection  of  the  chief  waterways  of 
the  world,  and  of  the  enormous  commerce  which  the 
industry  of  her  people  has  created  thereon.  To* 
any  combination  thus  planned  to  guard  the  very 
life  of  the  nation,  what  just  or  reasonable  objection 
can  be  made  ?  To  any  objection  not  just  or  reason- 


174  IMPERIAL   FEDERATION.  [Cn.  VT1 

able  what  answer  must  English  people  make  ?  For  a 
race  of  traders  scattered  over  all  quarters  of  the  globe, 
peace  is  a  supreme  interest,  and  peace,  as  the  world  is 
now  constituted,  can  only  rest  on  organized  power. 
For  the  first  time  in  history  we  see  a  nation  which 
unites  under  its  flag  all  the  comprehensiveness  of  a 
world-wide  Empire  and  a  wonderful  relative  compact- 
ness secured  by  that  practical  contraction  of  our 
planet  which  has  taken  place  under  the  combined 
influences  of  steam  and  electricity.  No  other  nation 
ever  has  had — it  is  well  nigh  impossible  to  believe 
that  any  other  nation  ever  will  have — so  commanding 
a  position  for  exercising  the  functions  of  what  I  have 
called  an  oceanic  Empire,  interested  in  developing  and 
able  to  protect  the  commerce  of  the  world.  Such  an 
Empire  is  probably  the  best  guarantee  of  permanent 
peace  the  world  has  ever  had  or  is  likely  to  have  this 
side  of  the  millennium.  Who  shall  question  our  right 
and  duty  to  organize  it  for  the  great  ends  manifestly 
within  our  reach  ? 

But  Mr.  Smith  questions  not  merely  our  right,  but 
our  capacity. 

We  are  told  that  however  much  steam  and  tele- 
graph have  annihilated  distance  'they  have  not 
annihilated  the  parish  steeple.  They  have  not  carried 
the  thoughts  of  the  ordinary  citizen  beyond  the  circle 
of  his  own  life  and  work.  They  have  not  qualified  a 
common  farmer,  tradesman,  ploughman,  or  artizan  to 
direct  the  politics  of  a  world-wide  state  V  Shall  we 

1  Canada  and  the  Canadian  Question,  p.  260. 


CH.  VII]  MR.   GOLDWIN    SMITH.  175 

then  give  up  all  large  statesmanship,  and  adopt  the 
parish  steeple  as  the  measure  of  our  political  ideas? 
The  parish  steeple  has  its  place  and  limiting  power 
in  England  as  elsewhere,  but  it  has  not  prevented  the 
creation  of  a  great  Empire,  its  successful  administra- 
tion and  its  retention.  In  the  end  it  is  the  strongest 
men  and  the  clearest  minds  of  a  country  which  give 
direction  to  its  destiny,  and  nowhere  is  this  more 
the  case  than  among  Anglo-Saxon  people.  The 
common  farmer,  tradesman,  ploughman,  or  artizan  may 
not  be  able  to  direct  the  policy  of  a  state,  but  he  has  a 
marvellous  instinct  for  discovering  and  supporting  the 
man  who  can,  be  he  a  Cromwell  or  a  Cecil,  a  rail-splitter 
or  a  Hohenzollern.  When  he  has  made  up  his  mind, 
moreover,  we  have  more  to  fear,  apparently,  from  a 
too  complete  surrender  of  his  own  judgment  than 
from  ignorant  interference  in  matters  which  he  does 
not  fully  comprehend.  That  the  spread  of  modern 
democracy  involves  no  necessity  of  abandoning  large 
statesmanship  the  history  of  the  colonies  clearly 
proves.  Canadians  may  not,  as  Mr.  Smith  suggests, 
know  much  of  Australian  or  South  African  politics, 
but  they  have  given  themselves  up  with  singular 
persistence  to  the  guidance  of  a  statesman  with  an 
imperial  range  of  ideas  and  policy.  In  Australia  the 
masses,  however  much  they  may  be  absorbed  in  their 
labour  struggles  and  social  problems,  choose,  as  their 
leaders,  with  occasional  change,  but  on  the  whole 
singular  steadiness,  men  like  Sir  Henry  Parkes, 
Mr.  Service,  Sir  Samuel  Griffiths,  Mr.  Gillies,  or 


176  IMPERIAL   FEDERATION.  [Cn.  VII 

Sir  Henry  Atkinson,  every  one  of  them  men  who, 
even  when  most  absorbed  with  the  affairs  of  their 
own  colonies,  are  thinking  constantly  on  national  ques- 
tions, and  dreaming  of  some  great  British  unity  in 
the  future,  as  their  written  and  spoken  thoughts  fully 
testify.  Even  in  South  Africa,  with  its  intensified 
localism,  we  see  the  reins  of  power  committed  to  a 
man  who  stakes  his  political  career  equally  upon 
working  out  a  South  African  unity,  and  upon  securing 
that  it  shall  be  consistent  with  the  policy  of  a  united 
Empire. 

I  fear  that  it  is  impossible  to  acquit  Mr.  Smith  of 
at  times  making  statements  disingenuous  in  them- 
selves and  especially  misleading  to  the  English 
reader.  Perhaps  the  peculiar  animosity  with  which 
he  has  always  regarded  those  Canadian  Railways 
whose  construction  has  falsified  his  prophecy  that  the 
Dominion  could  not  be  welded  together,  explains,  if 
it  does  not  excuse,  a  special  recklessness  of  statement 
when  he  describes  them  to  English  people.  Mr.  Smith 
speaks  of  the  Intercolonial  Railway  as  'spanning  the 
vast  and  irreclaimable  wilderness  which  separates 
Halifax  from  Quebec.'  Again  he  says :  '  The  mari- 
time Provinces  are  divided  from  Old  Canada  by  the 
wilderness  of  many  hundred  miles,  through  which 
the  Intercolonial  Railway  runs,  hardly  taking  up  a 
passenger  or  a  bale  of  freight  by  the  way.'  Would 
the  ordinary  reader  outside  of  Canada  believe,  after 
reading  this  description,  that  in  the  course  of  the 
688  miles  of  rail  between  Halifax  and  Quebec  the 


CH.  VII]  MR.  GOLDWIN   SMITH.  177 

Intercolonial  traverses  large  counties  like  Cumberland 
and"  Westmorland,  among  the  most  fertile  and  pro- 
ductive in  Canada;  that  though  running  through 
forest  country  in  the  immediate  rear  of  the  settled 
coast  line  it  is  closely  connected  by  a  score  of  short 
branches  with  the  coal  areas  and  all  the  thickly  popu- 
lated districts  along  the  Bay  of  Fundy  and  the  Gulf  of 
St.  Lawrence,  that  for  100  miles  it  follows  the  still 
more  populous  shores  of  the  River  St.  Lawrence,  and 
that  the  comparatively  short  distance,  scarcely  more 
than  100  miles,  between  the  settlements  at  the  head 
of  Bay  Chaleur  and  those  of  the  St.  Lawrence  is  alone 
responsible  for  the  epithets  'vast  and  irreclaimable' 
which  Mr.  Smith  applies  to  the  whole  length  of  the 
road  ?  Would  the  reader  believe  -that  it  is  a  railway 
which  carries  about  a  million  passengers  and  more 
than  a  million  tons  of  freight  every  year  ?  That  it 
has  conferred  the  enormous  advantage  of  swift  com- 
munication with  the  outside  world  on  some  hundreds 
of  thousands  of  people  to  whom  its  construction  was 
an  object  of  eager  desire  for  years  before  it  was 
accomplished  ?  It  is  true  that,  worked  as  a  State 
Railway  for  the  good  of  the  communities  through 
which  it  passes,  for  the  avowed  purpose  of  uniting  the 
provinces  more  closely,  kept  at  a  high  state  of  effi- 
ciency, and  under  some  unusual  expense  for  clearing 
away  snow  in  winter,  a  loss  is  at  present  annually 
incurred,  but  it  is  doubtful  if  any  public  expenditure 
made  in  the  Dominion  confers  so  great  an  advantage 
on  so  many  people,  while  subserving  great  national  pur* 

N 


178  IMPERIAL   FEDERATION.  [CH.  VII 

poses.  Not  in  Canada  alone,  but  in  Australia,  South 
Africa,  New  Zealand,  India,  Russia  and  South  America, 
railways,  which  do  not  directly  pay,  are  for  the  public 
good,  or  for  prospective  and  indirect  advantage, 
constructed  and  worked  to  the  content  of  those  who 
pay  for  them.  In  Great  Britain  state  subventions 
are  given  to  steamship,  postal,  and  cable  lines  which 
would  not  in  themselves  be  at  once  commercially 
profitable.  For  many  years  a  large  deficit  has  been 
paid  on  the  ordinary  English  telegraph  system  ;  a 
deficit  which  even  last  year  amounted  to  no  less 
than  £190,000  sterling.  The  money  has  been  paid 
cheerfully,  because  it  gives  to  the  mass  of  the  people 
the  advantages  of  the  sixpenny  telegram. 

Why  should  all  the  vials  of  wrath,  ridicule,  and,  we 
may  now  add,  misrepresentation,  be  reserved  for  the 
one  State  Railway  of  Canada,  because  the  people  are 
willing  to  pay  the  deficiency  of  £50,000  or  £100,000 
involved  in  its  operation,  for  the  sake  of  the  consolida- 
tion which  it  has  given  to  the  Dominion,  and  the 
unmeasured  benefit  which  it  confers  on  immense  dis- 
tricts and  large  populations  which  would  otherwise 
be  singularly  isolated,  socially  and  commercially,  from 
the  rest  of  Canada  and  the  rest  of  the  world. 

Once  more,  speaking  in  disparagement  of  the  same 
railway  as  a  military  route,  Mr.  Smith  says :  'At  the  time 
when  the  Intercolonial  was  projected,  the  two  British 
officers  of  artillery,  whose  pamphlet  has  been  already 
cited,  pointed  out  that  the  line  would  be  fatally  liable 
to  snow  blocks.  It  would  be  awkward  if,  at  a  crisis 


CH.  VII]  MR.  GOLDWIN    SMITH.  179 

like  that  of  the  Great  Mutiny,  or  that  of  a  Russian 
invasion  in  India,  the  reinforcements  were  blockaded 
by  snow  in  the  wilderness  between  Halifax  and 
Quebec.'  What  can  we  think  of  a  writer  who  claims 
to  be  fair,  and  yet  parades  as  authorities  two  young 
gentlemen  whose  haphazard  forecast  has  been  belied 
by  twenty  years  of  actual  working  experience  ?  So 
far  from  being  'fatally'  liable  to  snow  block,  the  Inter- 
colonial is  operated  during  the  two  or  three  months 
of  deep  snow  with  less  risk  of  delay  than  is  incurred 
every  day  of  the  year  by  ships  passing  through  the 
Suez  Canal,  the  other  most  available  route  in  an  Indian 
Crisis.  It  has  been  my  own  lot  to  suffer  a  longer 
detention  on  a  steamship  at  Ismailia,  a  detention 
accepted  by  the  ship's  officers  as  in  the  course  of 
ordinary  experience,  than  I  can  remember  having  met 
with  in  many  years'  experience  of  the  Intercolonial. 

When  Mr.  Smith  turns  from  the  Intercolonial,  which 
does  not  pay,  to  the  Canada  Pacific,  which  does,  we 
find  no  improvement  in  fairness  of  statement.  Of  the 
Canada  Pacific  he  says :  '  The  fact  is  constantly  over- 
looked in  vaunting  the  importance  of  this  line  to  the 
Empire,  that  its  Eastern  section  passes  through  the 
State  of  Maine,  and  would,  of  course,  be  closed  to 
troops  in  case  of  war  with  any  power  at  peace  with  the 
United  States.'  In  a  note  it  is  added  :  '  The  Quarterly 
Review^  for  example,  spoke  of  the  Canadian  Pacific 
Railway  as  running  from  "  start  to  finish  "  over  British 
ground,  though  the  line  was  at  that  very  moment 
applying  for  bonding  privileges  to  the  Government  of 

N  2 


i8o  IMPERIAL  FEDERATION.  [Cn.  VII 

the  United  States.'  This  is  evidently  a  deliberate 
statement.  What  are  the  facts  ?  During  the  months 
of  open  navigation  Montreal  is  the  water  terminus  of 
the  Canada  Pacific  Railway,  and  the  only  point  from 
which  transfers  would  be  made  across  the  continent. 
From  Montreal  to  Vancouver,  that  is,  from  ocean  to 
ocean,  from  'start  to  finish/  the  line  is  entirely  on 
British  soil.  Connection  further  east  with  the  winter 
ports  of  Halifax  and  St.  John,  has  from  the  first 
been  made  by  means  of  the  Grand  Trunk  and 
Intercolonial  lines,  the  route  yet  from  '  start  to  finish ' 
running  over  British  territory  alone.  From  the  St. 
Lawrence  there  is  even  the  alternative  of  a  double 
route  to  the  sea  coast,  one  down  the  St.  John  valley, 
chiefly  owned  and  controlled,  I  think,  by  the  Canada 
Pacific,  the  other  along  the  Gulf  of  St.  Lawrence, 
while  a  third  has  been  projected  by  the  Grand  Trunk, 
the  rival  of  the  Canada  Pacific,  through  the  heart  of 
New  Brunswick.  Only  a  year  and  a  half  ago  the 
Canada  Pacific,  to  save  distance,  built  still  another 
line  from  Montreal  eastward  to  make  connection  with 
the  Intercolonial,  and  it  is  on  the  ground  that  a  portion 
of  this  third  line  passes  through  the  State  of  Maine 
that  Mr.  Smith  informs  English  people  that  Canada's 
trans-continental  railway  'would,  of  course,  be  closed 
to  troops  in  case  of  war  with  any  power  at  peace  with 
the  United  States.'  Whether  this  statement,  made  in 
a  very  critical  point  of  Mr.  Smith's  argument,  is  a 
suppressio  veri  or  stiggestio  falsi>  I  leave  others  to 
decide.  On  which  side  is  the  correct  statement  of 


CH.VH]  MR.  GOLDWIN   SMITH.  181 

facts  I  can  safely  leave  to  the  adjudication  of  the 
Canadian  reader,  the  Canadian  press,  or  of  any 
person  who  has  access  to  a  good  railway  map  of  the 
Dominion.  So  flagrant  seems  to  me  the  distortion  of 
fact  that  I  have  sometimes  wondered  whether  Mr. 
Smith  was  not  testing  the  limits  of  that  English 
ignorance  of  colonial  matters  of  which  he  makes  much 
in  another  part  of  his  volume. 

I  must  quote  once  more :  '  In  opening  a  trade 
among  the  provinces,  a  natural  trade  at  least,  these 
inter-provincial  railroads  have  failed,  for  the  simple 
reason  that  the  provinces  have  hardly  any  products 
to  exchange  with  each  other,  and  that  means  of 
conveyance  are  futile  where  there  is  nothing  to  be 
conveyed.'  The  answer  to  this  may  be  put  into 
a  question  which  business  men  will  appreciate  even  if 
an  author  in  his  study  at  Toronto  does  not.  Why  is 
it,  if  there  is  nothing  to  be  conveyed  between  the 
provinces,  that,  in  addition  to  the  Intercolonial,  two 
competing  lines  have  already  been  constructed  and  a 
third  projected,  all  on  purely  business  principles,  to 
unite  the  maritime  provinces  to  those  of  the  St.  Law- 
rence ? 

In  his  excessive  eagerness  to  make  points,  Mr. 
Smith  exposes  himself  to  no  slight  suspicion  of  a  wil- 
lingness to  open  up  unnecessarily,  if  not  maliciously, 
old  sores  between  the  mother-land  and  the  colony. 
He  says  :  ( That  in  all  diplomatic  questions  with  the 
United  States  the  interest  of  Canada  has  been  sacri- 
ficed to  the  Imperial  exigency  of  keeping  peace  with 


1 82  IMPERIAL  FEDERATION.  [Cn.  VTI 

the  Americans  is  the  constant  theme   of  Canadian 

complaint By  the  treaty  of  1783,  confirming 

the  independence  of  the  United  States,  England  not 
only  resigned  the  territory  claimed  by  each  State  of 
the  Union  severally,  but  abandoned  to  the  general 
government  immense  territories  "  unsettled,  unex- 
plored, and  unknown." '  After  explaining  that  this 
was  partly  due  to  ignorance,  he  continues :  *  This  is 
the  beginning  of  a  long  and  uniform  story,  in  the 
course  of  which  not  only  great  tracts  of  territory,  but 
geographical  unity  has  been  lost.  To  understand  how 
deeply  this  iron  has  entered  into  the  Canadian  soul, 
the  Englishman  must  turn  to  his  map  and  mark  out 
how  much  of  geographical  compactness,  of  military 
security,  and  of  commercial  convenience  was  lost  when 
Britain  gave  up  Maine.  ...  A  large  portion  of  Min- 
nesota, Dakota,  Montana,  and  Washington,  Canada 
also  thinks  she  has  wrongfully  lost.  These  are  causes 
of  discontent ;  discontent  may  one  day  breed  disaffec- 
tion ;  disaffection  may  lead  to  another  calamitous 
rupture ;  and  instead  of  going  forth  into  the  world 
when  the  hour  of  maturity  has  arrived  with  the 
parent's  blessing,  the  child  may  turn  in  anger  from 
the  parental  door.' 

To  conjure  up  these  historic  mistakes  as  the  cause 
of  a  possible  national  rupture  will  only  raise  a  smile 
in  Canada;  upon  readers  outside  of  Canada  who  do 
not  understand  the  circumstances  the  passage  leaves 
a  false  impression.  That  mistakes  were  made  most 
people  agree ;  that  they  were  partly  due  to  the  ignor- 


CH.  VII]  MR.  GOLDWIN    SMITH,  183 

ance  of  English  diplomatists  is  true ;  but  Canadians 
must  admit  that  they  were  due  to  Canadian  ignorance 
as  well.  As  late  as  1874  a  Cabinet  Minister  of  the 
Dominion  on  a  public  platform  described  the  splendid 
wheat  areas  of  the  North- West  as  a  country  only 
fitted  to  be  the  home  of  the  wolf  and  the  bear. 
Among  the  separate  and  unsympathetic  provinces, 
prior  to  confederation,  there  were  ignorance  and  indif- 
ference as  well  as  among  English  statesmen.  Every 
intelligent  Canadian  now  knows  that  most  of  these 
mistakes  were  far  more  due  to  the  want  of  a  nexus 
between  the  Colony  and  the  Empire  which  would 
have  brought  colonial  knowledge  and  experience 
to  the  assistance  of  British  diplomacy.  He  knows 
that  since  the  acceptance  of  this  assistance  as  a 
part  of  the  public  policy  of  Britain,  such  mistakes  can 
no  longer  occur,  as  the  Fishery  Award  at  Halifax  and 
the  Fishery  Treaty  at  Washington,  when  Canadian 
interests  were  represented  by  Canadians,  sufficiently 
testify  ;  as  the  Behring  Sea  negotiations  testify,  in 
which,  acting  upon  the  information  supplied  by  the 
Dominion  Government,  and  recognizing  the  justice  of 
the  case,  Lord  Salisbury  did  not  hesitate  to  say  the 
final  word  which  made  aggressive  diplomacy  pause 
and  submit  to  impartial  arbitration. 

'  Disintegration,  surely,  is  on  the  point  of  being 
complete,'  and  *  the  last  strand  of  political  connection 
is  worn  almost  to  the  last  thread,'  Mr.  Smith  exclaims, 
using  as  the  illustration  of  his  point  Newfoundland's 
claim  to  make  a  commercial  treaty  of  her  own  inde- 


i84  IMPERIAL  FEDERATION.  [Cn.  VII 

pendently  of  Canada.  He  refuses  to  see  what  others 
see,  that  the  invitation  to  Newfoundland  to  have  her 
interests  directly  represented  in  the  arbitration  with 
France ;  the  fact  that  Canada  has  been  thus  repre- 
sented at  Halifax,  at  Washington,  in  the  Behring 
Sea  difficulties;  the  formal  introduction,  in  short,  of 
colonial  opinion  and  knowledge  into  national  diplo- 
macy, marks  the  creation  of  new  threads  of  con- 
nection, new  bonds  of  union,  which  promise  to  be 
permanent,  because  constructed  on  true  and  primary 
political  principles. 

It  is,  I  think,  a  fatal  flaw  in  Mr.  Smith's  discussion 
of  the  Canadian  Question,  a  fatal  comment  on  his 
claim  to  have  *  done  his  best  to  take  his  readers  to  the 
heart  of  it  by  setting  the  whole  case  before  them,'  that 
he  makes  no  mention  of  this  decisive  change  in  national 
policy,  or  of  the  consequent  change  in  the  Canadian 
mind,  which,  if  not  reconciled  to  losses  in  the  past,  has 
no  reason  to  dread  them  in  the  future,  and  in  this 
confidence  is  content.  That  he  should  treat  as  present 
and  gravely  irritating,  grievances  which  have  become 
purely  historical,  is  unfair  and  misleading. 

If  the  difficulties  with  the  United  States  which  have 
arisen  on  the  Pacific  and  Atlantic  coasts  are  not 
settled  amicably  and  justly,  it  will  not  be  from  any 
want  of  willingness  on  the  part  of  British  people  or 
Canadians.  Britain  and  Canada  agreed  to  a  settlement 
of  the  St.  Lawrence  Fishery  Question  which  an  Ameri- 
can Democratic  President  and  Cabinet  accepted  as  fair. 
A  Republican  Senate  rejected  it  as  a  move  in  the  party 


CH.  VII]  MR.  GOLDWIN    SMITH.  185 

game,  and  has  preferred  to  leave  it  open  ever  since. 
Any  reader  of  the  correspondence  in  the  Behring  Sea 
Question  can  judge  for  himself  on  which  side  was  the 
spirit  of  conciliation  and  compromise.  Only  in  the  last 
resort  did  Lord  Salisbury  utter  the  warning  words  which 
seem  to  have  done  more  than  anything  else  to  prepare 
the  way  for  fair  adjudication  upon  the  points  at  issue. 
How  curiously  and  completely  Mr.  Smith  is  out  of 
touch  and  sympathy  with  the  organizing  movements 
of  the  British  world :  how  oddly  inconsistent  he  can 
be  even  while  pressing  his  own  theories,  one  or  two 
further  illustrations  will  suffice  to  show.  Apparently 
he  looks  upon  Australian  Federation  as  a  step  in  the 
wrong  direction.  '  We  cannot  help  once  more  warning 
the  Australians  that  Federation  under  the  Elective 
system  involves  not  merely  the  union  of  the  several 
states  under  a  central  government  with  powers  superior 
to  them  all ;  but  the  creation  of  Federal  parties  with 
all  the  faction,  demagogism,  and  corruption  which 
party  conflicts  involve  over  a  new  field  and  on  a 
vastly  extended  scale.  It  is  surprising  how  little  this 
obvious  and  momentous  consideration  appears  to  be 
present  to  the  minds  of  statesmen  when  the  question 
of  Federation  is  discussed  V  Warnings  like  this  are 
repeated.  Anxious  as  he  seems  to  be  for  the  unifica- 
tion of  the  American  continent  by  the  absorption  of 
Canada  into  the  United  States,  Mr.  Smith  would 
apparently  urge  Victoria,  New  South  Wales,  and 
Queensland  to  avoid  even  the  example  of  Canadian 

1  Canada  and  the  Canadian  Question,  p.  232. 


i86  IMPERIAL   FEDERATION.  [Cn.  VII 

confederation  in  gaining  for  themselves  effective  unity, 
although  he  knows,  that  for  them  confederation  means 
the  freedom  of  the  continental  market  and  the  same 
breaking  down  of  tariff  walls  which  is  the  one  supreme 
bribe  he  has  to  offer  to  Canadians  in  exchange  for  the 
surrender  of  their  nationality.  Another  turn  of  the 
intellectual  wheel  and  even  American  unification  is 
forgotten  in  a  new  ideal  of  disintegration.  '  There  is 
no  reason  why  Ontario  should  not  be  a  nation  if  she 
were  minded  to  be  one.  Her  territory  is  compact. 
Her  population  is  already  as  large  as  that  of  Denmark, 
and  likely  to  be  a  good  deal  larger,  probably  as  large 
as  that  of  Switzerland ;  and  it  is  sufficiently  homo- 
geneous if  she  can  only  repress  French  encroachment 
on  her  eastern  border.  She  would  have  no  access  to 
the  sea :  no  more  has  Switzerland,  Hungary,  or  Servia 
....  The  same  thing  might  have  been  said  with 
regard  to  the  maritime  Provinces — supposing  them 
to  have  formed  a  legislative  union — Quebec,  British 
Columbia,  or  the  North  West.  In  the  North  West, 
rating  its  cultivable  area  at  the  lowest,  there  would 
be  room  for  no  mean  nation.'  This  passage  may  ex- 
plain to  English  or  Australian  readers  why  Mr.  Smith 
has  no  acceptance  in  the  Dominion  as  the  prophet 
of  Canada's  political  future.  One  remembers  with 
astonishment  that  it  is  the  writer  of  these  lines  who, 
on  the  one  hand,  assures  Canadians  that  they  cannot 
resist  absorption  into  the  United  States,  and  who,  on 
the  other,  tells  the  advocates  of  British  unity  that 
they  are  impracticable  dreamers. 


CH.VH]  MR.  GOLDWIN   SMITH.  187 

After  this  it  does  not  seem  surprising  to  find 
that  Mr.  Smith  himself  proceeds  to  knock  away  the 
foundations  on  which  his  own  argument  on  the  Cana- 
dian question  has  been  built?  These  foundations 
are  practically  two  in  number — the  fear  of  war  on 
the  American  continent  arising  from  irritation  at  the 
presence  of  Britain  there — and  the  necessity  for 
Canada  of  commercial  intercourse  with  her  own  con- 
tinent. These  are  the  reasons  why  the  Empire  is  to 
be  disintegrated,  and  Canada  is  to  seek  a  new  national 
connection. 

Following  upon  this  we  read :  c  Of  conquest  there 
is  absolutely  no  thought.  The  Southern  violence 
and  the  Western  lawlessness  which  forced  the  Union 
into  the  war  of  1812  are  things  of  the  past.  The 
American  people  could  not  now  be  brought  to  invade 
the  homes  of  an  unoffending  neighbour.  They 
have  no  craving  for  more  territory.  They  know  that 
while  a  despot  who  annexes  may  govern  through  a 
viceroy  with  a  strong  hand,  a  republic  which  annexes 
must  incorporate,  and  would  only  weaken  itself  by 
incorporating  disaffection.  The  special  reason  for 
wishing  to  bring  Canada  at  once  into  the  Union,  that 
she  might  help  to  balance  the  Slave  Power,  has  with 
the  Slave  Power  departed.  So  far  as  the  Americans 
are  concerned,  Canada  is  absolute  mistress  of  her  own 
destiny.' 

Canada,  therefore,  in  Mr.  Smith's  later  opinion,  has 
pothing  to  fear  from  war  with  the  United  States. 

Once  more,  discussing  the  McKinley  tariff,  we  read : — 


i88  IMPERIAL   FEDERATION.  [Cn.  VII 

'  However,  the  manifest  faults  of  the  measure,  com- 
bined with  the  enormous  waste  of  public  money 
incurred  in  baling  out  surplus  revenue  to  avert  a 
reform  of  the  tariff,  have  proved  too  much  for  the 
superstition  or  the  sufferance  of  the  American  people. 
Symptoms  of  a  change  of  opinion  had  even  before 
appeared.  New  England  is  now  praying  for  free  ad- 
mission of  raw  materials.  The  Republican  party  in 
the  United  States  is  the  war  party,  kept  on  foot  for 
the  sake  of  maintaining  the  war  tariff  in  the  interest 
of  the  protected  manufactures.  It  has  made  a  desperate 
effort  to  retain  power  and  to  rivet  its  policy  on  the 
nation  by  means  which  have  estranged  from  it  the 
best  of  its  supporters ;  but  in  the  late  elections  it  has 
received  a  signal,  and  probably  decisive  overthrow. 
What  all  the  preachings  of  economic  science  were 
powerless  to  effect  has  been  brought  about  at  last  by 
the  reduction  of  the  public  debt,  and  of  the  necessity 
for  duties  as  revenue.  A  new  commercial  era  has 
apparently  dawned  for  the  United  States,  and  the 
lead  of  the  United  States  will  be  followed  in  time  by 
the  rest  of  the  world.' 

This  means,  if  words  mean  anything,  that  in  Mr. 
Smith's  opinion,  the  United  States  are  soon  to  throw 
open  their  markets  to  the  world,  and  so,  without 
political  humiliation,  Canada  will  have  the  commercial 
freedom  of  her  own  continent.  One  asks  why  '  Canada 
and  the  Canadian  Question '  was  ever  written. 

An  explanation  may  perhaps  be  found.  Mr.  Smith 
quotes  (page  247)  Sir  Henry  Taylor's  opinion  that 


CH.  VII]  MR.  GOLDWIN   SMITH.  189 

the  North  American  colonies  are  useless  and  danger- 
ous possessions  for  Britain,  and  thus  goes  on  to 
remark :  '  It  may  be  said  that  this  was  written  in 
1852  and  that  since  that  time  we  have  had  new 
lights.  Some  persons  have  had  new  lights,  but  those 
who  have  not  are  no  more  unpatriotic  in  saying  that 
the  possession  and  its  uses  are  as  dust  in  the  balance 
compared  with  its  evil  contingencies  than  was  Sir 
Henry  Taylor.'  That  is  to  say,  though  within  the 
last  half  century  the  relations  of  the  empire  have 
absolutely  changed,  though  the  safety  of  its  enor- 
mously multiplied  commerce  has  come  to  depend  on 
steam  and  coaling  stations  in  every  corner  of  the 
world,  though  the  colonies  have  become  great  self- 
governing  and  self-sustaining  communities,  though 
the  world  has  been  recreated  by  steam  and  electricity, 
Mr.  Smith  frankly  admits  that  these  facts  have  given 
him  no  '  new  lights  '  on  questions  of  empire.  He  is 
living  among  the  memories  of  the  past ;  he  devotes 
himself  to  the  task  of  maintaining  a  theory  based 
upon  facts  which  have  become  fossilized  under  the 
drift  of  half  a  century  of  extraordinary  change.  Even 
if  we  are  prepared  in  such  a  case  to  admit  his 
sincerity,  we  have  a  right  from  the  outset  to  challenge 
any  claim  to  adequacy  of  treatment  or  correctness  of 
judgment. 

One  more  criticism  of  British  Federation  may  be 
referred  to  as  illustrating  the  inconsistency  in  argu- 
ment of  which  a  clever  writer  is  capable  :— 

1  Are  the  negroes  of  the  West    Indies   to   be   in- 


190  IMPERIAL   FEDERATION.  [Cn.  VII 

eluded  ?  Is  Quashee  to  vote  on  imperial  policy  ? ' 
says  Mr.  Smith,  in  fine  scorn  of  the  British  federa- 
tionist,  who  doubtless  has  no  special  fear  or  thought 
about  a  carefully  restricted  and  controlled  coloured 
vote  in  a  few  scattered  colonies  :  a  vote  which  in  the 
aggregate  represents  not  more  than  a  very  minute 
fraction  of  one  per  cent,  of  the  enfranchised  citizen- 
ship of  the  Empire.  Strangely  out  of  place,  however, 
does  this  scorn  seem  when  we  find  the  same  pages 
embody  an  argument  for  Canadians  throwing  in  their 
political  lot  with  a  Republic  where  the  Quashee  vote, 
unconditionally  and  irrevocably  granted,  will  far  out- 
weigh their  own  ;  where  it  will  become  enormously 
influential  as  soon  as  the  free  exercise  is  permitted  of 
the  rights  granted  by  constitutional  law,  as,  one 
would  think,  must  ultimately  be  the  case  in  a  country 
which  claims  to  give  exceptional  political  freedom. 
Equally  inconsistent  does  it  seem  when  placed  beside 
the  romantic  political  enterprize  to  which  Mr.  Smith 
would  commit  Canadians.  He  says,  'The  native 
American  element  in  which  the  tradition  of  self- 
government  resides  is  hard-pressed  by  the  foreign 
element  untrained  to  self-government,  and  stands  in 
need  of  the  reinforcement  which  the  entrance  of 
Canada  into  the  Union  would  bring  it  V  Nay,  more, 
Mr.  Smith  wishes  Canada  to  enter  the  Union  for 
Britain's  sake,  that  she  may  '  neutralize  the  votes  of 
her  enemies  V  Does  he  reflect  that  if  the  Canadian 

1  Canada  and  the  Canadian  Question,  p.  274. 

2  Idem,  p.  269. 


CH.  VII]  MR.  GOLDWIN   SMITH.  191 

vote  chanced  to  be  barely  insufficient  to  neutralize 
the  votes  of  Britain's  enemies,  Canada  would,  as  I 
have  elsewhere  pointed  out,  be  constitutionally  forced 
into  active  hostility  to  the  mother-land  ?  The  path 
which  he  points  out  has  on  it  possible  natural  dis- 
honour from  which  Canadians  will  instinctively  shrink. 
They  will  prefer  to  retain  the  right  to  neutralize  the 
influence  of  Britain's  enemies,  if  the  necessity  arise, 
by  other  means,  such  as  they  have  found  effective 
before. 


CHAPTER  VIII. 

AUSTRALIA. 

I  HAVE  been  able  to  speak  of  Canada  as  a  unit ;  as 
already  ripe  for  the  next  stage  in  its  political  develop- 
ment ;  and  of  its  people  as  practically  familiar  with 
the  application  of  the  Federal  principle.  The  Aus- 
tralian colonies,  which,  taken  together,  come  next  to 
Canada  in  size  and  population,  have  not  reached  this 
point,  but  are  struggling  towards  it.  Yielding  to 
what  appears  to  be  the  general  tendency  of  modern 
political  development,  and  following  the  example  of 
the  United  States  and  Canada,  the  Australian  people 
are  wrestling  with  the  problems  of  local  federation. 
With  two  great  precedents  to  guide  them  the  task 
might  seem  an  easy  one.  But  they  meet  with  the 
old  difficulty  in  learning  the  art  of  give  and  take  ; 
in  overcoming  the  same  narrow  but  often  sincere 
spirit  of  provincialism  which  obstructed  the  adoption 
of  a  federal  system  in  the  United  States  and  Canada, 
the  spirit  which  will  have  to  be  met  and  over- 
come in  working  out  any  system  of  British  unity. 
It  is,  however,  a  significant  and  hopeful  fact  that 
the  growth  of  the  individual  colonies  has  inspired 
in  all  the  best  minds  the  aspiration  for  some  larger 


AUSTRALIA.  193 

Australian  patriotism  than  any  single  colony  can 
give.  The  problem  of  federating  Australia  presents 
some  features  different  from  those  met  with  in  the 
United  States  and  Canada.  The  whole  territory  of 
a  vast  continent  is  divided  among  five  colonies,  each 
of  which  has  therefore  in  area  the  proportions  of  an 
empire  or  kingdom,  and  far  exceeds  in  size  the  states 
of  the  American  Union  or  the  provinces  of  Canada. 
Each  has  a  sea  frontage  of  its  own,  and  is  thus  in- 
dependent of  all  others  for  external  communication. 
These  divisions,  again,  have  grown  up  under  a 
system  of  what  may  be  called  state  socialism.  The 
government  of  each  colony  takes  the  chief  part  in 
developing  its  resources,  by  the  construction  of  Rail- 
ways, irrigation  systems  and  other  public  works, 
involving  the  creation  of  large  public  debts.  Thus 
immense  importance  has  been  given  to  the  functions 
of  the  individual  colony,  functions  which  the  colony 
would  be  unwilling  to  resign,  and  which  the  Federal 
Government  would  be  rash  to  undertake. 

I  mention  these  new  features  and  difficulties, 
because  in  dealing  with  them  new  light  will  be 
thrown  on  federal  problems.  Each  accomplished 
federation  makes  more  clear  the  steps  by  which  the 
next  and  higher  one  is  to  be  attained,  and  the 
principles  by  which  it  is  to  be  governed. 

It  will  be  necessary  to  speak  of  the  three  insular 
divisions  of  the  Australasian  colonies  separately,  but 
it  is  in  regarding  them  as  a  whole  that  we  get  an 
adequate  idea  of  the  great  place  which  they  hold 

O 


i94  IMPERIAL   FEDERATION.  [On.  VIII 

and  may  continue  to  hold  in  the  Empire.  Their 
populations  are,  and  will  continue  to  be,  more  purely 
British  than  any  countries  yet  occupied  by  Anglo- 
Saxon  people.  Ninety-five  per  cent,  of  the  inhabitants, 
whether  born  in  the  colonies  or  in  the  mother-land, 
are  British.  There  is  here  nothing  to  parallel  the 
elimination  of  the  Anglo-Saxon  element  which  is 
taking  place  so  rapidly  in  the  United  States.  There 
is  no  French  province,  with  its  individual  lines  of 
development,  as  in  Canada.  There  is  no  large 
Dutch  element,  as  in  South  Africa.  The  coloured 
population  which  may  be  found  necessary  for  the 
cultivation  of  the  tropical  north,  will  be  strictly  sub- 
ordinated to  the  necessities  of  British  development, 
and  there  will  never  be  in  Australia,  as  there  is  in 
the  United  States,  an  immense  coloured  vote  to 
confuse  national  politics.  As  a  base  of  maritime 
power  the  Australasian  colonies  manifestly  furnish  to 
the  nation  of  which  they  are  a  part  an  opportunity  for 
maintaining  a  supreme  and  indisputable  control  over 
a  vast  area  of  the  southern  seas.  Their  harbours, 
some  of  which  are  amongst  the  most  capacious  in  the 
world  are  yet  for  the  most  part  capable  of  secure 
defence.  Several  are  already  supplied  with  docks, 
spacious  enough  to  admit  for  repair  the  largest  ships 
afloat.  The  more  important  are  already  strongly 
fortified.  Melbourne  is  pronounced  by  competent 
authorities  to  be  one  of  the  best  defended  ports  in 
the  Empire.  In  New  South  Wales,  Queensland, 
Tasmania  and  New  Zealand,  great  neighbouring  coal 


CH.VIH]  AUSTRALIA.  195 

deposits  increase  the  value  of  the  harbours  as  stations 
for  either  carrying  on  or  protecting  trade.  Still  more 
important,  they  have  behind  them  great  and  in- 
creasing populations,  capable  of  supplying  adequate 
means  of  local  defence.  It  is  manifest  that  such 
colonies  may  be  a  great  element  of  strength  in  any 
nation,  and  especially  in  one  which  chiefly  depends 
for  security  on  naval  power.  Along  with  South  Africa 
in  the  Southern  Hemisphere  they  complete  what  I 
have  before  called  the  quadrilateral  of  maritime  position 
which  in  the  Northern  Hemisphere  is  represented  by 
the  United  Kingdom  itself  and  Canada,  with  the 
commanding  outlook  of  the  latter  upon  the  Pacific 
and  Atlantic  Oceans.  Australasia  and  South  Africa, 
however,  projected  as  they  are  far  into  the  water 
hemisphere  of  the  globe,  give  a  far  more  complete 
monoply  of  naval  position  than  do  the  northern 
angles  of  this  quadrilateral.  A  great  sea  power  en- 
joying the  right  to  their  exclusive  use  would  in  any 
conflict  have  an  immeasurable  advantage  in  main- 
taining command  of  the  ocean. 

The  facts  which  indicate  the  industrial  relation  of 
Australasia  to  the  rest  of  the  Empire  are  scarcely  less 
significant  than  those  connected  with  naval  position. 

In  the  production  of  one  great  article  of  manufac- 
ture, wool,  it  easily  leads  the  world,  both  in  respect 
of  quantity  and  quality.  In  its  singular  adaptation 
for  pastoral  pursuits  it  seems  the  natural  complement 
of  a  great  manufacturing  country  like  the  United 
Kingdom,  and  of  a  cold  country  like  Canada.  Its 

O  2 


i96  IMPERIAL   FEDERATION.  [Cn.  VIII 

capacity  for  supplying  meat  as  well  as  wool  to  the 
United  Kingdom  has  increased  greatly  during  the 
last  few  years  and  appears  capable  of  indefinite  ex- 
pansion. 

The  production  of  gold,  amounting  to  more  than 
£300,000,000  in  less  than  fifty  years;  of  silver, 
copper,  tin  and  other  metals,  which  in  vast  quantities 
find  their  chief  market  in  Great  Britain,  indicate 
another  important  line  of  connection  with  British 
industry.  In  proportion  to  population  the  Australa- 
sian colonies  take  from  Great  Britain  more  than  any 
other  countries  in  the  world  ;  they  are  able  to  do  so 
because  they  sell  to  her  more  than  any  other  countries. 
Without  precise  figures  to  justify  the  assertion  one 
is  yet  quite  safe  in  saying  that  no  two  states  in  the 
American  Union,  even  those  lying  most  closely 
together,  have  such  proportionately  large  trade  rela- 
tions with  each  other  as  have  the  Australasian 
colonies  and  the  United  Kingdom,  situated  at  oppo- 
site sides  of  the  globe. 

Australia's  apparent  isolation  has  suggested  to 
many  the  possibility  and  expediency  of  her  aiming 
at  an  independent  national  life.  A  little  study  of  her 
relations  with  the  rest  of  the  world  shows  that  her 
isolation,  at  any  rate,  is  purely  imaginary.  If  the 
first  glance  leads  us  to  think  that  the  colonies  most 
remote  from  Britain  are  likely  to  have  the  least 
connection  with  her,  facts  soon  show  us  that  they 
really  have  the  closest  of  all.  There  is  a  very  plain 
argument  which  goes  to  prove  that  distance  under 


Cii.VlIJ]  AUSTRALIA.  197 

the  conditions  of  modern  commerce,  produces  a 
greater  community  of  interest  than  contiguity.  In 
Canada  I  have  put  historical  bias  in  the  fore-front  of 
the  factors  determining  towards  national  unity,  a  bias 
so  strong  that  in  the  future,  as  in  the  past,  it  seems 
likely  to  defy  any  geographical  considerations  which 
oppose  it,  and  to  force  even  commercial  relations,  to 
some  extent,  if  need  be,  into  its  own  direction.  In 
Australia  the  prior  place  must  be  given  to  geographical 
situation  and  its  influence  upon  commercial  relation- 
ship. In  her  interests  and  connections  Australia  is, 
in  an  extraordinary  degree,  European  and  Asiatic. 
Four-fifths  at  least  of  all  her  external  commerce  is 
with  Britain  or  with  European  countries  chiefly 
through  Britain.  This  trade  passes  along  waterways 
the  safety  of  which  depends  upon  the  movements 
of  European  powers.  It  is  an  essential  element  in 
the  prosperity  of  the  people.  A  trade  at  present 
small  but  prospectively  great  in  the  Indian  and  China 
seas  gives  Australia  a  deep  interest  in  Asiatic 
questions. 

An  able  Australian  writer  lately  said  in  the  Times, 
1  Australia  is  one  of  the  least  self-contained  countries 
in  the  world.  It  is  a  wonderful  producer  of  raw 
material.  But  it  must  trade  off  this  raw  material.  .  . 
A  dozen  big  "stations"  would  supply  wool  enough 
to  clothe  every  man,  woman  and  child  in  Australia. 
How  is  the  big  remainder,  almost  the  whole,  to  be 
disposed  of?  We  must  sell  it  in  the  other  hemi- 
sphere. We  have  no  choice.  .  .  .The  fact  is  we  cannot 


198  IMPERIAL   FEDERATION.  [Ca.  VIII 

produce  all  we  want  to  consume,  and  we  cannot 
consume  all  that  we  can  easily  produce.  .  .  We  must 
sell  our  surplus  abroad.  It  would  not  be  worth  while 
disturbing  the  deposit  at  Broken  Hill  only  to  pack 
away  millions  of  silver  coins  in  vaults.'  He  goes  on 
to  say :  ' England  could  do  without  Australia  better 
than  Australia  could  do  without  England.  The  one 
imaginable  event  would  mean  something  like  ruin ; 
the  other,  only  disaster.  England's  prosperity  is 
rooted  in  many  countries,  in  so  many  that  she 
is  always  able  to  turn  a  brave  face  in  any  single 
direction.' 

Leading  merchants  and  financiers  of  Australia  have 
said  to  me  that  six  months  stoppage  of  the  English 
trade  would  mean  the  closing  up  of  three-fourths 
of  the  commercial  and  financial  houses  of  the  country. 
The  rapid  expansion  of  this  trade  every  day  in- 
creases the  importance  of  the  Suez  Canal  and  the 
Cape  of  Good  Hope  routes,  the  two  channels  along 
which  Australian  commerce  chiefly  flows.  Another 
field  for  trade  is  opening  up  in  the  China  seas  and 
in  India.  For  a  people  thus  related  to  Europe, 
Africa,  and  Asia,  the  Eastern  Question,  with  all  that 
it  involves,  has  a  deep  and  permanent  interest.  The 
question  of  whether  Great  Britain  or  Russia  is  in 
India  and  holds  command  of  Indian  waters  is  vital 
to  Australia's  position  in  the  Southern  seas. 

On  this  point  the  Melbourne  Age  not  long  since 
said :  *  The  growth  of  Australia  into  a  nation  will 
bring  with  it  the  burdens  of  a  nation,  among  which 


CH.VIIIJ  AUSTRALIA.  199 

the  burden  of  foreign  relations  is  the  worst,  especially 
if  the  relationship  concerns  a  hostile  power.  Austra- 
lia is  already  concerned  in  the  Russian  advance  on 
India.  .  .  The  possession  of  the  Indian  seaboard 
means  so  much  to  the  safety  of  these  colonies  that 
the  mere  mention  of  it  is  sufficient  to  awaken  atten- 
tion on  the  subject :  for  if  the  peace  of  Australia 
demands  that  foreign  nations  shall  not  post  them- 
selves in  the  Pacific,  still  more  vital  is  it  that  Russian 
guns  shall  not  point  over  the  Indian  ocean,  or 
Russian  cruisers  gather  in  Indian  harbours.  .  .  Aus- 
tralia shares  in  the  danger,  and  is  interested  in 
meeting  it,  whether  from  the  Imperial  or  the  local 
point  of  view.  Even  as  an  independent  state,  Aus- 
tralia could  not  afford  to  agree  to  an  occupation  of 
India  by  Russia  ;  in  fact,  our  danger  would  be  all  the 
greater.  If  the  Russians  reach  the  sea-front  the 
menace  to  Australia  will  be  intolerable,  and  Australia 
has  its  own  interest  in  preventing  this.  The  defence 
of  Australia  begins  on  the  hills  outside  Herat,  and 
there  already  the  attack  has  begun.'  I  have  pre- 
ferred to  quote  an  Australian  opinion  upon  this  point 
to  giving  my  own. 

But  even  the  questions  connected  with  the  trade 
routes  and  India  do  not  exhaust  the  European 
interests  of  Australia.  She  has  Germany  and  France 
at  her  doors,  the  one  in  New  Guinea  and  the  other 
at  New  Caledonia  and  the  New  Hebrides.  With 
both  she  has  had  irritating  points  of  difference  and 
to  the  presence  of  both  in  the  Pacific  she  objects. 


200  IMPERIAL   FEDERATION.  [CM.  VIII 

The  nearness  of  the  great  Dutch  colonies  of  Java  and 
the  neighbouring  islands  is  not  now  a  subject  of 
anxiety,  but  should  the  course  of  European  politics 
ever  lead  to  the  absorption  of  Holland  by  Germany, 
an  apparently  not  impossible  contingency,  the  Dutch 
colonies  would  become  more  serious  factors  in  Aus- 
tralasian affairs,  for  a  great  European  naval  and 
military  power  would  control  a  native  population 
which  numbers  20,000.000,  inhabiting  islands  which 
stretch  along  and  lie  close  to  the  uninhabited  side 
of  Australia.  The  present  able  administrator  of 
New  Guinea,  Sir  William  McGregor,  who  has  long 
made  a  special  study  of  the  political  relations  of  the 
Pacific,  expressed  to  me  his  opinion  that  Australasian 
independence,  with  the  consequent  withdrawal  of 
Britain's  protection,  would  almost  certainly  result  in 
French  and  German  efforts  to  secure  positions  in 
Australasia  at  the  expense  of  the  colonies. 

The  defence  of  her  sea-borne  commerce,  greater 
in  proportion  to  population,  as  has  been  said,  than 
that  of  any  other  country  in  the  world,  must  always 
be  a  foremost  thought  in  the  Australian  mind.  On 
the  conditions  which  will  render  that  defence  secure 
military  authorities  are  practically  agreed.  Speaking 
of  the  great  naval  stations  which  command  the 
principal  trade  routes,  Major  General  Sir  Bevan 
Edwardes  said  after  his  late  careful  study  of  Austra- 
lian defence :  '  It  will  thus  be  seen  how  mutually 
dependent  the  scattered  parts  of  the  Empire  must 
necessarily  be.  The  mother-country  in  maintaining 


CM.  VIII]  AUSTRALIA.  201 

these  fortified  stations  affords  direct  protection  to 
Australian  interests.  The  Cape  Colony,  in  bearing 
a  share  in  the  defence  of  the  most  important  of  these 
stations,  lends  a  hand  to  Australia  in  the  event  of 
war.  Hong  Kong,  Singapore,  Ceylon  and  Mauritius, 
in  the  large  contributions  they  have  made  to  defence, 
and  the  considerable  annual  sums  applied  to  military 
purposes,  are  not  only  defending  themselves,  but  the 
interests  of  the  whole  nation,  including  those  of 
Australia.  Canada,  by  the  construction  of  that 
grand  line  of  communication,  the  Canada  Pacific 
Railway— the  importance  of  which  will  be  fully  shown 
in  our  next  great  war — and  when  she  has  completed 
the  defences  of  Esquimault,  will  in  the  same  way  aid 
in  the  general  national  defence.'  He  adds,  and  I 
venture  to  italicize  his  words:  '  Australia,  as  being 
tJic  most  remote  of  all  portions  of  tJic  Empire,  and 
having  the  largest  trade  routes,  would  gain  more  in 
war  front  the  existence  of  these  stations  than  any  other 
group  of  colonies.  The  idea  that  local  defence  will 
suffice  for  the  needs  of  a  commercial  country,  and  that 
the  interests  of  Australasia  end  with  her  territorial 
waters,  is  utterly  false.  The  real  defence  of  the  Aus- 
tralasian colonies  and  their  trade  will  be  secured  by 
fleets  thousands  of  miles  from  tlieir  shores1' 

Once  more,  China,  with  its  population  of  400,000,000, 
is  a  close  neighbour  to  Australia  with  its  4,000,000. 
Only  narrow  seas  separate  them.  The  decisive  objec- 
tion felt  in  every  part  of  Australia  to  the  immigration 

1  Address  before  Royal  Colonial  Institute     March,  1891. 


202  IMPERIAL   FEDERATION.  [CH.  V11I 

of  Chinese,  and  the  steps  taken  to  prevent  it,  point  to 
relations  which  might  easily  lead  to  serious  rupture 
between  the  two  countries.  I  have  heard  sober- 
minded  Australians,  including  cabinet  ministers,  affirm 
that  for  a  long  time  to  come  Australia  of  itself 
would  be  absolutely  powerless  to  offer  any  adequate 
resistance  to  an  irritated  China  if  she  used  her 
considerable  fleet  for  the  annoyance  of  Australian 
commerce,  or  if  she  chose  to  flood  with  a  Mongolian 
population  the  vast  unoccupied  areas  of  the  North 
and  West  coasts  of  the  continent,  which  are  incapable 
of  defence  by  land  forces  from  the  colonies.  The 
idea  is  sometimes  brought  forward  in  Australia  that 
England's  desire  to  keep  on  good  terms  with  China, 
and  Australia's  resolution  to  prevent  a  large  Chinese 
immigration,  bring  Imperial  and  colonial  interests 
into  hopeless  conflict  on  a  fundamental  point  of 
policy.  On  the  other  hand  it  may  be  fairly  ques- 
tioned whether  Australia,  without  the  weight  of 
British  influence  and  the  strength  of  British  ironclads 
behind  her,  would  have  escaped  serious  consequences 
through  her  impulsive  action  in  denying  international 
rights  to  Chinamen.  But  leaving  aside  this  question, 
it  is  still  clear  that  so  long  as  China  is  a  naval  power 
of  considerable  strength  in  seas  frequented  by  Aus- 
tralian commerce,  so  long  Australia  cannot  forget 
her  existence  and  neighbourhood.  An  independent 
Australia  would  be  compelled  at  once  to  develop 
a  navy  equal  at  least  to  that  which  she  meets  in 
those  seas,  otherwise  she  would  have  no  means  of 


Cn.  VIII]  AUSTRALIA.  203 

checking  or  chastising  the  insolence  of  the  meanest 
Chinese  junk  which  interfered  with  Australian  trade 
or  attacked  an  Australian  ship. 

It  is  manifest,  then,  that  Australia's  position  is  far 
from  being  one  of  isolation.  Conditions  more  different 
from  those  under  which  the  United  States  started 
upon  their  career  of  independence  it  is  difficult  to 
imagine.  Almost  the  last  act  of  Britain  before  the 
Revolution  was  to  crush  the  only  other  European 
power  which  had  a  footing  in  America,  and  might 
prove  a  menace  to  the  colonies.  Wolfe  won  at  Quebec 
in  1759 — and  Independence  was  declared  in  1776. 
From  1789  till  1815  the  whole  of  Europe  was  plunged 
in  strife  so  desperate  that  the  United  States  were 
left  free  to  work  out  their  own  development  as  no 
nation  had  ever  been  left  to  do  so  before.  Neverthe- 
less the  short  war  of  1812  ruined  American  commerce, 
paralyzed  industry,  and  closed  by  far  the  larger 
number  of  American  business  houses.  It  showed  that 
isolation  and  an  ability  to  ward  off  actual  invasion 
did  not  give  immunity  from  the  calamities  of  war. 

It  seems  to  me  that  two  inferences,  most  mis- 
leading when  applied  to  the  present  condition  of 
the  British  world,  are  constantly  drawn  from  the 
results  of  the  American  Revolution,  and  the  growth 
of  the  United  States. 

In  the  first  place,  because  Britain's  power  in  the 
world  was  not  seriously  affected  by  the  loss  of  the 
American  colonies,  it  is  supposed  that  she  would 
suffer  as  little  from  the  loss  of  those  which  she  now 


2o4  IMPERIAL   FEDERATION.  [Cu.  VI11 

possesses.  No  inference  could  be  more  mistaken. 
When  the  American  colonies  were  gone,  there  still 
remained  space  in  which  a  new  colonial  empire 
could  be  founded  ;  there  was  still  room  to  find  bases 
of  maritime  power  and  commercial  influence  on  all 
the  great  oceans,  and  in  both  the  Northern  and 
Southern  Hemispheres.  England  at  once  found  it 
necessary  to  avail  herself  of  this  opportunity.  There 
is  no  chance  left  now  to  found  a  third  colonial  empire. 
The  other  nations  of  Europe,  finding  out  too  late  for 
themselves  the  advantage  which  England  had  gained, 
have  appropriated  what  small  portions  were  open  for 
their  occupation. 

Again,  the  fact  that  the  United  States  have  in  the 
course  of  a  century  grown  into  a  world-power  of  the 
first  magnitude  tends  to  mislead  the  imagination  in 
forecasting  the  future  of  the  colonies.  Let  Canada 
and  Australia,  it  is  thought,  make  themselves  inde- 
pendent, and  the  history  of  the  United  States  will 
be  repeated ;  their  greatness  equalled  in  each  case. 
Many  circumstances  unite  to  make  such  a  result 
impossible. 

First,  the  physical  conditions  of  the  countries  them- 
selves. A  Canadian  who  has  made  some  study  of 
Australia  may  perhaps  be  allowed  to  express  frankly 
his  conviction  that  neither  country  can  possibly  look 
forward  to  anything  that  will  for  a  moment  compare 
with  the  extraordinary  increment  of  population  in  the 
United  States.  He  may  add  that  to  him  this  is  a 
subject  for  congratulation,  rather  than  regret. 


CH.  VIII]  AUSTRALIA.  205 

Delightful  as  are  Canadian  homes,  and  all  the  sur- 
roundings of  Canadian  life  to  those  who  understand 
and  have  been  brought  up  among  them,  or  to  those 
who  come  from  a  similar  climate,  there  is  no  doubt 
that  the  long  winter,  the  short  summer,  and  the 
necessity  which  both  impose  for  strenuous  exertion, 
render  the  country  unattractive  to  vast  masses  of 
those  emigrants  of  less  stamina  who  pass  so  freely 
into  parts  of  the  United  States.  We  may  fairly  hope 
that  in  the  long  run  the  race  advantage  of  the  slower 
growth  will  be  great,  and  an  abundant  recompense 
for  the  less  rapid  increase  of  population. 

Climate  is,  in  fact,  the  controlling  element  in  a  per- 
sistent process  of  natural  selection.  It  excludes  the 
negro  from  being  any  considerable  factor  in  the  popu- 
lation. The  Italian  organ-grinder  and  all  his  kind  flee 
southward  at  the  approach  of  winter.  Only  on  the 
Pacific  coast  does  the  Chinaman  find  a  congenial  home. 
Cities  like  New  York,  St.  Louis,  Cincinnati,  or  New 
Orleans  attract  even  the  vagrant  population  of  Italy 
and  other  countries  of  Southern  Europe  :  Canada,  to 
her  own  ultimate  advantage,  repels  it.  Canada  will 
belong  to  the  sturdy  races  of  the  North — Saxon  and 
Celt,  Scandinavian,  Dane  and  Northern  German, 
fighting  their  way  under  conditions  sometimes  rather 
more  severe  than  those  to  which  they  have  been 
accustomed  in  their  old  homes.  Selection  implies 
less  rapid  increment ;  quality  is  balanced  against 
quantity. 

The  obstacles  to  rapid  growth  which  Canada  finds 


206  IMPERIAL   FEDERATION.  [Cn.  VIII 

in  northern  cold  Australia  meets  with  in  southern 
heat,  in  a  continental  configuration  which  deprives 
the  country  of  an  adequate  river  system,  and  in 
isolation  from  European  centres  of  emigration. 

The  geography  of  the  continent  presents  features 
which  must  be  considered  in  forecasting  the  future  of 
the  country.  We  often  see  elaborate  calculations, 
based  upon  the  rate  of  increase  during  the  last  fifty 
years,  which  are  intended  to  prove  that  a  rapid  incre- 
ment of  population,  parallel  to  that  which  has  taken 
place  in  the  United  States,  may  be  anticipated.  I 
found  that  more  prudent  thinkers  in  Australia  reject 
such  estimates  as  utterly  fallacious  on  merely  physical 
grounds,  and  facts  support  this  different  view.  With 
a  circumference  of  about  8000,  and  a  diameter  of 
more  than  2000  miles,  it  is  very  doubtful  if  Australia 
can  ever  have  a  great  city  more  than  two  or  three 
hundred  miles  from  the  sea-shore.  If  Broken  Hill  be 
quoted  as  an  exception,  it  would  seem  to  confirm 
rather  than  weaken  this  view.  A  large  output  of 
silver,  amounting  already  to  many  tons  per  week, 
has  attracted  to  the  spot  and  supports  a  population 
of  twenty-five  or  thirty  thousand  people.  But  even 
the  presence  of  so  large  a  population  has  not  led  to 
the  cultivation  of  the  soil,  and  almost  every  article  of 
food  is  brought  from  a  distance,  while  a  supply  of 
water  itself  is  only  obtained  with  difficulty.  During 
a  recent  period  of  drought,  water  was  carried  to 
Broken  Hill  by  rail. 

In   America,    as    soon    as    the    Alleghanies    were 


CH.  VIII]  AUSTRALIA.  207 

passed,  the  flood  of  immigration  poured  out  upon 
the  great  river  valleys  of  the  Ohio,  Mississippi,  and 
Missouri,  and  the  prairies  of  the  far  West,  capable  of 
at  once  absorbing  millions  of  people.  Nothing  of 
this  kind  is  possible  for  Australia.  There  the  want 
of  water  in  the  interior,  the  partly  desert  and  partly 
pastoral  character  of  the  country,  are  limiting  dense 
population  to  the  rim  of  the  continent.  Even  there 
it  is  curiously  concentrated  in  the  cities.  Irrigation, 
with  the  intense  culture  which  it  makes  possible,  may 
cause  a  considerable  change  over  limited  areas,  and 
artesian  wells  will  do  much  to  give  steadiness  to  the 
pastoral  industry,  but  after  all  such  allowances  have 
been  made  it  seems  perfectly  clear  that  the  centre 
of  Australia  will  be  conquered  but  slowly,  and  will 
never  be  densely  inhabited.  It  is  hoped  that  by 
a  united  effort  among  the  colonies  a  railway  may  be 
thrown  across  the  continent  from  North  to  South ; 
one  from  East  to  West  would  apparently  be  im- 
practicable, and  the  connection  between  the  opposite 
coasts  will  be  chiefly  maintained  by  Sea.  Over  vast 
areas  from  five  to  ten  acres  of  land  must  be  allowed 
for  each  sheep  pastured,  and  it  is  doubtful  if  the 
capacity  of  much  of  this  land  to  carry  stock  can  be 
sensibly  increased.  The  care  of  sheep  and  cattle 
can  be  carried  on  with  great  profit  and  on  an 
immense  scale  by  an  exceedingly  limited  population, 
and  a  large  part  of  Australia  must  always  be  chiefly 
pastoral.  I  suspect  that  in  the  mining  industry  also 
the  proportion  of  workers  to  the  volume  of  production 


208  IMPERIAL    FEDERATION.  [Cn.  VIII 

is  comparatively  small.  Three  hundred  millions  of 
gold  taken  from  the  soil  since  the  first  discovery 
of  the  precious  metal  less  than  fifty  years  ago,  and 
vast  public  and  private  borrowings  in  addition  of 
outside  capital  have  given  a  great  impulse  to  settle- 
ment in  the  past.  But  the  conditions  of  the  last 
half  century  have  clearly  been  abnormal,  and  can 
scarcely  be  taken  as  an  index  of  the  future. 

There  are,  however,  other  aspects  of  Australian 
life  which  mark  this  contrast  with  America  even 
more  decisively  than  do  the  prevailing  industries 
and  physical  conditions  to  which  I  have  referred. 
The  coloured  element,  which  in  the  United  States 
now  numbers  about  8,000,000,  and  forms  so  large  a 
fraction  of  the  whole  population,  Australia  rejects 
entirely.  Neither  Chinaman,  Hindoo  coolie,  nor 
Kanaka  will  ever  be  permitted  to  become  to  Australia 
what  the  negro  is  to  the  United  States,  a  consider- 
able and  permanent  addition  to  dense  population. 
Scarcely  less  strong  is  the  objection  to  the  indis- 
criminate immigration  of  cheap  competitive  labour 
such  at  that  which  has  filled  up  America.  The 
arrival  at  Melbourne,  Sydney  or  Brisbane  of  half  a 
dozen  steamships  with  a  living  freight  such  as  has 
been  discharged  at  New  York  from  the  steerage  of 
Trans-atlantic  liners  almost  every  day  for  the  last 
quarter  of  a  century  would  to-day  bring  New 
South  Wales,  Victoria,  or  Queensland  to  the  edge 
of  revolution.  Assisted  emigration  has  come  to  an 
end,  save  in  the  two  younger  colonies.  For  years 


CH.  VIII]  AUSTRALIA.  209 

the  great  trans-continental  Railway  companies  and 
Trans-atlantic  steamship  companies  of  the  United 
States  have  acted  as  the  most  energetic  emigration 
agencies  in  every  country  of  Europe,  with  the  one 
object  of  pouring  a  flood  of  population,  without  the 
slightest  reference  to  its  quality,  over  the  lands  lying 
along  the  newly  built  Railway  lines.  An  Australian 
Government  which  tried  in  this  manner  to  make  its 
State-built  Railways  productive,  would  soon  find  its 
occupation  of  governing  gone. 

That '  pulling  in  of  the  latch  string '  and  closing  the 
door  which  the  United  States  have  decided  upon 
reluctantly  and  late,  Australia  has  begun  almost 
at  the  commencement  of  her  career.  She  has  deter- 
mined that  her  population  shall  be  select.  This 
policy  exposes  the  working  man  of  Australia  to  the 
sarcasm  that  he  is  quite  prepared  to  repeat  in  his  vast 
continent  that  selfishness  in  respect  of  land  which  he 
is  rather  fond  of  denouncing  in  the  landlord  of  the  old 
world.  On  the  other  hand,  the  United  Kingdom  has, 
early  and  late,  sent  too  many  social  failures  to 
Australia  to  justify  either  surprise  or  indignation  at 
Australia's  aversion  to  unacceptable  immigration.  We 
need  not  quarrel  with  Australia's  decision  in  this 
matter,  for  it  is  one  which  a  country  has  a  right  to 
make.  It  secures  more  perfect  social  and  political 
assimilation  of  new  material  and  avoids  the  great 
dangers  which  flow  from  placing  large  political  powers 
in  hands  unfitted  to  use  them.  But  if  select,  then  not 
vast  in  numbers.  Judging  from  present  indications  and 


210  IMPERIAL   FEDERATION.  [CH.  VIII 

tendencies  Australia  is  likely  to  have  settled  along  its 
seaboard  a  slowly  increasing  but  singularly  wealthy 
population,  whose  prosperity  will  be  ministered  to  by 
the  highly  remunerative  mining  and  pastoral  industries 
of  the  thinly  settled  interior. 

This  sea-board  of  the  continent,  the  rim  of  which 
alone  is  or  is  likely  to  be  thickly  settled  is  cSooo 
miles  long.  A  country  so  situated  and  populated 
is  manifestly  exposed,  in  an  unusual  degree,  to  naval 
attack.  It  is  this  sense  of  exposure  which  has  in 
large  measure  promoted  the  idea  of  Federation 
among  the  colonies  themselves.  It  has  stimulated 
the  work  of  harbour  defence,  important  for  the  whole 
Empire  as  for  Australia  itself.  It  has  led  to  the 
joint  arrangement  between  the  mother-land  and  the 
various  colonies  for  an  addition  to  the  Australian 
Squadron.  The  terms  of  this  arrangement  are  worthy 
of  note.  The  various  colonies  jointly  agree  to  con- 
tribute the  sum  of  j£Ji  26,000  per  annum,  partly  as 
interest  on  the  capital  employed  in  construction, 
partly  towards  the  maintenance  of  a  certain  number 
of  armed  ships  to  be  reserved  exclusively  for  service 
in  Australian  waters.  To  carry  out  this  arrangement 
the  amount  invested  by  the  mother-country  in  the 
ships,  seven  in  number,  already  constructed  and  in 
active  service,  has  been  close  upon  a  million  sterling. 
The  skilled  officers  and  trained  seamen  are  also  supplied 
from  the  Royal  Navy.  It  is  specially  agreed  that  any 
expense  incurred  beyond  j£JJ  26,000  shall  be  borne 
by  the  Imperial  Treasury,  that  the  ordinary  strength 


AUSTRALIA.  211 

of  the  Australian  Squadron  shall  not  be  reduced  on 
account  of  this  local  addition  to  naval  defence,  and 
that  during  the  ten  years  over  which  the  arrangement 
extends  the  seven  ships  cannot  be  withdrawn  from 
Australian  waters.  Surely  no  young  country  with  an 
increasing  necessity  for  coast  defence  due  to  enlarged 
wealth  and  commerce  ever  secured  it  on  terms  to 
compare  with  these.  No  better  illustration  could  be 
given  of  the  advantage  which  the  colonies  may 
derive  from  joint  action  with  the  mother-land. 

The  Australasian  colonies  aspire,  and  reasonably 
aspire,  to  dominance  in  the  Pacific.  That  manifestly 
depends  on  having  at  command  the  naval  power 
which  can  be  best  secured  by  co-operation  with  the 
Empire.  The  creation  of  substantial  interests  in  the 
heart  of  the  Pacific,  such  as  would  be  involved  in  the 
construction  of  cable,  postal  and  commercial  routes, 
linking  Australia  and  New  Zealand  with  Canada  in 
one  direction^  with  the  West  Indies  and  Great  Britain 
in  another  (when  the  Panama  route  is  open),  interests 
which  the  whole  Empire  would  be  concerned  in 
securing,  would  do  more  than  anything  else  to 
give  effect  to  Australian  aspirations. 

However  threatening  or  annoying  the  presence  of 
Germany  and  France  in  the  Southern  Seas  might  be 
to  an  independent  Australia  before  she  had  arisen  to 
a  position  of  great  naval  strength,  I  cannot  but  think 
that  every  German  and  French  station  in  the  Pacific, 
so  long  as  the  Empire  remains  one,  is  a  guarantee 
of  peace.  So  overwhelming  would  be  the  advantage 


2i2  IMPERIAL  FEDERATION,  [Cn.  VIII 

in  naval  and  coaling  bases,  and  in  reserves  of  fighting 
force,  enjoyed  by  a  united  British  people  in  those 
seas,  that  any  European  nation  could  not  but  expect 
that  a  declaration  of  war  against  the  British  Em- 
pire would  be  followed  by  an  immediate  attempt  on 
our  part  to  sweep  the  enemy  from  the  few  ports 
which  he  might  hold  in  the  Pacific  ;  and  it  cannot 
be  doubted  that  such  an  attempt  would  be  made 
with  every  probability  of  success. 

There  are  those  who  think  that  Australian  Federa- 
tion will  not  make  for  British  unity,  but  will  instead 
prove  the  prelude  to  Australian  Independence.  I 
believe  that  this  is  an  entirely  mistaken  view.  But 
were  it  true ;  did  the  choice  for  Australians  lie 
between  Federation  with  the  Empire  and  Federation 
among  the  colonies  themselves,  I  unhesitatingly  say 
that  the  true  course  would  be  to  accept  the  latter. 
Until  Australia  can  act  and  speak  as  a  unit,  she  is 
incapable  of  deciding  wisely  and  conclusively  upon 
her  own  destiny  ;  she  is  not  in  a  position  to  take  her 
right  place  and  exert  her  due  influence  in  a  federa- 
tion of  nations.  A  number  of  colonies  grouped  as  are 
those  of  Australia,  which  failed  to  see  the  advantage 
of  a  common  political  life,  or  were  unwilling  to  make 
the  sacrifices  necessary  to  secure  it,  would  remain  in 
a  state  of  political  unrest  and  incomplete  development 
which  would  render  them  a  weakness  rather  than  a 
strength  in  a  great  national  combination.  Much  as 
I  believe  in  the  advantages  which  would  come  to 
Australia,  to  the  other  colonies,  to  Great  Britain  and 


CH.  VIII]  AUSTRALIA.  213 

to  the  world  at  large  from  British  unity,  I  yet  am 
convinced  that  it  would  be  better  that  Australia 
should  be  isolated  from  the  Empire  than  that  she 
should  be  divided  within  her  own  boundaries.  This 
opinion  is  entertained,  I  feel  sure,  by  ninety-nine  out 
of  every  hundred  advocates  of  a  United  Empire. 

In  Canada,  however,  confederation  has  not  had  the 
effect  of  weakening  attachment  to  the  Empire.  By 
giving  the  people  a  larger  political  judgment  it  has 
made  them  weigh  more  seriously  the  responsibilities 
of  national  existence  and  made  them  value  more 
highly  connection  with  a  powerful  state. 

Meanwhile  the  contest  going  on  in  Australia  is  the 
best  of  all  preparations  for  the  acceptance  of  the 
wider  idea  of  national  unity,  since  it  leads  to  the 
accurate  definition  of  principles,  and  a  careful  balanc- 
ing of  the  gain  and  loss  involved  in  large  organi- 
zation. 

Canadian  experience  leads  us  to  think  that  Austra- 
lian Federation  would  lend  itself  to  national  union 
in  another  way.  In  Canada  before  1867,  the  date  of 
Confederation,  the  Colonial  Office  was  continually 
appearing  as  a  factor  in  provincial  politics.  Whatever 
trouble  arose,  Downing  Street  was  to  blame,  and  party 
passion  vented  all  its  bitterness  upon  this  official  repre- 
sentative of  England's  policy.  It  is  safe  to  say  that 
Confederation  eliminated  the  Colonial  Office  as  an 
active,  or  at  any  rate,  an  irritating  factor  from 
Canadian  party  politics.  It  was  found  that  by  far 
the  larger  number  of  those  questions  which  gave  rise 


2i4  IMPERIAL   FEDERATION.  [CH.  VIII 

to  friction  with  the  Colonial  Office  were  transferred  to 
the  domain  of  the  Dominion  government ;  that  the 
difficulties  were  such  as  were  necessarily  incident  to 
the  management  of  a  large  state  ;  that  Canadians  had 
to  fight  out  among  themselves  disputes  once  fought 
out  with  an  English  minister.  It  is  a  striking  fact 
that  since  Canada  attained  to  a  united  voice  on  public 
questions,  since  confederation  imposed  upon  her  the 
necessity  of  dealing  with  internal  difficulties  and 
forming  a  large  judgment  on  common  affairs,  not 
only  has  no  serious  difficulty  arisen  with  the  Colonial 
Office,  but  the  deliberately  expressed  opinion  of  the 
Canadian  Government  has,  as  a  rule,  given  a  general 
direction  to  British  policy  in  dealing  with  external 
matters  which  concerned  Canada. 

In  one  or  two  of  the  Australian  colonies  the  Colonial 
Office  is  still  heard  of  occasionally  as  it  was  in  Canada 
thirty  or  forty  years  ago  ;  the  Colonial  Secretary  of 
the  day  is  a  frequent  subject  of  political  lampoon  ; 
denunciation  of  his  policy  is  a  part  of  the  stock-in- 
trade  of  the  party  politician.  To  say  that  this 
denunciation  is  affected  rather  than  real  is  not  enough  ; 
it  is  at  times  a  very  real  irritant  between  English 
and  Australian  feeling.  The  federation  of  Australia 
will,  in  my  opinion,  remove  this  irritant  as  federation 
did  in  Canada,  and  by  eliminating  petty  differences 
enable  people  to  take  larger  views  and  have  fewer 
suspicions  in  national  affairs.  If  the  Federal  Govern- 
ment of  Australia  reserve  the  right,  as  Canada  has 
done,  to  appoint  the  governors  of  provinces,  there  will 


CH.  VIII]  AUSTRALIA.  215 

be  no  opportunity  for  disputes  such  as  that  which 
arose  with  Queensland  a  few  years  ago.  If  the  right 
be  not  reserved,  a  colony  will  have  little  room  to 
complain  about  the  manner  of  its  exercise  by  the 
Colonial  office. 

I  have  pointed  out  the  interest  which  it  seems  to 
me  the  Australian  colonies  have  in  all  matters  which 
affect  the  rule  of  the  Empire  in  the  East,  and  es- 
pecially in  the  question  whether  Britain  or  Russia 
is  in  India.  Military  authorities,  on  the  other  hand, 
are  agreed,  and  the  fact  is,  indeed,  manifest  to  any 
observer,  that  in  the  event  of  a  great  struggle  for 
the  possession  of  India,  the  advantage  for  the  Empire 
as  a  whole  would  be  immeasurable  in  having  behind 
India  the  colonies  of  Australia  and  New  Zealand,  as 
a  base  of  supply  and  support,  even  if  they  did  not 
send  a  man  into  the  field.  The  suggested  creation 
of  a  great  national  arsenal  in  one  of  the  southern 
colonies  as  a  safe  source  of  rapid  supply  of  war 
material  in  case  of  any  temporary  break  in  the 
connection  of  India  and  the  colonies  with  the  United 
Kingdom  is  a  proposal  which  recommends  itself  to 
the  common  sense  of  British  people,  who  will  have 
more  at  stake  in  the  next  great  war  than  any  nation 
ever  risked  before.  In  the  single  matter  of  equipping 
cavalry  the  colonies  might  well  turn  the  scale  in  an 
Eastern  war.  Already  both  New  Zealand  and 
Australia  export  horses  in  considerable  numbers  to 
India,  and  indeed  already  furnish  the  bulk  of  the 
remounts  for  our  Indian  cavalry.  The  surplus  stock 


216  IMPERIAL   FEDERATION.  [CH.  VIII 

to  be  drawn  upon  is  becoming  great  enough  to  stand 
almost  any  drain,  and  with  the  attention  now  given  in 
the  colonies  to  horse  breeding  quality  is  constantly 
improving.  The  command  of  men  which  the  nation 
has  in  India,  and  of  horses  an  Australia,  would 
counterbalance  anything  that  Russia  can  draw  from 
the  steppes  of  Tartary. 

In  the  matter  of  food  supplies,  too,  the  colonies 
might  play  an  important  part.  Army  contracts  for 
tinned  meats  are  now  filled  by  the  great  meat  pre- 
serving factories,  and  the  capacity  of  the  vast  pastures 
of  Queensland  and  the  farms  of  New  Zealand  to 
furnish  food  of  this  kind  is  practically  unlimited. 
There  remains  to  be  noticed  one  all-important  fact. 
The  original  acquisition  of  India,  as  the  highest 
authorities  now  admit,  depended  upon  Britain's  easy 
access  to  its  coasts  by  sea.  With  the  Australian 
colonies  and  South  Africa  under  the  national  flag 
that  access  could  be  easily  maintained  in  the  face  of 
all  comers.  The  permanence  of  the  British  position 
in  India  may  be  considered  as  resting  very  largely 
on  this  issue. 

Whether  in  a  critical  contest  for  the  possession  of 
India  Australia  would  contribute  men,  as  well  as 
supplies,  may  be  left  to  conjecture.  But  looking  at 
all  that  would  be  at  stake  for  the  colonies  of  the 
South,  the  failure  to  respond  to  a  real  call  of  need 
against  Russia  would  indicate  some  falling  ofifin  that 
'saving  common  sense'  which  has  hitherto  inclined 
British  people  to  challenge  enemies  on  the  furthest 


CH.  VIII]  AUSTRALIA.  217 

frontier  rather  than  await  them  at  their  own  doors. 
An  Australian  opinion  has  already  been  given  upon 
this  subject.  A  contingent  of  Australian  troops  sent 
to  the  Soudan  may  be  put  to  the  credit  of  impulsive 
national  enthusiasm  ;  a  contingent  one  day  on  the 
frontier  of  Afghanistan  might  well  be  the  outcome  of 
deliberate  and  far-sighted  Australian  policy. 

I  attach  very  little  importance  to  the  opinion, 
sometimes  expressed,  that  in  view  of  the  rapid  in- 
crease of  a  native-born  population  in  Australia,  any 
measures  looking  towards  national  unity  should  be 
hurried  forward  before  the  generation  born  in  the 
United  Kingdom  had  passed  away  or  lost  its  con- 
trolling influence.  Other  reasons  there  are  for  early 
movement,  but  not  this  one.  The  idea  of  national 
unity  must  win  on  its  own  merits.  The  growth  of  a 
native-born  population  may  or  may  not  make  for 
consolidation,  but  it  is  on  the  judgment  and  sentiment 
of  such  a  population  that  the  strength  of  any  union 
must  ultimately  depend.  Meanwhile  we  may  re- 
member that  four-fifths  of  the  population  of  Canada 
is  native-born ;  the  fact  has  not  weakened  in  the 
slightest  degree  the  closeness  of  sympathy  with 
Great  Britain  and  the  Empire. 

Of  the  many  ardent  advocates  of  national  unity, 
everywhere  scattered  throughout  the  Dominion,  by 
far  the  larger  proportion  consists  of  native  Canadians. 
So  I  believe  it  will  ultimately  be  in  Australia.  The 
longer  history  of  Canada,  the  more  severe  conditions 
of  that  history,  seem  to  me  to  have  given  a  greater 


2i 8  IMPERIAL   FEDERATION.  [CH.  VIII 

maturity   and    definiteness    of   political    thought    in 
Canada  than  in  Australia. 

It  was  often  pointed  out  to  me  in  Australia,  by  the 
older  inhabitants,  and  particularly  the  older  poli- 
ticians, that  among  the  un-travelled  younger  people 
of  the  colonies  there  was  at  present  an  extraordinarily 
exaggerated  opinion  of  the  absolute  and  relative  im- 
portance of  Australia  in  the  world.  A  stranger  naturally 
hesitates  to  generalize  on  the  truth  of  such  a  criticism, 
though  marking  individual  illustrations.  I  had  the 
privilege  of  addressing  a  gathering  of  young  men  of  the 
Sydney  University.  In  a  debate  which  followed  one 
of  the  students  asked  :  *  What  single  thing  have  people 
in  England  better  than  we  Australians  have  here  ? ' 
The  manifest  sincerity  with  which  the  question  was 
asked  made  the  remark  deeply  interesting — almost 
touching.  The  attitude  of  mind  is  accounted  for  by 
the  lack  of  some  standard  of  comparison  close  at 
hand.  England  has  measured  her  strength  with  too 
many  rivals  to  overrate  her  place  in  the  world. 
Canada  has  had  a  great  neighbour  to  force  upon  her 
a  sense  of  proportion.  The  United  States  them- 
selves emerged  from  the  great  war  of  Secession  with 
a  temper  curiously  modest  and  moderate  as  com- 
pared with  the  spread-eagleism  which  prevailed  in 
the  years  when  the  country  had  known  little  but 
continuous  prosperity,  when  its  strength  had  not 
been  tested  by  trial,  and  when  a  republican  form  of 
government  was  supposed  to  be  a  guarantee  against 
all  the  ills  from  which  monarchies  were  wont  to  suffer. 


CH.  VIII]  AUSTRALIA.  219 

The  remarkable  conditions  under  which  Australia 
has  been  developed,  with  no  strong  native  races 
against  which  to  struggle — with  external  enemies 
kept  at  a  distance  by  British  ironclads,  or  by  fear  of 
the  British  name,  and  with  suddenly  gained  wealth 
almost  without  precedent  in  history— sufficiently  ac- 
count for  any  over- confident  attitude  on  the  part  of 
very  young  Australians.  This,  time  is  sure  to  rectify. 
Political  experience  gives  political  perspective.  Out- 
side of  this  it  would  be  difficult  to  discover  anything 
in  the  mass  of  Australians  to  indicate  that  they  were 
likely  to  be  different  from  Englishmen  or  Canadians 
in  loyalty  to  a  large  nationality.  I  say  the  mass  of 
Australians,  for  it  would  be  idle  to  ignore  the  fact 
that  another  current  of  thought  exists. 

In  two  of  the  Australian  colonies,  New  South 
Wales  and  Queensland,  some  journals  arc  found  which 
make  it  their  business  to  cultivate  an  anti-British 
and  separatist  feeling,  and  it  must  be  admitted  that 
they  give  themselves  to  their  task  with  great  and 
unflagging  energy.  It  is  very  difficult  to  estimate 
accurately  the  range  of  their  influence.  I  found  the 
most  divergent  opinions  held  upon  the  point  by  well- 
informed  Australians  themselves,  some,  looking  upon 
them,  and  the  idea  which  they  represented,  as  forces 
that  would  have  to  be  reckoned  with  in  the  future  : 
others  regarding  them  as  unworthy  of  notice,  and  with- 
out any  permanent  influence.  Certainly  in  strength  of 
language  they  have  no  parallel  in  any  other  part  of  the 
British  world,  or  in  the  United  States.  British  people 


220  IMPERIAL    FEDERATION.  [Cn.  VIII 

outside  of  Australia  may  be  interested  in  knowing 
something  of  their  tone  and  aim.  I  select  a  com- 
paratively moderate  passage.  '  What  does  it  [British 
Federation]  offer  us  in  exchange  for  our  ideals  and 
our  aspirations,  and  our  sympathies  and  our  interests  ? 

It   offers   us    only    an    unwieldy    Empire, 

crusted  over  with  fungi,  rotting  with  inequalities, 
governed  by  a  class  which  is  blown  out  with  Privilege 
and  Pride,  that  ignores  the  Spirit  of  the  Age  and 
clings  to  the  brutal  Past.  In  this  Empire  our  Aus- 
tralia will  be  swamped,  under  it  she  would  be  buried  ; 
in  it  our  inspiration  to  lift  again  the  torch  of  Liberty 
would  be  smothered  and  drowned.  We  do  not  want 
it  and  we  will  not  have  it.  Our  Australia  shall  be  as 
free  from  foreign  control  as  is  the  sunshine  that  the 
Australian  loves ;  as  is  the  billowing  sea  that  surges 
eternally  around  her  shores.  She  shall  in  herself  be 
complete,  in  sympathy  with  all,  in  dependence  upon 
none.  .  .  .  We  have  no  interest  in  British  Trade  and 
still  less  in  the  maintenance  of  the  Empire.  We  do 
not  care  who  owns  India ;  we  hope  that  if  any  more 
opium  wars  come  about  the  white  ensign  will  be 
blown  out  of  Chinese  waters ;  nothing  would  please 
us  better  than  to  hear  that  the  Spaniards  had  re- 
taken Gibraltar  and  the  Germans  Heligoland  and 
that  the  huge  facade  of  commercial  aggression  and 
oligarchic  robbery  had  come  down  with  a  crash.' 

This  passage  fairly  represents  a  kind  of  political 
pabulum  which  is  dealt  out  very  freely  and  finds  an 
audience  in  Sydney  and  Brisbane.  For  the  most 


CH.  VIII]  AUSTRALIA.  221 

part  it  is  furnished,  not  by  native  Australians,  but  by 
imported  talent.  In  Sydney  a  higher  grade  of  news- 
paper freely  discusses  the  question  of  separation  from 
the  Empire,  with  a  distinct  inclination  towards  inde- 
pendence as  the  true  Australian  ideal. 

At  a  public  meeting  which  I  addressed  in  Sydney 
the  statement  of  the  arguments  for  British  unity  met 
with  what  seemed  to  me  a  distinctly  unfriendly 
reception.  The  case  stands  quite  alone  in  my  ex- 
perience of  the  British  world.  I  was,  however,  to  my 
surprise  assured  by  leading  men  who  were  present 
that  the  hearing  given  me  was,  for  Sydney,  a  very 
good  one.  If  so,  the  lot  of  a  public  man  in  New 
South  Wales  is  not  an  enviable  one. 

At  this  meeting  Mr.  Buchanan  of  the  Legislative 
Council  moved,  and  Mr.  Traill  of  the  Legislative 
Assembly  seconded,  a  resolution,  affirming  that  '  the 
natural  and  inevitable  tendency  of  the  Australian 
colonies  is  to  unite  and  form  among  themselves  one 
free  and  independent  nation.'  I  give  the  names  of 
the  mover  and  seconder  that  the  weight  or  weakness 
of  their  support  of  such  a  resolution  may  be  justly 
estimated  by  those  competent  to  judge  In  comment 
upon  the  occurrence  the  leading  Sydney  journal, 
while  repudiating  any  sympathy  with  the  display  of 
Separatist  feeling,  said,  '  the  fact  is  patent  that  within 
the  last  few  years  the  opponents  of  closer  union,  even 
the  advocates  of  separation,  have  gathered  courage, 
spoken  more  boldly,  and  taken  an  aggressive  attitude.' 
Australians  therefore  know  what  they  have  to  deal 


222  IMPERIAL   FEDERATION.  [Cn.  VIII 

with.  Mr.  Dibbs,  the  present  premier  of  New  South 
Wales,  has  used  expressions  that  indicate  a  wish  for 
or  an  expectation  of  Australian  independence.  On 
the  other  hand,  among  the  great  majority  of  leading 
men  in  the  colony,  including  native  Australians  of 
prominence  and  conspicuous  ability,  such  as  Mr. 
Barton  and  Mr.  Reid,  the  opinion  appeared  general 
that  separation  from  the  Empire  would  mean  for 
Australia  'all  loss  and  no  gain.'  At  the  Sydney 
conference  of  1891  the  voice  of  Sir  Henry  Parkes  was 
as  decisive  for  permanent  unity  with  the  Empire  as 
was  that  of  Sir  John  Macdonald  at  Quebec  in  1864. 

Making  all  allowance,  however,  for  division  of 
opinion  in  Sydney,  it  must  be  remembered  that  New 
South  Wales  by  no  means  represents  all  Australia. 

If  large  and  enthusiastic  meetings,  the  hearty  sup- 
port of  an  influential  and  exceptionally  able  press,  and 
the  cordial  approval  of  the  clearest  thinkers  form  a 
sufficient  index  to  popular  opinion,  then  one  is  justi- 
fied in  saying  that  the  idea  of  national  unity  appeals 
strongly  to  the  sentiment  and  to  the  reasoned  convic- 
tion of  the  people  of  the  next  great  colony,  Victoria. 
The  dominating  energy  of  Victoria  has  extended  its 
interests  to  every  corner  of  the  Australian  continent. 
Its  business  connection  with  the  mother-land  is  more 
important  and  intimate  than  that  of  any  other  colony. 
Hence  the  outlook  on  national  questions  is  wide,  and 
Victoria  would  steadily  resist  any  tendency  to  separa- 
tion from  the  Empire.  The  same  may  be  said, 
I  think,  of  South  Australia,  where  the  press  is  con- 


CH.  VIIIJ  AUSTRALIA.  223 

spicuous  for  its  able  and  temperate  discussion  of 
national  questions  and  where  the  prominent  leaders  of 
opinion  are  sincere  believers  in  the  permanent  unity 
of  the  Empire. 

In  Queensland,  as  is  well  known,  there  has  been  in 
past  years  much  talk  of  separation,  chiefly  arising  from 
friction  with  the  Colonial  office  being  made  a  factor 
in  local  party  conflicts.  For  some  time  Queensland 
refused  to  share  in  the  expense  for  naval  defence 
undertaken  by  the  other  colonies,  the  contribution  for 
that  purpose  being  denounced  as  '  tribute.'  Later  and 
wiser  thought  has  reversed  this  decision.  From  its 
long  coast-line  and  the  immediate  proximity  of  settle- 
ments formed  by  other  nations,  Queensland  has  more 
interest  than  any  other  colony  in  naval  defence. 

The  consciousness  of  exposure  to  attack  prompted 
the  attempted  annexation  of  the  whole  of  New  Guinea, 
and  explains  the  intense  annoyance  felt  in  Queensland 
at  the  refusal  of  the  Colonial  office  to  sanction  that 
annexation.  The  necessity  for  naval  protection  is  a 
permanent  condition,  and  will  probably  dominate  the 
political  thought  of  Queensland  even  more  than  of  the 
rest  of  Australia.  In  Rockhampton  I  had  the  oppor- 
tunity of  discussing  the  question  with  a  large  and 
sympathetic  audience,  and  in  other  parts  of  Queensland 
as  well  as  there  with  leading  politicians  and  journalists. 
Despite  the  superficial  talk  about  separation,  I  doubt 
if  in  any  colony  of  the  Empire  is  the  value  of  a  great 
national  connection  more  thoroughly  understood'  by 
those  who  really  dominate  the  policy  of  the  colony. 


224  IMPERIAL   FEDERATION.  [CH.  VIII 

Taking  the  Australian  continent  as  a  whole  I  think 
it  is  a  fair  estimate  to  say  that  in  every  one  of  the 
colonies  there  is  an  overwhelming  majority  who  would 
favour  permanent  connection  with  the  Empire.  On 
the  other  hand  it  is  quite  certain  that  in  some  of 
the  colonies  there  is  an  active  and  aggressive  minority 
energetically  working  for  ultimate  separation.  It  is 
for  Australians  and  Australians  alone  to  decide 
between  these  conflicting  ideas. 


TASMANIA. 

The  colony  of  Tasmania  is  comparatively  small, 
but  its  insular  position  makes  it  one  of  the  critical 
points  in  Australian  defence.  Up  to  the  present  time 
owing  to  the  small  population  and  revenue,  its 
principal  harbours  have  been  less  strongly  fortified 
than  those  of  Australia,  and  military  authorities  have 
constantly  urged  greater  attention  to  its  defences 
upon  the  ground  that  by  seizing  positions  here  an 
enemy  might  find  means  of  coal  supply  and  a  base 
from  which  to  attack  Australia.  Upon  this  point 
the  report  of  General  Edwards  was  most  emphatic. 
The  island  is  within  three  days'  steaming  distance 
from  Adelaide,  one  from  Melbourne,  two  and  a  half 
from  Sydney  and  four  from  New  Zealand.  With 
several  fine  harbours,  a  soil  and  climate  equal  to  any 
in  the  world,  a  considerable  coal  supply,  and  as  yet 
only  a  limited  population  to  resist  attack,  Tasmania 


CH.  VIII]  TASMANIA.  225 

would  present  to  any  hostile  power  not  merely  an 
opportunity  but  almost  a  temptation  to  establish  a 
Gibraltar  in  the  Southern  seas.  Tasmania  has 
strong  commercial  reasons  for  wishing  to  federate 
with  Australia.  On  the  other  hand  in  an  Australian 
federation  she  would  have  the  strongest  reasons  for 
opposing  separation  from  the  mother-country.  Like 
New  Zealand,  she  depends  for  safety  upon  naval 
defence,  a  defence  she  could  not  receive  from  the 
colonies  of  the  continent. 

So  far  as  it  is  possible  to  judge  from  external  in- 
dications the  opinion  of  this  small  but  strategically 
most  important  colony  is  almost  entirely  in  favour 
of  close  and  permanent  connection  with  the  Empire. 
During  discussion  on  the  subject  carried  on  in  the 
principal  centres  of  population,  and  extending  over 
some  weeks,  I  found  that  the  idea  of  British  unity 
was  heartily  supported  by  every  one  of  the  leading 
newspapers,  and  by  most  of  the  principal  public  men, 
including  the  leaders  of  the  Government  and  Op- 
position. Opposing  ideas  have  their  representatives 
in  a  small  group  of  sincere  republicans,  headed  by 
the  present  Attorney-General,  the  Hon.  A.  Inglis 
Clark.  The  republicanism  of  this  small  party  was 
the  more  interesting,  as  it  seemed  to  me  quite  un- 
connected with  and  superior  to  the  irrational  and 
bitter  anti-British  feeling  which  occasionally  finds 
expression  in  one  or  two  of  the  Australian  colonies. 


226  IMPERIAL  FEDERATION.  [Cn.  VI11 

NEW  ZEALAND. 

In  New  Zealand  I  found  among  politicians,  journal- 
ists, and  the  public  generally,  a  remarkable  consensus 
of  opinion  that  the  circumstances  of  that  colony 
would  always  compel  it  to  regard  questions  of 
national  defence  and  consolidation  from  its  own  point 
of  view,  and  in  a  large  measure  independently  of  Aus- 
tralia. Facts  justify  this  attitude.  New  Zealand  is 
loco  miles  long  and  nowhere  more  than  150  broad. 
Cut  in  two  by  a  broad  strait  and  penetrated  by 
numerous  bays  and  inlets,  it  has  3000  miles  of  coast 
line,  and  is  therefore  more  exposed  from  a  naval 
point  of  view  than  any  other  equally  fertile,  wealthy, 
and  thinly  settled  country  in  the  world.  That  it  is 
an  outlying  part  of  Australia  is  an  illusion  left 
on  many  minds  from  a  casual  glance  at  small  maps 
of  the  Southern  Hemisphere,  but  the  illusion  vanishes 
the  moment  we  visit  the  country  or  consider  the 
facts.  Twelve  hundred  miles  of  open  sea  separate 
it  from  Australia.  The  trade  between  the  two  is 
growing,  but  it  is  insignificant  compared  with  the  flood 
of  commerce  which  pours  from  each  towards  Britain. 
The  similarity  of  production  will  probably  make  this 
a  permanent  condition,  save  when  drought  compels 
Australia  to  look  to  New  Zealand  for  food  supplies. 
Britain  is  New  Zealand's  one  great  market,  and  it 
has  become  a  more  steady  and  reliable  market  from 
the  means  which  have  been  devised  to  transfer  the 
perishable  produce  of  New  Zealand  farms  to  the 


CH.  VIII]  NEW  ZEALAND.  227 

British  consumer.  Meanwhile,  in  her  isolated  position 
only  naval  power  can  give  the  colony  adequate  de- 
fence. The  states  of  Australia  can  give  effective 
support  to  each  other — they  cannot  give  it  to  New 
Zealand  until  they  possess  a  fleet  sufficient  to  com- 
mand the  Southern  seas,  and  such  a  fleet  they  will 
not  possess  at  any  time  within  the  range  of  present 
political  calculation.  Among  reflective  men  in  New 
Zealand  one  finds  no  readiness  to  believe  that 
geographical  isolation  could  be  relied  upon  for 
giving  military  security,  an  idea  which  has  con- 
siderable vogue  in  parts  of  Australia.  £  I  see  that 
the  tendency  of  enterprize  and  science  is  every  year 
more  to  annihilate  space,  and  space  will  be  annihi- 
lated for  purposes  of  war  as  well  as  peace,  and  the 
distance  of  the  colonies  from  those  who  may  attack 
them  every  year  becomes  less  and  less  of  a  protection 
to  them.'  These  words  of  Lord  Salisbury  express 
not  inaccurately,  I  think,  the  prevailing  thought  of  all 
serious  politicans  in  New  Zealand  in  regard  to  their 
country.  The  feeling  is  strengthened  by  a  further 
consideration.  New  Zealand  has  already  a  good 
deal  of  trade  with  the  scattered  islands  of  the  Pacific. 
This  trade  is  likely  to  have  a  large  development  as 
time  goes  on.  At  any  rate  New  Zealanders  have  formed 
a  very  definite  ambition  to  acquire  a  large  commercial 
connection  and  powerful  influence  in  the  Pacific,  an 
ambition  which  can  scarcely  be  realized  unless  its 
commercial  interests  have  adequate  naval  support. 
Considerations  of  the  kind  I  have  mentioned  explain 
Q  2 


228  IMPERIAL   FEDERATION.  [Cn.  VIII 

the  comparative  indifference  of  the  colony  to  Aus- 
tralian federation,  which  would  never  satisfy  her 
necessities  except  as  subsidiary  to  the  larger  national 
union.  They  explain  the  fairly  unanimous  support 
which  her  ablest  public  men  have  given  to  the 
general  principle  of  national  Federation.  Mr.  Ballance, 
the  Liberal  Premier  of  New  Zealand,  said  in  the 
House  of  Representatives,  in  a  discussion  which  took 
place  prior  to  the  Australasian  Federal  Convention 
at  Sydney,  that  '  Imperial  Federation,  with  a  free 
management  of  its  own  affairs  as  at  present,  was  the 
only  future  he  would  look  to  for  the  colony.'  Equally 
strong  expressions  could  be  gathered  from  the  speeches 
or  writings  of  most  of  the  leading  men  of  New 
Zealand.  The  fear  lest  Australian  Federation  might 
ultimately  lead  to  separation  from  the  Empire  was 
publicly  and  expressly  assigned  as  a  reason  why 
New  Zealand  should  not  be  a  part  of  the  Australian 
commonwealth.  Inside  an  Australasian  Federation 
New  Zealand's  influence  would  be  steadily  thrown  in 
favour  of  British  national  unity.  On  the  other  hand, 
should  Australia  ever  move  towards  separation — an 
improbable  contingency,  but  one  often  suggested  by 
a  few  of  her  journalists  and  public  men — the  advan- 
tage in  prestige  and  more  practical  ways  which 
New  Zealand  would  derive  from  retaining  the 
wide  national  connection,  and  becoming  the  centre 
of  the  Empire's  naval  strength  in  the  Southern  seas, 
would  infinitely  outweigh  anything  Australia  could 
possibly  offer,  and  would  decide  the  course  to  which 


CH.  VIII]  NEW   ZEALAND.  229 

self-interest  even  now  points.  The  individual  interest 
which  New  Zealand  thus  holds  towards  the  question 
is  very  significant,  and  worthy  of  careful  attention. 
Placed  in  the  centre  of  the  water  hemisphere  of  the 
globe  this  ( Britain  of  the  South  '  seems  the  precise 
complement  of  the  mother-country  at  the  centre  of 
the  land  hemisphere,  while  a  conjunction  of  circum- 
stances,— the  possession  of  excellent  harbours,  already 
very  fairly  defended,  and  easily  made  impregnable, 
a  plentiful  supply  of  coal,  timber,  and  metals,  a  climate 
which  never  fails  to  favour  abundant  crops,  and 
nourishes  a  sturdy  race, — fits  the  country  to  be 
the  opposite  pole  of  the  Oceanic  Empire  which 
Britain  has  created.  Distance  might  be  supposed  to 
have  lessened  commercial  intercourse  with  the  mother- 
land ;  as  a  matter  of  fact  it  is  greater  in  proportion  to 
wealth  and  population  than  that  of  any  other  country. 
Roughly  putting  the  exports  of  New  Zealand  at 
£10,000.000  per  annum,  £7,000,000  go  to  Great 
Britain,  £2,250,000  to  other  parts  of  the  Empire,  and 
only  the  small  remaining  balance  to  other  countries. 
The  proportion  of  imports  is  not  widely  different. 
Community  of  interest  could  scarcely  be  greater  than 
this.  The  safety  of  this  trade,  too,  is  of  the  very 
essence  of  the  prosperity,  one  might  almost  say  of 
the  commercial  life  of  the  country.  Its  stoppage  would 
mean  financial  and  industrial  paralysis.  We  have 
therefore  some  measure  of  what  the  security  guaran- 
teed by  the  greatest  naval  power  in  the  world  means 
to  New  Zealand. 


230  IMPERIAL   FEDERATION.  [CH.  VIII 

On  the  other  hand,  it  would  be  difficult  to  ex- 
aggerate the  advantage  which  such  .a  power  would 
derive  in  war  from  the  exclusive  use  of  this  half- 
way place  in  the  voyage  around  the  world.  Auck- 
land, Lyttleton,  Wellington  and  Dunedin  all  have 
excellent  harbours.  The  fortifications  which  pro- 
tect them,  constructed  and  equipped  at  the  ex- 
pense of  the  colony  itself,  are,  says  General  Edwards 
in  his  report  'well  planned,  and  the  armaments  are 
sufficient  to  repel  the  attack  of  several  cruisers, 
provided  the  defence  is  properly  organized  and  com- 
petent officers  appointed  to  command.'  Thus  they 
furnish  a  comparatively  secure  retreat  for  ships  of 
commerce  or  of  war.  Auckland  and  Lyttleton  have 
docks,  that  at  Auckland  being  capacious  enough  to 
receive  for  repair  the  largest  ship  of  war  afloat. 
Even  now  the  vessels  of  France,  Germany  and  other 
nations  call  here  to  coal,  victual,  or  repair,  finding 
such  stations  as  Samoa  or  Noumea  but  poor  bases  from 
which  to  operate.  The  advantage  to  a  nation  holding 
these  ports  in  time  of  war  would  be  overwhelming. 
It  would  scarcely  be  diminished  even  if  Australia 
should  become  independent.  Other  powers,  if  they 
respected  Australia's  independence,  could  not  use  her 
ports  as  a  base  of  attack,  and  at  the  utmost  could 
only  demand  the  rights  of  neutrals  which  would  be 
of  little  use  in  a  serious  conflict  with  Britain  while 
retaining  the  exclusive  possession  of  New  Zealand. 
The  defection  of  one  or  two  of  the  Australian  colonies, 
or  even  of  the  whole  continent,  would  weaken 


CH.  VIII]  NEW    ZEALAND.  231 

the  chain  of  the  Empire's  maritime  position,  but 
would  not  create  in  it  a  fatal  flaw,  so  long  as  New 
Zealand  remains  faithful  to  the  national  allegiance. 
The  practically  undivided  sentiment  of  her  people 
and  her  own  supreme  interests  alike  incline  her  in 
this  direction. 


CHAPTER  IX. 

SOUTH  AFRICA. 

THOSE  who  claim  that  the  separation  from  the 
Empire  of  any  one  of  our  three  groups  of  great 
colonies  would  inflict  a  serious  if  not  a  fatal  blow  on 
our  national  greatness  and  the  prosperity  of  British 
people — point  with  no  slight  interest  to  the  illus- 
tration of  their  argument  which  is  furnished  by  South 
Africa.  Here,  again,  we  have  under  the  British 
flag  a  country  of  vast  extent  and  favourable  for 
European  occupation.  The  institutions  of  self-govern- 
ment are  already  established  over  a  wide  area,  and 
are  being  gradually  extended.  A  confederation  of 
all  the  South  African  provinces  is  already  in  the 
thought  of  practical  statesmen.  We  have  here,  then, 
the  probability  of  the  formation  of  another  power, 
so  large  that  a  merely  colonial  position  cannot  be 
expected  to  satisfy  its  ultimate  political  necessities. 
Though  at  present  far  inferior  to  Canada  and  Austra- 
lia in  population,  arid  behind  them  in  fulness  of 
constitutional  development,  it  is  moving  along  the 
same  lines  of  political  growth,  and  circumstances  may 
at  any  time  lead  to  a  rapid  increase  of  population. 
Most  of  the  arguments,  therefore,  which  are  used  in 


SOUTH   AFRICA.  233 

favour  of  Canadian  or  Australian  separation  apply 
to  South  Africa  as  well.  If  an  independent  govern- 
ment, a  separate  foreign  policy,  a  distinct  system  of 
defence,  an  individual  diplomatic  relation  to  the  rest 
of  the  world,  is  a  political  necessity  for  Australia,  New 
Zealand,  or  Canada,  it  is  clearly  an  equal  necessity 
for  South  Africa.  The  internal  impulse  towards 
independence  might  even  be  expected  to  be  excep- 
tionally strong,  since  a  considerable  fraction  of  the 
white  population  is  not  British  by  descent,  and  has 
been  led  by  circumstances  to  feel  a  peculiar  sensitive- 
ness in  regard  to  political  rights. 

Is  then  the  retention  of  South  Africa  under  the 
national  flag,  and  within  the  national  system,  a  matter 
of  indifference  to  British  people  either  at  home  or 
abroad  ?  Is  the  separation  of  South  Africa,  its  free- 
dom to  associate  itself  with  any  power  it  pleases, 
or  even  its  being  placed  in  a  position  where  British 
people  could  only  enjoy  or  be  granted  neutral 
rights  in  its  harbours,  a  condition  of  things  which  can 
be  discussed  with  equanimity  by  Australians,  New 
Zealanders,  East  Indians,  nay,  even  by  Canadians 
with  their  great  ocean  interests,  to  say  nothing  of 
the  people  of  the  United  Kingdom  itself?  The  test 
which  South  Africa  applies  to  separatist  theories 
seems  to  me  a  crucial  one. 

Once  more  I  cannot  do  better  than  quote  from 
the  f  Problems  of  Greater  Britain.' 

The  author  says  :  '  Considered  from  the  Imperial, 
from  the  Indian,  and  from  the  Australian  point 


234  IMPERIAL  FEDERATION.  [Cn.  IX 

of  view,  as  an  aid  to  our  maritime  power,  no  spot 
on  earth  is  more  important  to  us  than  the  Cape 
with  its  twin  harbours  Table  Bay  and  Simon's  Bay.' 
And  again  :  '  While  a  general  hostility  to  our  rule 
would  be  sufficient  to  make  us  part  with  almost  any 
other  colony,  it  is  impossible  for  us  to  give  up  the 
military  station  which  we  occupy  at  the  extremity  of 
the  African  continent  and  which  itself  cannot  be  held 
unless  we  hold  at  all  events  a  portion  of  the  country 
round  it.' 

No  one  who  considers  the  geographical  position 
of  the  Cape,  and  its  relation  to  the  greatest  trade 
route  of  the  Empire,  can  regard  these  utterances  as 
exaggerated.  The  Cape  is,  and  must  always  be,  one 
of  the  greatest  turning  places  of  the  world's  com- 
merce. Between  St.  Helena  and  Mauritius  for  the 
Indian  bound  ships,  between  St.  Helena  and  King 
George's  Sound  for  those  going  towards  the  Southern 
seas,  the  Cape  is  the  only  sufficient  resting-place  that 
European  ships  can  find. 

'  As  a  vessel  steaming  from  British  ports  for  India, 
or  China,  or  Australia,  in  time  of  war  begins  to 
approach  the  point  of  exhaustion  of  its  coal  supply 
it  finds  itself  in  a  region  of  storms,  far  from  any 
shelter  except  that  at  the  Cape  of  Good  Hope.  The 
position  of  that  refuge,  and  the  certainty  of  being  able 
to  deny  it  to  an  enemy,  combined  with  the  command 
of  the  Red  Sea  route,  even  if  only  for  the  purpose  of 
stopping  it,  draws  therefore,  on  behalf  of  England,  an 
almost  impassable  line  on  this  side  of  the  globe 


CH.  IX]  SOUTH    AFRICA.  235 

between  the  Eastern  and  the  Western  Hemispheres. .  . 
The  difficulty  which  our  ownership  of  the  Cape  places 
in  the  way  of  possible  opponents,  even  more  than  the 
refuge  afforded  to  our  ships,  constitutes  in  war  the 
supreme  advantage  of  the  possession  of  the  Cape  of 
Good  Hope  as  a  naval  station  V 

Such  being  the  relation  of  South  Africa  to  the 
Empire,  such  the  importance  of  its  remaining  under 
the  British  flag,  we  may  well  ask,  with  some  anxiety, 
whether  the  feelings  of  its  people  and  the  interests 
of  the  colony  point  in  the  same  direction. 

The  attitude  of  the  leading  men  of  South  Africa 
towards  the  idea  of  national  unity  is  clearly  defined. 
Mr.  Hofmeyer,  the  leader  of  the  Dutch  or  Afrikander 
party,  at  the  colonial  conference  of  1887,  brought 
forward,  and  earnestly  pressed  upon  the  assembled 
delegates,  a  scheme  for  'promoting  a  closer  union 
between  the  various  parts  of  the  British  Empire  by 
means  of  an  imperial  tariff  of  customs.'  His  words 
indicate  the  temper  of  mind  in  which  he  addresses 
himself  to  the  question  :  *  I  have  taken  this  matter  in 
hand  with  two  objects  :  to  promote  the  union  of  the 
Empire,  and  at  the  same  time  to  obtain  revenue  for 
the  purpose  of  general  defence.' 

Sir  Gordon  Sprigg,  for  many  years  Premier  of  Cape 
Colony,  speaking  in  London  in  1891,  strongly  advo- 
cated a  similar  policy,  and  was  urgent,  to  quote  his 
own  words,  '  that  an  invitation  should  be  addressed 
to  the  governments  of  the  various  colonies  and  de- 

1  Problems  of  Greater  Britain,  vol.  ii.  p.  521. 


236  IMPERIAL  FEDERATION.  [Cn.  IX 

pendencies  to  send  representatives  to  this  country 
to  consider,  in  a  conference,  the  practicability  of 
forming  a  commercial  union  between  the  different 
parts  of  the  Empire,'  regarding  this  as  the  most 
effectual  way  of  accomplishing  what  he  considered 
should  be  the  aim  of  national  statesmanship,  viz.  the 
unification  of  national  interests. 

The  present  Premier  of  Cape  Colony,  and  the  most 
influential'  man  in  South  Africa,  Mr.  Cecil  Rhodes, 
has  stated  that  he  looks  upon  the  consolidation  of  the 
different  colonies  of  South  Africa  as  the  main  aim 
of  his  political  life,  but  at  the  same  time  his  utter- 
ances, from  the  beginning  of  his  political  career  to 
the  present  moment,  indicate  conclusively  that  he 
only  thinks  of  a  united  South  Africa  as  an  integral 
part  of  a  united  Empire,  so  constituted  as  to  give 
adequate  expression  to  the  aims  of  its  various 
members.  It  is  interesting  to  find  that  these  three 
men,  who  may  be  taken  as  representing  the  different 
sides  of  South  African  feeling,  all  eminently  practical, 
and  all  above  a  suspicion  of  subjecting  the  interest 
of  the  colony  to  the  interest  of  the  nation  at  large, 
are  agreed  in  the  belief  that  the  best  future  for  their 
country  is  close  association  with  the  mother-land, 
and  the  Empire.  And  looking  at  the  facts  of  the 
situation,  from  a  South  African  point  of  view,  who 
can  doubt  that  they  are  justified?  Pressing  upon 
British  South  Africa  on  all  sides  are  the  nations  of 
Europe.  France  is  in  Madagascar.  Bordering  on 
British  territories  are  those  of  Germany  and  Portugal. 


CH.  IX]  SOUTH   AFRICA.  237 

The  Dutch  Republics,  as  yet  only  half  won  to  friend- 
liness and  sympathy,  are  close  at  hand.  Large  native 
populations — which  do  not  fade  away,  as  in  America, 
New  Zealand,  or  Australia  at  the  approach  of  the 
white  man,  but  rather  multiply  under  influences 
which  make  for  peace — are  all  around.  The  develop- 
ment of  a  great  continent  overflowing  with  stores 
of  wealth  depends  not  only  on  the  energy  of  the  men 
who  have  the  work  directly  in  hand,  but  on  the 
confidence  they  feel  that  behind  them  is  the  diplom- 
acy of  a  powerful  nation  to  maintain  their  rights, 
the  wealth  of  a  rich  nation  to  furnish  them  with 
capital,  the  strength  of  a  great  people  to  secure  them, 
in  emergency,  from  disaster. 

If  the  British  connection  seems  of  such  significance 
to  South  African  statesmen,  in  working  out  the  future 
of  their  vast  country,  quite  as  much  does  the  Empire 
require  the  constant  advice  of  those  statesmen  in 
directing  the  difficult  diplomacy  and  making  the 
critical  decisions  which  the  control  of  so  much  of 
the  continent  necessitates.  The  lack  of  such  advice, 
directly  and  consistently  sought,  is  probably  at  the 
root  of  much  of  the  difficulty  of  the  past.  In  the 
long  run  South  African  opinion  must  dominate 
national  policy  in  South  Africa.  That  it  should  be 
expressed  in  an  authoritative  form,  and  under  a  due 
sense  of  national  responsibility,  are  the  conditions 
which  will  make  it  most  helpful,  and  most  reliable. 

Sir  Gordon  Sprigg  and  other  public  men  from  the 
Cape  have  pointed  out  to  me  how  peculiar  are  the 


238  IMPERIAL   FEDERATION.  [Cn.  IX 

problems  which  arise  in  South  African  politics,  how 
much  they  stand  apart  from  Anglo-Saxon  experience 
in  other  parts  of  the  world,  how  impossible  it  is  for 
any  one  who  has  not  to  deal  with  these  problems 
on  the  spot  to  understand  them.  Here,  if  anywhere, 
the  maxim  is  true  to  which  I  have  alluded  in  another 
place,  that  '  only  those  who  know  a  country  are  fitted 
to  rule  it.'  It  is  only  by  utilizing  the  knowledge 
and  experience  of  the  best  minds  of  the  country  that 
adequate  direction  can  be  given  to  its  external  re- 
lations as  to  its  internal  government. 

The  actual  and  contingent  stake  which  Great 
Britain,  Australia  and  other  parts  of  the  Empire  have 
in  the  exclusive  use  of  the  Cape  as  a  naval  station 
in  time  of  war  may  be  roughly  outlined  in  figures. 
Lord  Brassey,  dwelling  upon  the  importance  to  the 
nation  of  completing  the  fortification  and  equipment 
of  the  neighbouring  harbours,  mentions  in  the  Naval 
Annual  for  1890,  that  at  present  about  £90,000,000 
worth  of  commerce  centres  at  or  passes  this  point 
every  year,  including  £30,000,000  of  outward  trade 
to  Australia,  £13,000,000  to  the  Cape  itself,  and  por- 
tions of  the  Indian,  Chinese  and  other  Eastern  trade 
which  make  up  the  whole.  This  is  under  normal 
conditions.  But  should  the  Suez  Canal  be  closed, 
and  it  is  difficult  to  see  how  in  a  great  European 
war  this  could  be  prevented,  unless  England  could 
obtain  and  maintain  absolute  naval  control  of  the 
Mediterranean,  and  military  control  of  Egypt,  then 
at  least  £150,000,000,  and  possibly  £200,000,000  of 


CH.  IX]  SOUTH   AFRICA.  239 

British  trade  would  be  forced  to  go  round  the  Cape. 
I  have  mentioned  elsewhere  Lord  Dufferin's  statement, 
to  the  London  Chamber  of  Commerce,  that  if  any- 
thing ever  occurred  to  take  away  our  control  of  the 
Indian  markets  there  is  not  a  cottage  in  the  manu- 
facturing districts  of  England  which  would  not  feel 
the  blow  at  once.  If  this  be  true  of  the  Indian  trade 
alone,  the  argument  becomes  much  more  impressive 
when  applied  to  the  risks  which  would  be  incurred,  alike 
by  Britain,  India,  and  Australia  if  they  were  com- 
pelled to  depend  for  the  security  of  the  whole  vast 
volume  of  Eastern  and  Australian  commerce  upon 
such  neutral  rights  as  could  be  granted  by  an  inde- 
pendent South  Africa,  or  if  they  left  the  Cape  in  such 
a  position  that  it  could  be  seized  by  a  hostile  power. 
We  have  an  interesting  historical  illustration  of  what 
security  on  this  great  trade  route  means  in  the  fact, 
stated  on  apparently  reliable  authority,  that  between 
the  years  1793  and  1797,  when  the  French  held  the 
Isle  of  France  and  Bourbon,  no  less  than  2266  British 
merchantmen  were  seized  by  French  ships  or  expe- 
ditions sallying  out  from  those  stations.  So  intoler- 
able did  the  situation  become  for  British  commerce 
that  the  conquest  of  the  French  stations  became  an 
absolute  necessity,  and  this  was  effected  in  1810  when 
a  new  outbreak  of  war  had  made  like  disaster  immi- 
nent. Yet  this  was  before  the  vast  trade  of  Austra- 
lasia had  come  into  existence,  and  when  our  trade 
with  the  East  was  but  a  trifle  compared  with  its 
present  great  proportions. 


240  IMPERIAL   FEDERATION.  [Cn.  IX 

In  the  case  of  South  Africa,  however,  the  argument 
for  national  unity  is  so  strong  that  few  undertake 
to  question  it.  Not  long  since,  in  the  Manchester 
Reform  Club,  I  met  a  sincere  disciple  of  the  old  school 
of  thinkers  on  colonial  policy.  He  had  studied  the 
question  under  Mr.  Goldwin  Smith,  at  Toronto,  and 
was  at  first  concisely  and  comprehensively  dogmatic 
in  his  assertion  that  the  only  plan  for  England  was 
not  only  to  permit,  but  to  encourage,  each  of  the  great 
colonies  to  become  independent  as  soon  as  possible. 
He  was  an  honest  thinker,  and  one  could  with  him 
afford  to  stake  the  argument  on  a  candid  answer 
to  a  single  question.  *  Could  Great  Britain,  with  any 
regard  to  the  safety  of  her  national  position,  afford 
to  give  up  South  Africa'?  The  emphatic  negative 
which,  after  a  moment's  thought,  he  gave,  was  the 
only  reply  possible  for  one  who  acknowledged  the 
force  of  facts  when  presented  to  his  mind. 


THE  WEST  INDIES. 

The  present  and  contingent  relation  of  the  British 
West  Indies  to  the  problem  of  national  defence,  and 
therefore  of  national  unity,  is  more  direct  than  at  first 
sight  may  appear.  No  portion  of  the  Empire  was 
won  at  greater  expense  of  prolonged  conflict  than  the 
West  Indian  Islands,  but  their  relative  commercial  im- 
portance was  temporarily  diminished  by  the  occupation 
of  other  tropical  countries,  and  the  substitution  of  the 


CH.  IX]  THE  WEST  INDIES.  241 

beet-root  sugar  of  temperate  climates  for  that  of  the 
cane.  West  Indian  trade,  which  has  found  out 
many  new  directions,  is  still,  however,  important, 
and  not  for  the  United  Kingdom  alone,  but  for  the 
Canadian  Dominion  as  well.  Canada  and  the  West 
Indies  are  the  complement  of  each  other  in  natural 
production,  and  a  very  large  trade  is  sure  to  grow  up 
between  them  as  they  develop  in  wealth  and  popula- 
tion. The  Dominion  has,  therefore,  a  deep  interest  in 
the  power  of  the  Empire  to  protect  commerce  such 
as  is  given  by  stations  like  Bermuda,  St.  Lucia  and 
Kingston.  Halifax  has  already  been  connected  with 
Bermuda  by  a  telegraph  cable.  The  West  Indian 
islands  and  Naval  Stations  at  present  depend  for 
communication  upon  lines  passing  through  the  United 
States.  The  continuation  of  the  Halifax-Bermuda 
cable  to  the  West  Indies  would  give  an  independent 
electric  connection  between  all  the  British  possessions 
in  America.  This  might  become  a  very  distinct 
addition  to  the  resources  of  our  naval  system. 

The  completion  of  any  means  of  ship  communication 
across  the  Isthmus  of  Panama  would  increase  indefi- 
nitely the  importance  to  the  Empire  of  the  West 
Indies.  Australia  would  have  at  once  the  same  kind 
of  interest  in  the  strength  of  the  national  position 
there  which  she  now  has  in  our  possession  of  the  Cape, 
or  in  our  control  of  Aden  and  Malta.  Through  this 
new  channel  would  probably  flow  the  main  flood  of 
British  commerce  with  the  western  coasts  of  North  and 
South  America.  It  would  furnish  the  easiest  line  of 

P 


242  IMPERIAL   FEDERATION. 

naval  communication  between  the  Eastern  and 
Western  coasts  of  Canada. 

Thus  for  the  needs  of  the  present  and  the  contin- 
gencies of  the  future  the  retention  of  the  British  West 
Indies  under  the  national  flag  gives  strength  to  our 
general  system  of  defence. 

The  completion  of  telegraphic  and  steam  communi- 
cation between  the  principal  islands  has  brought  the 
question  of  local  federation  within  the  range  of  serious 
discussion,  but  the  obstacles,  social  as  well  as  physical, 
are  naturally  much  greater  than  in  the  case  of  Canada 
and  Australia,  and  the  accomplishment  of  union  may 
be  for  some  time  delayed.  The  islands  could  not 
well  be  independent  in  any  case,  and  there  is 
probably  no  part  of  the  Empire  which  would  lend 
itself  more  readily  than  the  West  Indies  to  national 
consolidation. 


CHAPTER  X. 

INDIA. 

'As  time  passes  it  rather  appears  that  we  are  in  the  hands  of 
a  Providence  which  is  greater  than  all  statesmanship,  that  this  fabric 
so  blindly  piled  up  has  a  chance  of  becoming  a  part  of  the  permanent 
edifice  of  civilization,  and  that  the  Indian  achievement  of  England, 
as  it  is  the  strangest,  may  after  all  turn  out  to  be  the  greatest,  of  all 
her  achievements.'— Prof.  J.  R.  Seeley. 

'  BUT  above  all,  what  is  to  be  done  with  India '  ? 
With  this  question  Mr.  Goldwin  Smith  makes  the 
relation  of  India  to  the  Empire  the  crux  of  the  Federa- 
tion problem.  To  him  the  difficulty  presented  seems 
insoluble,  chiefly  because  he  believes  that  it  would  be 
impossible  for  a  federation  of  democratic  communities 
scattered  over  the  globe  to  hold  India,  about  which 
they  know  little,  as  a  dependency.  He  even  doubts, 
in  his  customary  vein  of  pessimism,  whether  the  fate 
of  the  Indian  Empire  is  not  already  '  sealed  by  the 
progress  of  democracy  in  Britain.'  So  far  from  this 
last  being  the  case  it  looks  as  if  the  English  working 
man,  who  has  annually  more  than  £60,000,000  of  trade 
staked  on  our  hold  on  India,  will  be  the  last  to  weaken 
by  his  vote  our  position  in  the  country  or  our  grip  on  the 
waterways  which  lead  to  the  East.  Every  second  or 
third  day's  work  of  the  Lancashire  cotton-spinner  is 
done  for  the  Indian  market,  or  for  other  Eastern 

R  2 


244  IMPERIAL  FEDERATION.  [Cn.  X 

markets  which  we  control  on  account  of  our  position 
in  India.  In  some  large  districts,  such  as  that  of 
Oldham,  the  proportion  is  three  days'  work  out  of  four. 
And  the  Lancashire  spinner  is  a  keen  political  thinker, 
especially  where  his  bread  and  butter  are  concerned. 

The  industry  of  the  city  of  Dundee  depends  almost 
entirely  upon  the  supply  of  a  single  fibre  from  the 
valley  of  the  Ganges.  The  Dundee  jute-worker  is  a 
Radical,  but  he  is  not  likely  for  that  reason  to  forget 
that  his  daily  wage  depends  on  the  hold  which  the 
Empire  keeps  upon  Bengal.  The  purely  trade  re- 
lation of  India  to  the  United  Kingdom  was  clearly 
put  by  Lord  Dufiferin  in  his  address  to  the  London 
Chamber  of  Commerce  three  years  ago.  He  said  : — 

c  During  the  past  year  our  trade  with  our  Indian 
Empire  was  larger  than  our  trade  with  any  other 
country  in  the  world,  with  the  exception  of  the 
United  States,  amounting  to  no  less  a  sum  than 
£64,000,000.  If,  again,  we  merely  confine  our  attention 
to  a  comparison  of  our  exports  to  India  with  our 
exports  to  other  countries,  we  shall  find  that  the  same 
statement  holds  good,  namely,  that  the  exports  of 
Great  Britain  to  India  are  greater  than  those  to  any 
other  country  in  the  world  except  the  United  States, 
amounting  as  they  do  to  £34,000,000,  whereas  our 
exports  to  France  do  not  exceed  £24.000,000,  and  to 
Germany  £27,000,000.  In  fact,  India's  trade  with  the 
United  Kingdom  is  nearly  one-tenth  of  the  value  of 
the  total  British  trade  with  the  whole  world.  ...  In 
1888  she  took  £21,250,000  worth  of  our  cotton  goods 


CH.  X]  INDIA.  245 

and  yarns,  out  of  a  total  of  £72,000,000  worth  exported 
to  all  countries,  whereas  China  only  took  £6,500,000 
worth,  Germany  £2,500,000  worth  and  the  United 
States  £2,000,000  worth.  Again,  if  we  take  another 
great  section  of  British  exports,  such  as  hardware, 
machinery  and  metals,  we  find  that  out  of  a  total 
export  of  £36,000,000  to  all  countries  India  in  1888 
took  £5,750,000  worth,  whereas  we  only  sent 
£3,000,000  worth  to  France,  £1,750,000  worth  to 
Russia,  and  £750,000  worth  to  China. 

(  These  figures,  I  think,  should  be  enough  to 
convince  the  least  receptive  understanding  what  a 
fatal  blow  it  would  be  to  our  commercial  prosperity 
were  circumstances  ever  to  close,  either  completely 
or  partially,  the  Indian  ports  to  the  trade  of  Great 
Britain,  and  how  deeply  the  manufacturing  population 
of  Lancashire,  and  not  only  of  Lancashire,  but  of 
every  centre  of  industry  in  Great  Britain  and  Ireland, 
is  interested  in  the  well-being  and  expanding  pros- 
perity of  our  Indian  fellow-subjects.  Indeed  it  would 
not  be  too  much  to  say  that  if  any  serious  disaster 
ever  overtook  our  Indian  Empire,  or  if  our  political 
relations  with  the  Peninsula  of  Hindostan  were  to  be 
even  partially  disturbed,  there  is  not  a  cottage  in  Great 
Britain,  at  all  events  in  the  manufacturing  districts, 
which  would  not  be  made  to  feel  the  disastrous  con- 
sequences of  such  an  intolerable  calamity.' 

There  is  another  point  to  consider.  The  rapid  growth 
of  our  vast  Indian  commerce  has  been  largely  due  to 
the  application  on  an  immense  scale  of  British  capital 


246  IMPERIAL   FEDERATION.  [Cn.  X 

for  the  opening  up  of  the  country  by  railways  and 
canals,  and  for  the  conservation  and  distribution  of 
water  by  systems  of  irrigation.  It  is  estimated  that 
^350,000,000  are  thus  invested,  to  which  must  be 
added  other  large  sums  employed  in  various  forms  of 
industrial  enterprise  ;  the  profits  and  interest  of  all 
this  capital  flowing  back  steadily  to  the  United 
Kingdom,  and  evidently  secured  only  by  British 
dominance. 

When  to  all  this  we  connect  the  fact  that  from 
75,000  to  100,000  British  people  find  well  paid 
employment  in  carrying  on  the  government,  defence 
and  industrial  development  of  the  country  we  begin 
to  understand  the  vast  range  of  national  interests 
involved  in  our  retaining  possession  of  India.  The 
estimate  that  the  people  of  the  United  Kingdom  draw 
from  India  sixty  or  seventy  millions  sterling  every 
year  in  direct  income  is  probably  a  moderate  one. 
Directly  then  Britain's  stake  in  India  is  enormous. 
Indirectly  our  possession  of  the  country  would  prob- 
ably determine  the  drift  of  the  commerce  of  the  vast 
regions  still  further  East. 

Nor  is  it  the  United  Kingdom  alone  which  is  con- 
cerned. 

The  present  and  prospective  interest  of  the  Austra- 
lasian colonies  in  India  are  also  great,  not  only  for 
the  military  reasons  which  have  been  mentioned,  but 
in  view  of  the  growing  trade  relations.  India  re- 
duced to  anarchy  by  the  withdrawal  of  British  rule,  or 
India  governed  by  Russia,  would  mean  a  serious  blow 


CH.  X]  INDIA.  247 

to  Australasian  trade,  present  and  prospective.  It 
might  easily  mean  exclusion  from  all  the  markets  of 
the  East. 

South  Africa,  which  owed  its  earliest  development 
to  the  fact  that  it  was  the  stopping  place  on  the 
road  to  India,  still  owes  much  of  its  importance  to  the 
same  cause.  The  interest  of  Canada  in  India  is  more 
remote,  but  now  that  Canadian  steamship  lines  are 
on  the  Pacific,  with  their  terminus  at  Hong  Kong, 
Britain's  position  in  the  East  has  a  new  interest  for 
the  Dominion. 

But  every  British  colony  great  and  small  is  directly 
and  deeply  interested  in  the  maintenance  of  the  power 
of  the  Empire,  and  if  the  continued  power  of  the 
Empire  involves,  as  it  seems  to  do,  the  retention  and 
government  of  India,  the  colonies  should  not  shrink 
from  sharing  that  responsibility. 

Professor  Seeley  has  proved  with  conclusive  clear- 
ness that  the  government  of  India  has  had  very  little 
effect  upon  the  domestic  politics  of  England  ;  there  is 
no  reason  to  think  that  it  would  have  more  upon  the 
domestic  politics  of  the  Empire. 

The  political  difficulty  about  India's  relation  to  a 
united  Empire  is,  however,  felt  very  widely.  It  is 
one  of  the  first  which  occurs  to  the  minds  of  most 
men  when  they  turn  their  attention  to  the  question, 
as  I  have  found  during  public  discussion  in  many  parts 
of  the  Empire.  Nor  is  this  to  be  wondered  at.  That 
a  country  enjoying  popular  representative  institutions 
should  rule  as  an  imperial  power  over  some  hundreds 


248  IMPERIAL   FEDERATION.  [CH.  X 

of  millions  of  people  without  representation  in  their 
own  government  is  an  extraordinary  anomaly.  Men's 
minds  have,  however,  become  accustomed  to  it  by  long 
usage,  and  the  fact  is  accepted  almost  without  remark. 
But  when  a  proposal  is  made  to  re-construct  the 
national  organism  on  what  is  claimed  to  be  a  logical 
basis,  the  incompatibility  between  our  popular  system 
of  government,  and  the  system  which  we  apply  to 
India  at  once  re-appears. 

The  anomaly,  however,  would  be  no  greater  under 
federation  than  without  it,  and  it  is  one  with  which 
the  British  mind  in  all  parts  of  the  Empire  is  familiar. 
Most  of  the  great  colonies  have  had  on  a  small  scale 
the  experience  which  the  United  Kingdom  has  had 
on  a  large  scale  of  ruling  weaker  races  without  giving 
them  representation. 

Unquestionably  confusion  of  thought  is  caused  by 
the  careless  use  of  the  term  Empire  into  which  English 
people  have  fallen.  Applied  to  India  and  the  crown 
colonies  it  is  admissible,  though  with  the  qualification 
that  in  practice  the  Empress  of  India  acts  as  much 
under  advice  as  the  Queen  of  England.  As  a  name 
for  the  '  slowly  grown  and  crowned  Republic  '  of  which 
the  mother-land  is  the  type  and  the  great  self-govern- 
ing colonies  copies,  the  term  Empire  is  a  misnomer, 
and  has  none  of  the  meaning  which  it  has  when  applied 
to  Russia,  Austria,  or  the  France  of  the  Napoleons. 
If  immediate  reflection  of  the  popular  will  in  public 
policy  be  taken  as  the  test,  England,  Canada,  and 
Australia  are  more  republican  than  the  modern 


CH.  X]  INDIA.  249 

republics  ;  as  democratic  as  is  well  possible  under  a 
representative  system  of  government.  But  the  people 
of  this  {  crowned  republic,'  proud  of  their  capacity  for 
self-government,  and  impatient  of  any  illegitimate 
control  over  themselves,  have  assumed  the  task  of 
governing  a  real  Empire — one  which  contains  a 
population  of  some  hundreds  of  millions  of  various 
races.  The  legitimacy  of  this  assumed  task  we  need 
not  stay  to  discuss.  The  actual  relation  of  Britain  to 
India  as  to  several  other  countries  without  self- 
government  is  a  fact ;  and  one  which  has  passed 
beyond  the  range  of  discussion. 

This  government  of  India  the  United  Kingdom, 
upon  which  the  work  now  devolves,  finds  it  possible 
to  carry  on,  and  on  the  whole  efficiently.  That  it  is 
done  to  the  good  of  the  people  ruled  is  scarcely  open 
to  question.  British  rule  in  India  may  be  far  from 
ideally  perfect,  but  that  it  is  superior  to  anything 
India  ever  had  before  is  freely  admitted  even  by 
foreigners.  Is  there  anything  in  the  nature  of  the 
case  which  would  prevent  the  representatives  of  a 
united  British  race  from  carrying  forward  the  govern- 
ment of  India  as  do  now  the  representatives  of  the 
United  Kingdom  alone  ? 

Let  us  consider  the  system  of  government.  To  the 
Indians  themselves  no  representation,  as  we  under- 
stand the  term,  is  given.  While  largely  employed  for 
executive  functions  they  take  no  part  in  legislation. 
An  English  statesman  of  proved  capacity,  assisted  by 
a  council  of  experienced  specialists,  is  placed  as 


250  IMPERIAL   FEDERATION.  [CH.  X 

Viceroy  at  the  head  of  affairs.  Under  him  is  a  trained 
body  of  civil  servants,  selected  by  a  rigid  system  of 
examination.  To  these  the  general  administration  of 
the  country  is  committed.  It  is  a  system  of  govern- 
ment by  experts. 

The  fiscal  system  of  India,  its  revenue  and 
expenditure,  are  kept  entirely  separate  from  those  of 
the  United  Kingdom.  It  has  its  separate  and  clearly 
defined  code  of  laws  suited  to  its  circumstances.  It 
has  a  practically  independent  military  organization. 
The  government  of  the  great  dependency  is  not  only 
essentially  different  in  form  from  that  of  the  self- 
governing  portions  of  the  Empire,  but  revolves  in  a 
sphere  of  its  own.  The  general  lines  of  Indian  policy 
corrie  under  the  review  of  Parliament ;  the  pressure  of 
public  opinion  is  kept  upon  those  who  rule  India 
through  the  channel  of  Parliamentary  criticism ; 
beyond  this  the  rule  of  the  country  is  left  to  the 
specialists  to  whom  it  has  been  committed.  It  has 
been  long  since  any  question  of  Indian  policy  made  or 
unmade  a  government. 

I  have  met  everywhere,  in  Britain  and  in  the 
colonies,  people  who  think  that  India  makes  a  heavy 
drain  upon  the  revenues  of  the  United  Kingdom,  and 
would  do  so  upon  the  revenues  of  a  united  Empire. 
This  is  an  example  of  that  ignorance  which,  it  has 
been  truly  said,  is  the  most  probable  dissolvent  of  the 
Empire.  It  is  therefore  not  unnecessary  to  say  that 
India  pays  exclusively  for  its  own  defence  and 
government.  Every  soldier,  white  or  native,  from  the 


CH.  X]  INDIA.  251 

Commander-in-Chief  down  to  the  humblest  sepoy  ; 
every  civil  servant,  from  the  Governor-General  to  the 
lately  appointed  clerk,  is  paid  from  Indian  revenues 
alone.  India  does  even  more,  it  pays  the  whole 
expense  of  the  India  Office  in  London,  and  for  the 
maintenance  of  Aden  and  other  ports  near  the  mouth 
of  the  Red  Sea,  with  their  garrisons,  although  these 
give  protection  to  other  Eastern  commerce  and  to 
that  of  the  Australasian  colonies  as  well  as  Indian. 
India  contributes  also  to  the  maintenance  of  consular 
establishments  in  China  and  of  the  British  Embassy 
in  Persia.  The  resources  and  the  fighting  power  of 
India  stand  to-day  as  a  barrier  to  guard  from  danger 
the  enormous  British  commerce  in  the  Eastern  seas, 
to  keep  back  the  most  dangerous  military  power  of 
Europe  and  Asia  from  nearer  approach  to  the  English 
communities  of  the  South. 

The  question  whether  any  degree  of  representa- 
tion could  be  given  to  the  Indian  population  would 
remain  for  a  federated  Empire,  just  as  it  now  exists  for 
the  United  Kingdom.  The  problem  would  be  no 
greater  and  no  less.  Any  step  taken  in  that  direction 
would  no  doubt  be  exceedingly  cautious  and  tenta- 
tive. But  for  dealing  with  this,  as  with  all  other 
Indian  problems,  a  united  Empire,  with  its  con- 
solidated strength,  would  be  vastly  more  efficient 
than  a  nation  going  through  various  stages  of  disinte- 
gration. 

The  answer  which  appears  to  me  sufficient  to  those 
whom  claim  that  Britain's  control  of  India  interposes 


252  IMPERIAL  FEDERATION. 

an  insuperable  obstacle  to  a  Federal  system  for  the 
Empire  is  this  : — 

India  is  practically  a  crown  colony,  and  as  yet  the 
United  Kingdom  has  shown  no  inclination  to  govern 
it  otherwise  than  as  a  crown  colony.  The  same  duty 
may  be  rightly  accepted  and  duly  fulfilled  by  British 
people  as  a  whole  under  any  system  of  common 
government.  To  accept  it  would  create  no  new 
national  burden  or  risk,  would  react  no  more  upon 
the  ordinary  political  development  of  the  various  states 
than  it  has  upon  that  of  the  United  Kingdom. 


CHAPTER  XI. 

AN  AMERICAN  VIEW. 

FOR  the  sake  of  studying  the  various  angles  from 
which  the  idea  of  federating  the  Empire  is  criticized 
it  seems  worth  while  to  refer  briefly  to  some  of  the 
views  expressed  in  a  paper,  lately  contributed  to  a 
leading  magazine1,  on  the  subject,  by  Mr.  Andrew 
Carnegie,  under  the  title  of  '  An  American  View ' 
of  Imperial  Federation.  Among  thinking  native 
Americans  I  have  found,  as  a  rule,  a  genuine 
sympathy  with  the  advocates  of  unity  for  British 
people,  a  sympathy  perfectly  natural  in  a  nation 
which  has  suffered  and  sacrificed  so  much  as  the 
people  of  the  United  States  have  for  a  similar  object. 
Besides,  their  familiarity  not  only  with  the  idea  of 
large  political  organization,  but  with  its  actual  working 
out  has  taken  away  from  them  that  fear  of  its  diffi- 
culties which  seems  to  haunt  many  weak-kneed 
Englishmen  who  conceive  that  human  political 
capacity  had  achieved  its  utmost  when  it  evolved 
the  existing  Imperial  system.  One  of  the  dis- 
tinguished thinkers  of  the  United  States,  after  a  tour 
made  around  the  world  a  few  years  ago,  expressed 

1  Nineteenth  Century,  Sept.  1891. 


254  IMPERIAL  FEDERATION.  [Cn.  XI 

to  me,  with  characteristic  American  energy  and  em- 
phasis, the  opinion  he  brought  home  with  him  upon 
the  subject  of  British  consolidation.  *  The  citizen 
of  the  British  Empire,'  said  he,  'who  is  not  an 
enthusiast  on  the  question  of  Imperial  Federation, 
is  a  Philistine  of  the  very  first  magnitude.' 

Working  out  on  separate  and  yet  parallel  lines 
the  great  problems  of  liberty  and  of  civil  and  re- 
ligious progress,  the  United  States  and  the  British 
Empire  have  the  strongest  reasons  for  sympathizing 
with  each  other's  efforts  to  consolidate  and  perfect 
the  national  machinery  by  which  their  aims  are  to 
be  accomplished.  English  people  now  understand 
and  respect  the  motives  which  actuated  the  resolute 
and  successful  struggle  of  the  people  of  the  United 
States  against  disruption.  That  Americans  should 
understand  the  necessity  which  exists  for  maintaining 
the  integrity  of  the  Empire  and  the  principles  on 
which  it  is  sought  to  maintain  it,  is  most  desirable. 
They  are  not  likely  to  learn  them  from  Mr.  Carnegie. 

Curiously  enough,  he  begins  his  argument  by 
forgetting  that  there  is  a  British  Empire.  As  I  have 
pointed  out  elsewhere  (though  without  regarding  the 
views  as  essential  to  Federation),  there  are  those  who 
consider  that  national  consolidation  would  be  hastened 
on  through  an  endeavour  by  tariff  agencies  to  make 
the  Empire  self-sufficing  in  the  matter  of  food,  just 
as  the  United  States  by  the  McKinley  tariff,  are 
endeavouring  to  make  themselves  self-sufficing  in 
the  matter  of  manufactures. 


CH.  XI]  AN   AMERICAN   VIEW.  255 

Mr.  Carnegie  justifies  protection  in  the  United 
States  because  it  ultimately  cheapens  production, 
and  then  says :  '  Now  because  Britain  has  not  the 
requisite  territory  to  increase  greatly  her  food  supply, 
any  tax  imposed  upon  food  could  not  be  temporary 
but  must  be  permanent.  The  doctrine  of  Mill  does 
not  therefore  apply,  for  protection,  to  be  wise,  must 
always  be  in  the  nature  of  only  a  temporary  shielding 
of  new  plants  until  they  take  root.  It  will  surprise 
many  if  Britain  ever  imposes  a  permanent  tax  upon 
the  food  of  her  38,000,000  of  people,  with  no  possible 
hope  of  ever  increasing  the  supply,  and  thereby 
reducing  the  cost,  and  thus  ultimately  rendering 
the  tax  unnecessary.  A  tax  for  a  short  period,  that 
fosters  and  increases  production,  and  a  tax  for  all 
time  which  cannot  increase  production,  are  different 
things.' 

Mr.  Carnegie  evidently  forgets  that  the  Empire 
covers  one  fifth  of  the  world,  that  it  produces  every 
article  of  food  and  raw  material  of  manufacture,  that 
under  the  compulsion  of  any  great  national  necessity 
it  could  in  five  years  make  itself  independent  of 
outside  supplies,  with  the  possible  exception  of  raw 
cotton,  and  that  by  the  natural  processes  of  growth 
and  change,  without  any  protection,  it  is  likely  in  the 
near  future,  partly  on  account  of  the  inability  of  the 
United  States  to  furnish  what  they  have  hitherto 
furnished,  to  be  drawing  its  supplies  of  food  chiefly 
from  its  own  territories.  It  is  not  my  business  to 
suggest,  much  less  argue  for  a  system  of  protection 


256  IMPERIAL   FEDERATION.  [CH.  XI 

for  the  Empire,  but  if  it  is  to  be  discussed,  let  us 
at  least  take  into  account  the  elementary  facts  which 
Mr.  Carnegie  omits.  The  climax  of  absurdity  seems 
well-nigh  reached  when  Mr.  Carnegie,  fresh  from  the  full 
operation  of  the  McKinley  Tariff  and  its  justification, 
roundly  accuses  the  Empire  Trade  League  of  making 
*  efforts  to  array  one  part  of  the  race  against  the  other 
part '  because  it  has  suggested  a  very  slight  differen- 
tial tariff  within  the  Empire.  Life  in  America  is  not 
generally  supposed  to  destroy  a  sense  of  the  ridiculous. 
Mr.  Carnegie's  criticism  of  another  class  of  Federa- 
tionists  is  that  they  have  '  no  business '  in  their  pro- 
gramme, '  no  considerations  of  trade,'  that  '  sentiment 
reigns  supreme.'  It  is  evident  that  he  has  not  a 
primary  conception  of  the  main  drift  of  federation 
policy.  He  is  like  many  of  his  fellow-citizens  in 
America,  out  of  whom  life  on  a  broad  continent 
appears  to  have  driven  the  maritime  instinct.  Because 
external  commerce  or  the  carrying  trade  means  little 
to  the  United  States,  or  because  his  own  country 
is  so  remarkably  self-contained,  he  has  no  standard 
by  which  to  measure  the  profound  and  practical 
significance  which  maritime  position  has  for  countries 
like  Great  Britain  or  Australia.  In  1 890  of  the  3389 
vessels  which  passed  through  the  Suez  Canal  2522 
were  British  and  three  American.  In  the  same  year, 
out  of  the  whole  volume  of  American  external  trade 
itself,  only  12-29  Per  cent.,  or  about  one-eighth  was 
carried  in  American  bottoms,  of  the  remaining  seven- 
eighths  by  far  the  larger  part  crossed  the  seas  under  the 


CH.  XI]  AN   AMERICAN   VIEW.  257 

British  flag.  Again,  in  1890  the  shipping  cleared  in 
England  amounted  in  all  to  3,316,442  tons,  but  of  this 
only  38,192  tons  were  under  the  United  States  flag,  al- 
though the  trade  between  the  two  countries  is  one  of 
vast  proportions.  These  figures  will  serve  to  illustrate 
how  difficult  it  must  be  for  any  one  looking  at  our 
national  questions  from  an  American  point  of  view  to 
understand  the  fundamental  interests  of  British  people, 
and  perhaps  explain  the  airy  cheerfulness  with  which 
Mr.  Carnegie  suggests  various  processes  of  political 
evolution  which  involve  the  disintegration  of  the 
Empire.  But  Mr.  Carnegie  has  other  difficulties  than 
those  which  arise  from  studying  a  question  from  an  un- 
favourable angle.  The  intense  occupations  of  business 
in  America  may  well  be  his  excuse  for  not  keeping 
in  touch  with  the  movement  of  British  politics  ;  they 
can  scarcely  excuse  him  for  discussing  English  affairs 
as  if  he  were  in  a  position  to  understand  them. 
'  Britain,'  he  says,  '  can  choose  whether  Australia, 
Canada,  and  her  other  colonies,  as  they  grow  to 
maturity,  can  set  up  for  themselves,  with  every  feeling 
of  filial  devotion  towards  her,  or  whether  every  child 
born  in  these  lands  is  to  be  born  to  regard  Britain 
as  the  cruel  oppressor  of  his  country.  There  is  no 
other  alternative,  and  I  beseech  our  friends  of  the 
Imperial  Federation  (League)  to  pause  ere  they 
involve  their  country  and  her  children  in  the  disap- 
pointment and  humiliation  which  must  come,  if  a 
serious  effort  is  made  to  check  the  development  and 
independent  existence  of  the  colonies,  for  indepen- 

s 


258  IMPERIAL   FEDERATION.  [CH.  XI 

dence  they  must  and  will  seek,  and  obtain,  even  by 
force,  if  necessary.'  One  hesitates  whether  to  lay  stress 
upon  the  ignorance  or  the  folly  of  sentences  like  these. 
I  use  the  words  advisedly.  Ignorance,  because  ap- 
parently Mr.  Carnegie  does  not  know  that  almost 
every  responsible  British  statesman  of  the  past  half 
century  and  of  the  present  day,  when  dealing  with 
this  question,  has  said  that  when  the  great  colonies 
wish  to  go  Great  Britain  will  raise  no  objection  ;  that 
this  view  has  been  re-echoed  unanimously  by  the  press 
and  by  public  opinion  ;  and  that  no  advocate  of 
Imperial  Federation,  national  unity,  or  whatever 
other  name  we  apply  to  British  consolidation,  has 
ever  hinted  at  the  union  of  the  self-governing  por- 
tions of  the  Empire  as  anything  else  than  a  pact 
entered  into  voluntarily  by  communities  free  to 
choose  or  refuse  as  they  please,  as  free  as  were  the 
States  of  the  American  Union  or  the  provinces  of 
the  Dominion  to  adopt  their  present  system.  Britain 
has  not  waited,  and  Imperial  Federationists  have 
not  waited,  for  Mr.  Carnegie's  supplications  to  decide 
this  great  and  fundamental  issue  of  national  policy. 
The  advocates  of  national  unity  are  the  foremost  to 
proclaim  it.  Folly,  for  it  is  folly  when  Mr.  Carnegie,  in 
the  face  of  facts  like  these,  which  nobody  can  question, 
rounds  his  periods  with  hints  at  cruel  oppression, 
on  the  one  side,  and  independence  won  by  force,  on  the 
other,  when  discussing  the  relations  of  England  and  her 
colonies. \  It  is  on  his  own  continent  that  he  finds  the  ex- 
ample of  states  kept  within  a  national  union  by  force.  \ 


CH.  XT]  AN   AMERICAN    VIEW.  259 

If  Mr.  Carnegie  understands  little  about  Britain's 
relation  to  her  colonies  and  to  the  world,  he  under- 
stands much  less  about  the  opinions  of  colonists. 
None  the  less  he  speaks  of  them  with  the  most 
complete  assurance  of  knowledge.  A  single  illus- 
tration will  give  the  measure  of  his  ignorance. 
Quoting  certain  views  in  opposition  to  British  con- 
nection expressed  by  Mr.  Mercier,  the  late  leader  of 
the  extreme  national  party  in  the  French  province  of 
Quebec,  he  gravely  assures  his  readers  that  Mr.  Mercier 
reflects  the  sentiments  of  ninety-nine  out  of  every 
hundred  native-born  Canadians  and  Australians. 
Absurdity  could  scarcely  go  further. 

Mr.  Carnegie  poses  as  a  political  philosopher  and 
gives  English  statesmen  the  advantage  of  his  sage 
advice  on  national  questions.  We  look  for  the 
grounds  of  this  superior  wisdom  and  we  read  as 
follows :  '  What  lesson  has  the  past  to  teach  us 
upon  this  point  ?  Spain  had  great  colonies  upon  the 
American  continent :  where  are  these  now?  Seventeen 
republics  occupy  Central  and  South  America.  Five  of 
these  have  prepared  plans  for  federating.  Portugal  had 
a  magnificent  empire,  which  is  now  with  the  Brazilian 
Republic.  Britain  had  a  colony.  It  has  passed  from 
its  mother's  apron-strings  and  set  up  for  itself,  and  now 
the  majority  of  all  our  race  are  gathered  under  its 
Republican  flag1.  What  is  there  in  the  position  of 

1  This  statement  is  a  characteristic  instance  of  Mr.  Carnegie's 
inaccuracy.  Let  him  subtract  from  the  whole  population  of  the 
United  States  the  seven  or  eight  millions  of  negroes  in  the  Southern 
States,  the  six  or  seven  millions  of  Italians,  Spaniards,  Poles,  Hun- 

S    2 


260  IMPERIAL   FEDERATION.  [Cn.  XI 

Britain's  relations  to  Australia  and  Canada  that 
justifies  the  belief  that  any  different  result  is  possible 
with  them  ?  I  know  of  none.'  And  knowing  none, 
Mr.  Carnegie,  by  his  own  confession,  writes  in  utter 
ignorance  of  the  main  facts  of  the  question  which  he 
discusses.  Spain  and  Portugal  governed  their  colo- 
nies from  the  home  centre,  and  as  tributaries.  Britain 
allows  her  colonies  to  govern  themselves,  and  to  dis- 
pose of  their  own  money  as  they  please  ;  Spain  and 
Portugal  (and  England  in  1776)  wished  to  retain 
their  colonies  against  their  will  ;  Britain  now  leaves 
the  question  of  continued  connection  a  matter  which 
colonists  are  to  decide  for  themselves.  „ 

Very  interesting  indeed  is  Mr.  Carnegie's  sudden 
change  of  front  when  he  comes  to  look  at  federation 
as  making  for  the  aggrandisement  or  the  good  of 

garians,  Austrians,  Russians,  Germans  and  Scandinavians,  who 
entered  the  country  between  1847  and  the  present  time,  the  people 
who  with  their  descendants  threaten,  according  to  American  writers, 
to  overwhelm  the  native  element  of  the  population  ;  let  him  place 
beside  these  figures  the  further  facts  stated  on  American  authority 
that  the  emigration  from  Great  Britain  to  the  United  States  has  been 
in  the  same  period  only  about  1,500,000,  and  from  Ireland  2,500,000; 
and  he  may  find  reason  to  acknowledge  that  the  mass  of  '  our  race ' 
is  still  in  the  British  Islands  and  in  the  great  colonies  which  yet 
retain  their  distinctive  Anglo-Saxon  character.  Mr.  Carnegie  makes 
the  triumphant  calculation  that  the  child  is  born  who  will  see  more 
than  400,000,000  people  under  the  sway  of  the  United  States.  He 
adds  the  odd  comment :  '  No  possible  increase  of  the  race  can  be 
looked  for  in  all  the  world  comparable  to  this.'  So  far  from  such  a 
growth  indicating  the  increase  of  our  race,  it  could  only  mean  its 
practical  obliteration  in  the  great  Republic.  The  increase  of  the 
native  American  population  is  notoriously  very  slow — only  a  largely 
increased  influx  of  alien  races  could  make  Mr.  Carnegie's  calculations 
a  reality. 


CH.  XI]  AN   AMERICAN   VIEW.  261 

the  United  States  rather  than  of  the  British  Empire. 
He  has  just  been  proving  the  absurdity,  the  impossi- 
bility, nay,  the  criminality,  of  trying  to  knit  to- 
gether in  some  sufficient  federal  union  the  mother- 
land and  her  great  colonies.  He  proves  to  his  own 
satisfaction  that  the  colonies  never  will  be  and  never 
ought  to  be  satisfied  with  the  position  they  will 
have  in  such  a  union.  Separate  governments  and 
separate  governments  alone  will  satisfy  their  yearn- 
ings for  complete  independence. 

He  passes  by  without  note  the  idea  which  in- 
spires the  Federationist,  who  believes  that  such  a 
union  will  make  enormously  for  the  world's  peace, 
not  only  by  preventing  the  formation  of  many  dis- 
tinct and  possibly  hostile  states,  but  also  by  enabling 
British  people  to  give  security  to  industry  over  an 
area  of  the  world  greater  than  was  ever  before  under 
a  single  flag — at  least  three  times  as  great  as  that  of 
the  United  States,  to  say  nothing  of  the  vast  extent 
of  ocean  which  the  Empire  can  control. 

With  his  ignoring  of  this  leading  idea  of  those  who 
wish  for  British  unity,  and  his  ridicule  of  federation 
for  the  Empire,  a  feature  of  the  alternative  which  he 
proposes  is  in  odd  contrast.  He  suggests  that  Canada 
should  be  encouraged  by  England  not  merely  to 
give  up  her  present  allegiance,  but  to  join  the  United 
States,  and  this  is  the  argument  with  which  he  sup- 
ports his  suggestion  :  '  With  the  appalling  condition 
of  Europe  before  us,  it  would  be  criminal  for  a  few 
millions  of  people  to  create  a  separate  government 


262  IMPERIAL   FEDERATION.  [CH.  XI 

and  not  to  become  part  of  a  great  mass  of  their  own 
race  which  joins  them,  especially  since  the  federal 
system  gives  each  part  the  control  of  all  its  internal 
affairs,  and  has  proved  that  the  freest  government  of 
the  parts  produces  the  strongest  government  of  the 
whole.'  Why  not,  one  asks,  for  the  British  people  as 
well  as  for  those  of  the  United  States?  Why  may 
not  full  control  of  internal  affairs  and  the  freest  govern- 
ment of  the  various  parts  of  the  British  Empire  go 
hand  in  hand  with  a  strong  government  for  the  whole? 
Why  may  we  not  consider  the  united  and  sympathetic 
effort  of  the  different  divisions  of  the  Empire  to  so 
consolidate  their  strength  as  to  maintain  peace  over 
one  fifth  of  the  world  directly — indirectly  over  a  still 
greater  proportion — a  nobler  ideal  than  that  for  which 
Mr.  Carnegie  thinks  the  Empire  should  give  up 
Canada — i.  e.  the  peace  of  America  ?  Nor  need  the 
larger  interfere  with  the  smaller  aspiration.  Inciden- 
tally Mr.  Carnegie  himself  fully  admits  this.  After 
having  used  the  possibility  of  conflict  between  Great 
Britain  and  the  United  States  as  his  chief  or  only 
argument  for  the  transfer  of  Canada's  nationality,  he 
goes  on  to  say:  'Even  to-day  every  Federationist 
has  the  satisfaction  of  knowing  that  the  idea  of  war 
between  the  two  great  branches  is  scouted  on  both 
sides  of  the  Atlantic.  Henceforth,  war  between 
members  of  our  race  may  be  said  to  be  already 
banished,  for  English-speaking  men  will  never  again  be 
called  upon  to  destroy  each  other.  During  the  recent 
difference not  a  whisper  was  heard  on  either 


CH.  XI]  AN    AMERICAN   VIEW.  263 

side  of  any  possible  appeal  to  force  as  a  mode  of 
settlement.  Both  parties  in  America  and  each  suc- 
cessive government  are  pledged  to  offer  peaceful 
arbitration  for  the  adjustment  of  all  international 
difficulties — a  position  which  it  is  to  be  hoped  will 
soon  be  reached  by  Britain,  at  least  in  regard  to  all 
differences  with  members  of  the  same  race.' 

The  Geneva  arbitration,  the  Halifax  arbitration, 
the  San  Juan  Settlement,  the  offer  of  arbitration  in 
the  Behring  Sea  affairs,  so  long  urged  upon  Mr. 
Blaine  by  Lord  Salisbury  before  it  was  accepted,  the 
arbitration  arranged  with  France  in  the  affairs  of 
Newfoundland,  all  seem  to  indicate  that  Britain  is 
quite  as  advanced  as  the  United  States  in  these  views 
of  peaceful  settlement.  With  this  qualification  of 
his  way  of  stating  the  case  we  may  accept  Mr. 
Carnegie's  hopeful  outlook,  which  takes  away  all 
the  point  of  his  previous  contention.  There  is, 
however,  a  point  worthy  of  his  and  our  considera- 
tion. 

I  once  heard  Lord  Rosebery  express  the  opinion 
that  equality  of  power  was  one  of  the  chief  guarantees 
of  peace  between  great  states.  It  adds  the  very 
powerful  motive  of  self-interest  to  those  other  in- 
fluences which  incline  a  nation  to  arbitration  or  other 
fair  and  reasonable  methods  of  settling  international 
difficulties.  '  If,'  said  he,  '  it  should  ever  happen  that 
England  became  towards  the  United  States  like  the 
old  grandmother  in  the  corner,  her  teeth  dropping 
out  one  by  one,  as  her  colonies  leave  her,  and  she 


264  IMPERIAL   FEDERATION.  [CH.  XI 

were  patronised  or  despised  by  her  grown  up  off- 
spring, this  relation  would  not  be  one  tending  to  pro- 
mote friendly  feeling.  Far  better  for  mutual  respect, 
consideration,  and  closer  friendship  that  each  should 
follow  out  its  own  development  on  its  own  broad 
lines.'  Whether  a  British  Empire  going  through  a 
process  of  disintegration,  or  one  steadily  consolidating 
its  strength  would  be  more  likely  to  obtain  equity 
and  fair  play  from  American  politicians  (who  must  so 
often  be  distinguished  from  the  American  people)  I 
may  safely  leave  even  Mr.  Carnegie,  who  knows  them, 
to  decide. 

Nor  is  there  anything  in  the  position  of  the  United 
States  on  the  continent  which  would  justify  Ameri- 
cans in  demanding  from  the  Empire  the  sacrifice  of 
her  maritime  position  implied  in  the  transfer  of 
Canada  to  a  new  nationality.  Ports  on  the  Atlantic 
and  Pacific  as  many  as  they  need  the  United  States 
already  have.  Trade  in  Canadian  products  they  can 
obtain  on  terms  as  fair  as  they  will  themselves  agree 
to.  A  less  aggressive  neighbour  they  could  scarcely 
expect  to  have.  Two  countries  on  the  same  continent 
working  out  parallel  political  problems  by  different 
agencies  may  be  mutually  helpful  with  varying  experi- 
ment and  example.  Contrast  and  mutual  reaction 
stimulate  progress  far  more  than  vast  monotony 
of  system. 

Mr.  Carnegie  endorses  Mr.  Goldwin  Smith's  opinion 
that  Britain's  '  position  upon  the  American  continent 
is  the  barrier  to  sympathetic  union  with  her  great 


CH.  XI]  AN   AMERICAN   VIEW.  265 

child,  the  Republic.'  As  an  American  he  should  be 
ashamed  to  admit  the  accuracy  of  such  an  opinion. 
Britain's  right  to  her  place  on  the  American  continent 
is  as  much  above  question  as  is  that  of  the  United 
States.  The  man  or  people  to  whom  a  neighbour's 
enjoyment  of  an  admitted  right  causes  irritation,  has 
lost  the  finer  sense  of  morality.  The  nation  which 
yielded  an  undoubted  right  under  the  pressure  of  such 
a  base  irritation  would  do  a  harm  to  international 
morals.  British  Federationists  have  more  faith  in 
the  nobler  qualities  of  the  American  people  than  has 
Mr.  Carnegie.  They  earnestly  hope  for  a  union  of 
effort  in  behalf  of  the  higher  interests  of  humanity 
between  the  great  Republic  and  the  Empire  from 
which  she  sprang,  but  they  know  that  that  union  can 
only  come  from  mutual  respect  for  each  other's  rights, 
and  can  never  be  brought  about  if  the  aggrandisement 
of  the  one  must  be  purchased  by  the  disintegration 
of  the  other. 

One  more  passage  must  be  quoted  to  illustrate 
the  range  of  Mr.  Carnegie's  vision  when  he  leaves  the 
domain  of  American  politics  to  discuss  the  affairs  of 
Great  Britain.  He  says:  'Her  (Britain's)  colonies 
weaken  her  powers  in  war  and  confer  no  advantage 
upon  her  in  peace.' 

I  must  let  another  American,  whose  mind  has  not 
been  too  much  influenced  by  devotion  to  trade  on  a 
highly  protected  continent,  a  man  who  has  had 
occasion  to  study  seriously  the  larger  problems  of 
national  life,  make  answer. 


266  IMPERIAL   FEDERATION.  [Cn.  XI 

'  England/  says  Lieutenant  Mahan  l,  '  by  her  im- 
mense colonial  Empire  has  sacrificed  much  of  this 
advantage  of  concentration  of  force  around  her  own 
shores  :  but  .the  sacrifice  was  wisely  made,  for  the 
gain  was  greater  than  the  loss,  as  the  event  proved. 
With  the  growth  of  her  colonial  system  her  war  fleets 
also  grew,  but  her  merchant  shipping  and  wealth 
grew  yet  faster.' 

And  again  :— 

'  Undoubtedly  under  this  second  head  of  warlike 
preparation  must  come  the  maintenance  of  suitable 
naval  stations,  in  those  distant  parts  of  the  world  to 
which  the  armed  shipping  must  follow  the  peaceful 
vessels  of  commerce.  The  protection  of  such  stations 
must  depend  either  upon  direct  military  force,  as  do 
Gibraltar  and  Malta,  or  upon  a  surrounding  friendly 
population,  such  as  the  American  colonists  once  were 
to  England,  and,  it  may  be  presumed  the  Australian 
colonists  now  are.  Such  friendly  surroundings  and 
backing,  joined  to  a  reasonable  military  provision,  are 
the  best  of  defences,  and  when  combined  with  decided 
preponderance  at  sea,  make  a  scattered  and  extensive 
empire  like  that  of  England,  secure  ;  for  while  it  is 
true  that  an  unexpected  attack  may  cause  disaster  in 
some  one  quarter,  the  actual  superiority  of  naval 
power  prevents  such  disaster  from  being  general  or 
irremediable.  History  has  sufficiently  proved  this. 
England's  naval  bases  have  been  in  all  parts  of  the 
world,  and  her  fleets  have  at  once  protected  them, 

1  Influence  of  Sea  Power,  p.  29. 


CH.  XI]  AN    AMERICAN   VIEW.  267 

kept  open  the  communications  between  them,  and  re- 
lied upon  them  for  shelter. 

'  Colonies  attached  to  the  mother-country  afford, 
therefore,  the  surest  means  of  supporting  abroad  the 
sea  power  of  a  country.  In  peace,  the  influence  of 
the  government  should  be  felt  in  promoting  by  all 
means  a  warmth  of  attachment  and  a  unity  of  in- 
terest which  will  make  the  welfare  of  one  the  welfare 
of  all,  and  the  quarrel  of  one  the  quarrel  of  all ;  and 
in  war,  or  rather  for  war,  by  inducing  such  measures 
of  organization  and  defence  as  shall  be  felt  by  all  to 
be  a  fair  distribution  of  a  burden  of  which  each  reaps 
the  benefit/ 

After  such  a  statement  of  the  bases  on  which  sea 
power  rests  it  is  with  natural  regret  that  Lieutenant 
Mahan  adds  :  '  Such  colonies  the  United  States  has 
not  and  is  not  likely  to  have.  .  .  ..  Having  therefore 
no  foreign  establishments,  either  colonial  or  military, 
the  ships  of  war  of  the  United  States,  in  war,  will  be 
like  land  birds,  unable  to  fly  far  from  their  own 
shores.  To  provide  resting-places  for  them,  where 
they  can  coal  and  repair,  would  be  one  of  the  first 
duties  of  a  government  proposing  to  itself  the  de- 
velopment of  the  power  of  the  nation  at  sea.' 

British  people,  either  at  home  or  in  the  col\c 
may  safely  be  left  to  decide  whether  they  can  ifford 
that  their  ships  should  be  in  war  :  like  land  birds, 
unable  to  fly  far  from  their  own  shores.' 

It  must  not,  however,  be  supposed  that  Mr.  Carnegie 
really  represents  the  views  of  the  better  minds  of  his 


Monies, 


268  IMPERIAL   FEDERATION.  [Cn.  XI 

own  country  on  the  question  of  British  Unity.  In  an 
article  contributed  to  a  leading  American  Magazine 
three  years  ago  I  had  occasion  to  outline  for  American 
readers  the  chief  features  of  the  Federation  problem. 
The  editorial  comment  upon  this  paper  seems  worthy 
of  reproduction  as  an  expression  of  genuine  American 
opinion  on  the  subject,  and  may  be  commended  to 
Mr.  Carnegie's  consideration.  The  writer  says :  'What 
could  be  more  natural  than  the  '•  Federation  "  scheme 
for  British  reconstruction,  which  has  been  before  the 
British  public  for  years,  and  is  now  renewed  in  the 
article  just  mentioned?  It  offers  to  Great  Britain 
the  maintenance  of  every  interest,  legal,  economic, 
political  and  moral,  which  has  grown  up  in  the  past, 
and  has  shown  itself  worthy  of  conservation.  It 
maintains  all  the  ties  which  have  held  the  different 
parts  of  the  Empire  together.  It  even  strengthens 
them  prodigiously  by  transforming  the  weak  ties  of 
colonialism  into  a  true  national  life :  so  that  the 
foreigner  shall  look  upon  Canada  or  Jamaica,  not 
as  temporary  hangers-on  of  a  distant  island,  but  as 
component  and  fully  recognized  members  of  a  mag- 
nificent ocean  empire.  It  distributes  the  burden  of 
imperial  taxation  over  the  whole  empire,  so  that  the 
Australian  may  look  upon  the  Imperial  iron-clad 
which  comes  into  his  harbour  as  possibly  the  product 
of  his  own  state's  taxation,  while  Canadian  regiments 
shall  take  their  tour  of  duty  in  English  or  Irish 
cities,  or  at  the  Cape.  It  lessens  the  dangers  of  a 
new  break-up  of  the  Empire  through  Colonial  dis- 


CH.  XI]  AN   AMERICAN   VIEW.  269 

content :  the  Canada  or  New  South  Wales  of  the 
"  federation  "  could  submit  without  a  second  thought 
to  the  abandonment  of  claims  "by  its  own  govern- 
ment," while  there  is  now  always  something  of  a  sting 
in  such  an  abandonment  by  a  home  government  on 
whose  decision  the  colony  has  exercised  no  direct 
influence.  It  leaves  to  every  square  foot  of  the 
Empire  that  alternative  of  self-government  in  the 
present,  or  of  the  hope  of  self-government  in  the  future 
which  is  afforded  by  our  State  and  Territorial  systems. 
Canada  would  be  at  once  one  of  the  self-governing 
States  of  the  Empire :  but  the  territories  of  India 
would  have  under  the  Federation  such  prospects  of 
complete  state-hood,  when  they  should  deserve  it,  as 
they  could  never  have  under  a  Russian  Dominion  or 
protectorate 

'  The  question  now  is  whether  the  inevitable  de- 
velopment of  English  democracy  in  new  directions, 
more  particularly  in  that  of  a  federated  empire,  shall 
happily  anticipate  any  conjunction  of  circumstances 
which  might  otherwise  force  a  second  break-up  of  the 
Empire.  It  is  really,  then,  a  race  against  time  by 
the  English  democracy.' 

The  closing  reference  to  Canada  may  be  commended 
to  the  consideration  of  Mr.  Goldwin  Smith,  as  well  as 
Mr.  Carnegie,  since  it  reflects  a  spirit  worthy  of  a 
great  people. 

'  If,  as  one  result,  our  neighbours  to  the  north  of 
us  should  become  an  integral  part  of  a  real  empire, 
such  a  natural  and  simple  solution  will  find  no  con- 


270  IMPERIAL   FEDERATION. 

gratulations  more  prompt  and  cordial  than  those  of 
the  American  people,  even  though  they  are  not  based 
on  any  of  those  selfish  advantages  which  annexation 
professes  to  offer  to  the  United  States1.' 

1  Century  Magazine,  Jan.  1889. 


CHAPTER  XII. 

FINANCE. 

THE  financial  aspects  of  our  question  are  striking 
and  significant.  Britain  herself  is  the  greatest  money- 
lending  nation  of  the  world :  her  colonies  and  depen- 
dencies, with  their  vast  undeveloped  resources,  are 
among  the  greatest  borrowers.  The  public  debts  of  the 
Australasian  colonies  amount  to  nearly  ,£300,000,000, 
and  private  investments  for  the  development  'of 
mines,  for  the  wool  producing  and  meat  raising  indus- 
tries and  so  on,  amount,  I  have  been  told  by  Austra- 
lian business  men.  to  even  more.  It  is  probably  a 
moderate  estimate  to  say  that  Australasia  borrows 
£400,000,000,  all  of  which  is  raised  in  London,  to 
which  the  interest  steadily  flows  back. 

In  his  '  Problems  of  Greater  Britain '  Sir  Charles 
Dilke  says :  '  British  capital  to  the  extent  of 
,£350,000,000  sterling  has  been  sunk  in  Indian  ent^er- 
prises,  on  official  or  quasi-official  guarantee ;  and  a 
further  vast  amount  of  British  capital  is  employed  by 
purely  private  British  enterprise  in  industry.' 

Canada's  public  borrowings  amount  to  about 
£50,000,000,  and  allowing  an  equal  sum  for  private 


272  IMPERIAL   FEDERATION.  [Cn.  XII 

investments,  she  perhaps  draws  £100,000,000  of  work- 
ing capital  from  English  sources. 

Nothing  has  been  said  about  South  Africa,  the 
West  Indies,  and  the  minor  divisions  of  the  Empire, 
but  even  the  rough  estimates  already  given  prove  that 
the  aggregate  of  money  loaned  from  Britain,  and 
borrowed  by  other  parts  of  the  Empire,  reaches  enor- 
mous figures,  and  certainly  exceeds  £1,000,000,000 
sterling. 

For  investor  and  borrower  the  benefit  is  mutual. 
The  investor  has  the  advantage  of  placing  his  money 
where  it  will  be  employed  in  making  the  most  of  vast 
natural  resources,  under  a  settled  government,  and  in 
the  energetic  and  responsible  hands  of  men  of  our 
own  race.  This  advantage  is  emphasized  by  the 
experience  of  British  capitalists  in  countries  like 
Argentina,  where  government  is  unstable,  or  Turkey, 
where  it  is  inefficient.  It  is  emphasized  by  the 
contrast  between  the  financial  position  of  Egypt, 
when  dominated  by  British  influence  and  protected 
by  British  power,  and  the  same  country  when  free 
to  follow  its  own  methods  of  administration  and  com- 
pelled to  find  its  own  defence. 

It  is  shown  by  the  difference  between  the  rates  at 
which  Australia  or  Canada  borrow  money,  and  those 
paid  by  many  foreign  states. 

The  colonial  borrower  has  the  advantage  of  getting 
the  money  he  requires  at  the  cheapest  rate  possible. 
The  last  Canadian  loan  was  floated  at  3  per  cent,  and 
the  Australian  colonies  are  borrowing  at  3! .  Lord 


CH.  XII]  FINANCE.  273 

Dufferin  has  said  that  British  capital  is  ventured  in 
India  '  on  the  assumption  that  English  capital  and 
English  justice  would  remain  dominant  in  India.' 
In  like  manner  the  rate  at  which  colonial  loans  are 
issued  is  unquestionably  determined  in  part  by  the 
fact  that  the  industrial  position  and  military  security 
of  the  colonies  is  guaranteed  by  the  imperial  power. 
Independent,  exposed  to  face  the  risks  of  war  unaided, 
and  compelled  to  bear  the  whole  burden  of  defending 
their  coasts  and  commerce,  the  credit  of  the  colonies 
could  not  be  what  it  is  to-day. 

On  the  other  hand,  since  cheap  capital  means 
cheap  production,  the  money  lent  on  easy  terms  to 
the  colonies  returns  far  more  to  the  mother-country 
than  the  interest  which  has  hitherto  been  so  regularly 
paid.  It  secures  for  Britain  what  she  most  requires, 
cheap  food  and  cheap  raw  material — wheat,  beef  and 
mutton,  wool,  cotton  and  minerals.  For  a  great  con- 
suming country  the  free  movement  of  the  wheels  of 
industry  in  the  areas  of  production  is  all-important. 
Even  the  cheap  insurance  which  comes  from  assured 
safety  in  the  transport  of  goods  between  producer  and 
consumer  is  no  slight  element  in  the  prosperity  of  both. 

In  view  of  these  considerations  there  is  clearly 
ground  for  saying  that  a  close  political  union  between 
the  greatest  money-lending  centre  of  the  world  and 
countries  which  have  the  widest  range  of  unde- 
veloped resources,  between  the  greatest  consuming 
country  and  those  mainly  productive,  will  be  of  the 
greatest  advantage  to  both. 

T 


274  IMPERIAL  FEDERATION.  [CH.  XII 

I  have  often,  to  audiences  in  the  colonies,  put  the 
financial  relation  in  the  following  way  :  '  You  borrow 
from  Britain  in  public  debts  many  hundred  millions 
of  pounds.  When,  as  merchants,  ship-owners,  or 
house-holders,  you  borrow  money  in  a  private  capacity, 
on  your  goods,  your  ships,  or  your  houses,  the  lender 
requires  that  as  a  guarantee  your  property  must  be 
insured,  and  for  this  insurance  you  must  yourself  pay. 
Now  when  British  people  lend  you  money,  on  your 
state  credit,  they  themselves  provide  the  insurance  of 
the  whole  strength  of  the  British  army  and  navy — an 
insurance  which  it  is  admitted  secures  the  cheapest 
money  in  the  world.  But  not  only  does  Britain  lend 
you  the  money  for  the  development  of  your  resources, 
and  provide  the  insurance  which  enables  you  to  have 
it  at  a  cheap  rate,  but  under  her  Free  trade  system 
she  then  in  addition  throws  herself  into  the  open 
market  for  every  pound  of  wool  or  ounce  of  gold  or 
tin  that  you  produce.  She  asks  no  preference  in 
colonial  markets.  Any  conditions  which  would  be 
more  favourable  for  a  borrowing  country  I  cannot 
find  it  possible  to  conceive.' 

A  further  point  seems  worthy  of  consideration. 

While  the  colonies,  under  the  national  production, 
borrow  money  cheaply  on  the  public  credit,  the  United 
Kingdom  borrows  more  cheaply  still.  Low  as  is  the 
rate  of  interest  paid  on  the  National  Debt,  for  many 
purposes  of  investment  it  is  deemed  the  most  satis- 
factory, because  the  most  secure,  of  all. 

One  of  the  advantages  which  Canada  has  reaped 


CH.  XII]  FINANCE.  275 

from  internal  confederation  has  been  the  greatly 
decreased  rate  of  interest  which  she  pays  for  her 
borrowings.  A  high  financial  authority  has  estimated 
that  the  Australasian  colonies  would  gain,  from  a  con- 
solidated federal  stock,  an  advantage  equal  to  a 
diminution  of  more  that  £20,000,000  on  the  general 
indebtedness.  Facts  such  as  these  have  naturally  led 
the  advocates  of  national  unity  to  suggest  a  further 
step  and  to  urge  that  a  financial  federation  of  the 
public  debts  of  the  Empire,  guaranteed  by  the 
strength  and  resources  of  the  nation  at  large,  would 
reduce  the  cost  of  public  money  for  the  colonies  and 
dependencies  to  at  least  the  level  of  interest  paid  on 
the  National  Debt.  It  has  been  pointed  out  with  force 
and  reason  that  the  saving  which  might  thus  be 
effected  under  a  guarantee  of  Imperial  unity  would 
of  itself  be  sufficient  to  enable  the  colonies  to  con- 
tribute a  large  sum  to  the  national  defence  without 
any  addition  to  the  burdens  which  they  now  bear, 
while  sensibly  relieving  the  taxpayer  of  the  United 
Kingdom.  The  fixing  of  a  reasonable  limit  to  thus 
borrowing  on  national  credit  for  each  portion  of  the 
Empire  would,  of  course,  present  a  difficulty,  but  it 
is  one  which  has,  on  a  small  scale,  been  grappled 
with  in  the  provinces  of  the  Canadian  confederation, 
and  does  not  seem  to  be  altogether  insuperable. 
The  federally  guaranteed  debt  would  certainly  be 
held  almost  exclusively  within  the  Empire  itself,  and 
the  general  desire  for  its  complete  security  might 
fairly  be  expected  to  act  as  a  strong  national  bond. 

T  2 


276  IMPERIAL   FEDERATION.  [CH.  XII 

Enormous  as  is  the  amount  which  the  mother-country 
has  already  staked  in  the  colonies  and  dependencies, 
it  seems  certain  that  under  favourable  conditions 
capital  will  more  and  more  seek  these  areas  of  peace- 
ful industrial  development  rather  than  take  the  risks 
of  internal  revolutions  in  South  America  or  military 
convulsions  in  Europe.  With  closer  union  this  ten- 
dency, in  itself  essentially  healthy,  would  increase. 
With  separation,  it  would  be  deeply  affected  by  two 
considerations :  first,  the  weakened  guarantee  of 
safety  to  the  individual  colony :  and  second,  the  new 
burden  which  would  be  laid  upon  the  separating 
colony  in  undertaking  single-handed  the  whole  task 
of  defence,  and  the  whole  diplomatic,  consular  and 
other  organization  incident  to  national  independence. 
Inevitably  expenses  would  go  up  while  credit  went 
down.  I  am  satisfied  that  people  either  in  England  or 
abroad  who  for  colonial  relations  thoughtlessly  borrow 
the  simile  of  the  ripe  fruit  dropping  easily  from  the 
parent  tree,  have  formed  little  conception  of  the 
violent  financial  wrench  involved  in  the  separation 
of  even  one  great  colony,  or  of  the  strength  of  the 
financial  bond  which,  every  day  increasing  in  strength, 
is  binding  more  closely  together  with  ties  of  common 
interest  the  mother-land  and  her  greatest  offshoots. 

A  very  important  financial  issue  has  lately  been 
raised  by  the  proposition  to  permit  the  investment  of 
British  Trust  Funds  in  colonial  securities.  The 
proposal  has  for  some  time  been  steadily  urged  upon 
the  English  Government  by  the  Agents  General  who 


CH.  XII]  FINANCE.  277 

officially  represent  the  Australian  colonies,  and  by 
the  High  Commissioner  for  Canada,  and  it  is  gener- 
ally believed  that  the  negociations  had  proceeded  so 
far  that  at  one  time  Her  Majesty's  Government  had 
consented  to  initiate  the  Legislation  necessary  for 
the  purpose.  Though  the  discussion  is  now  in 
abeyance,  it  will  no  doubt  come  up  at  a  later  time 
for  decision.  If  favourable,  that  decision  would 
confer  a  considerable  financial  advantage  upon  the 
colonies.  Of  the  sufficiency  of  the  guarantee  fur- 
nished in  such  investments  careful  and  responsible 
financiers  entertain  no  reasonable  doubt.  It  is 
obvious,  however,  that  any  determination  to  concede 
this  privilege  to  trustees  implies  a  belief  that  the 
colonies  will  remain  a  part  of  the  Empire.  It  is 
equally  obvious  that  any  tendency  in  an  opposite 
direction  on  the  part  of  any  great  colony  would  be 
fatal  to  the  proposition.  At  present  such  investment 
can  only  be  made  in  certain  home  securities,  or  in 
Indian,  and  a  very  limited  number  of  colonial  securities 
which  are  under  direct  Imperial  guarantee.  There 
would  be  as  valid  reason  for  extending  them  to 
French,  Italian  or  Russian  securities  as  to  those  of 
colonies  which  might  soon  become  independent 
nations.  It  will  be  scarcely  possible  to  avoid  the 
consideration  of  ultimate  inter-imperial  relations 
should  this  subject  come  up  for  final  decision  in 
Parliament.  Under  a  settled  system  of  Imperial 
unity  colonial  securities,  even  without  Legislation, 
would  naturally  rank  with  the  best  in  the  Empire. 


CHAPTER   XIII. 

TRADE  AND  FISCAL  POLICY. 

IN  matters  of  fiscal  policy  the  British  Empire  at 
present  occupies  a  position  peculiar  among  all  the 
nations  of  the  world,  in  that  for  nearly  half  a  century 
it  has  been  without  any  fiscal  system  common  to  its 
various  parts.  Nor  does  the  fact  seem  to  have 
seriously  affected  the  sense  of  unity.  It  cannot  be 
said  that  New  South  Wales,  which  till  quite  lately 
has  in  its  fiscal  arrangements  followed  the  example 
of  the  mother-country,  is  united  a  whit  more  closely 
to  her  than  is  Victoria  or  Canada,  where  duties  have 
long  been  imposed  not  merely  for  revenue  but  for 
protection.  Nor  can  it  be  truly  said  that  the  ties, 
practical  or  sentimental,  which  bind  together  Canada 
and  the  United  Kingdom,  have  grown  weaker  since 
the  adoption  in  the  Dominion  of  a  trade  policy 
opposite  to  that  of  the  mother-land.  Should  the  new 
commonwealth  of  Australia,  in  its  eager  desire  to 
create  varied  industries,  decide  upon  a  system  of 
inter-colonial  free  trade,  with  protection  against  the 
rest  of  the  world,  including  Britain,  no  one  would 
now  anticipate  therefrom  any  fundamental  change 


TRADE   AND   FISCAL   POLICY.  279 

in  the  political  relations  between  mother-land    and 
colony. 

Compared  with  all  other  nations,  these  conditions 
seem  extremely  anomalous.  They  are  accounted  for 
by  the  fact  that  the  Empire  itself  is  in  its  composition 
anomalous.  In  it  we  find  communities  existing  under 
widely  different  conditions,  some  with  vast  popu- 
lations concentrated  in  a  small  space,  while  others 
have  their  inhabitants  thinly  scattered  over  immense 
areas ;  some  with  wealth  which  lends  itself  readily  to 
direct  taxation,  others  which  can  only  collect  revenue 
easily  at  the  ports ;  some  chiefly  engaged  in  manu- 
facture, others  in  the  production  of  food  and  raw 
material ;  some  with  capital  and  cheap  labour  in 
such  abundance  that  they  can  cheerfully  face  any 
competitors,  others  under  severe  pressure  from  the 
competition  of  commercially  hostile  neighbours  more 
rich  and  numerous  than  themselves.  Economic 
theories  are,  in  fact,  being  tested  throughout  the 
Empire  under  almost  every  conceivable  condition,  to 
the  ultimate  advantage,  we  may  hope,  of  economic 
truth.  Meanwhile,  though  no  serious  jar  in  the 
national  system  has  as  yet  been  caused  by  the  diver- 
gence of  trade  policies,  this  divergence  is  looked  upon 
by  many  as  an  almost  insuperable  obstacle  to  any 
closer  political  union.  It  is  urged  that  a  real  national 
unity  cannot  exist  without  community  of  fiscal  system, 
and  in  support  of  this  position  appeal  is  made  to  the 
examples  of  the  United  States,  Germany,  Austro- 
Hungary,  Switzerland  and  Canada.  In  all  of  these 


280  IMPERIAL   FEDERATION.  [Cn.  XIII 

free  internal  trade  followed  upon  the  formation  of 
a  Federal  system. 

How,  it  is  often  said  in  England,  can  we  unite 
more  closely  with  countries  which  in  trade  matters 
are  almost  as  hostile  to  us  as  France,  Germany,  or 
the  United  States?  How,  it  is  said  in  the  colonies, 
can  we  unite  more  closely  with  a  mother-land  which 
in  trade  matters  makes  no  distinction  between  her 
greatest  enemy  and  ourselves  ? 

Of  late,  as  the  pressure  of  hostile  tariffs  in  foreign 
countries  has  been  more  severely  felt,  the  tone  of 
reproach  is  more  distinct  in  England  than  in  the 
colonies. 

The  slightest  historical  retrospect  shows  that  this 
is  not  justified.  The  system  by  which  each  self- 
governing  division  of  the  Empire  regulates  its  trade 
policy  in  accord  with  what  it  conceives  to  be  its 
own  interests,  treating  other  parts  of  the  Empire 
exactly  as  it  does  foreigners  was  not  initiated  by 
colonists,  but  by  the  people  of  the  United  Kingdom, 
in  connection  with  the  adoption  of  Free  Trade  in 
1846.  Previous  to  that  period  mutually  beneficial 
trade  relations,  both  as  regards  exports  and  imports, 
existed  between  the  mother-land  and  the  colonies. 
Many  of  the  colonies,  and  especially  Canada,  pro- 
tested vehemently  against  this  change  of  national 
policy  and  suffered  severely  from  the  complete  re- 
versal of  the  trade  relations  which  had  previously 
existed.  Given  almost  ostentatiously  to  understand 
that  the  mother-land  was  indifferent  to  the  trade 


CH.  XIII]  TRADE   AND   FISCAL   POLICY.  281 

policy  which  they  pursued,  the  colonies  were  free, 
without  any  reproach  on  their  national  allegiance, 
to  choose  the  system  which  seemed  best  adapted  to 
their  wants.  On  the  one  side  they  saw  the  United 
Kingdom  wonderfully  prosperous  under  Free  Trade. 
On  the  other  they  saw  the  United  States  sweeping 
along  in  an  equally  wonderful  career  of  prosperity 
under  a  system  of  Protection.  The  conditions  pre- 
vailing in  the  United  States  seemed,  of  the  two,  more 
similar  to  their  own,  and  it  cannot  be  doubted  that 
this  example  has  had  much  to  do  with  the  adoption 
of  Protective  systems  in  most  of  the  colonies.  The 
wisdom  or  error  of  the  choice  remains  to  be  de- 
monstrated, for  clearly  all  systems  of  Protection  are 
yet  on  their  trial.  Are  they  expedients  to  accom- 
plish a  temporary  purpose,  or  are  they  permanent 
policies  ? 

Even  in  the  United  States  there  have  been  elections 
which  indicated  a  distinct  wavering  of  the  public 
mind  upon  the  question.  In  Canada  the  party  which 
favours  Free  Trade  is  neither  small  nor  unimportant. 
In  Australia  one  of  the  chief  objects  aimed  at  in 
Federation  is  the  freedom  of  inter-colonial  trade 
which  will  be  one  of  its  conditions.  Protection  against 
the  outside  world  will  at  first  probably  be  another, 
but  Sir  Henry  Parkes  and  other  supporters  of  Federa- 
tion have  expressed  the  most  confident  belief  in  the 
ultimate  prevalence  of  Free  Trade  principles  over  the 
Australian  continent  He  would  be  a  bold  prophet 
who  would  undertake  to  say  whether  Protection  or 


282  IMPERIAL   FEDERATION.  [Cn.  XIII 

Free  Trade  would  ten  years  hence  be  the  policy  of 
the  United  States,  Canada  or  Australia,  strong  as 
is  the  hold  which  the  former  now  has  in  each. 

On  the  other  hand,  there  is  a  prevalent  opinion  in 
Canada,  and  in  other  colonies  as  well,  that  the  United 
Kingdom  will  yet  be  driven  to  recede  to  some  extent 
from  her  Free  Trade  position.  It  is  observed  that 
however  correct  may  be  the  economic  principles  on 
which  Free  Trade  is  based,  national  passion  has  pre- 
vailed over  economic  truth,  and  most  of  the  nations 
of  the  world  continue  to  erect  higher  and  higher 
barriers  against  the  trade  of  the  United  Kingdom, 
thereby  falsifying  the  forecasts  of  the  early  apostles 
of  Free  Trade.  More  than  this,  it  is  seen  that  the 
United  States,  while  given  free  access  to  English 
markets,  not  only  creates  a  McKinley  tariff  to  keep 
out  English  goods,  but  by  offering  Free  Trade  to 
Canada  at  the  price  of  discrimination  against  Britain, 
practically,  though  perhaps  not  intentionally,  uses  the 
trade  question  as  a  leverage  to  break  up  the  Empire. 
It  is  believed  that,  under  the  influence  of  considera- 
tions such  as  these,  a  decided  reaction  has  in  Britain 
begun  in  the  direction  of  some  modified  system  of 
Protection  within  the  Empire. 

Are  there  grounds  to  justify  this  opinion  ? 

Certain  it  is  that  many  Members  of  Parliament, 
representing  both  rural  and  manufacturing  constituen- 
cies, openly  avow  their  preference  for  a  discriminating 
tariff  within  the  Empire,  and  for  fighting  the  com- 
mercial hostility  of  other  nations  by  the  use  of  similar 


CH.  XIII]  TRADE   AND   FISCAL   POLICY.  283 

weapons,  and  appear  to  lose  no  political  strength  by 
the  avowal.  Twice  has  the  Convention  of  Conserva- 
tive delegates  broken  away  from  its  leaders,  and 
passed  what  amounted  to  Fair  Trade  resolutions. 
Liberal  and  Conservative  representatives  of  labour 
constituencies  have  alike  affirmed  of  late  years  that 
they  find  the  working  man's  mind  permeated  with 
Fair  Trade  ideas,  ideas  which  might  become  a  serious 
political  force  in  any  period  of  prolonged  industrial 
depression.  A  mayor  of  the  greatest  of  English 
manufacturing  towns  told  me  in  the  very  home  of 
Free  Trade  that  in  his  opinion  England  might  yet 
have  to  revise  her  commercial  policy.  The  leading 
silk-manufacturer  of  Yorkshire  is  an  ardent  advocate 
of  Fair  Trade  principles.  The  heads  of  different 
great  woollen  and  other  manufacturing  firms  in  the 
same  county  have  told  me  that  their  judgment  in- 
clined them  in  the  same  direction.  Joseph  Cowen, 
the  distinguished  representative  of  northern  Radicalism 
has  said,  that  he  looked  upon  a  British  Zollverein  as 
the  true  ideal  of  our  national  statesmanship.  When 
Sir  Charles  Tupper  urged  upon  the  late  W.  E.  Forster 
the  advisability  of  giving  the  outlying  parts  of  the 
Empire  a  better  commercial  footing  than  foreign 
countries,  his  reply  was :  '  Well,  I  am  a  free  trader, 
but  I  am  not  so  fanatical  a  free  trader  that  I  would 
not  be  willing  to  adopt  such  a  policy  as  that  for 
the  great  and  important  object  of  binding  this  Empire 
together.' 

The    TimeS)   commenting   upon  a   speech    of   Sir 


284  IMPERIAL   FEDERATION.  [Cn.  XIII 

Gordon  Sprigg  advocating  a  commercial  union  be- 
tween England  and  her  colonies,  said  : — 

'  There  is  still  a  considerable  amount  of  fetish- 
worship,  but  the  ideas  upon  which  any  commercial 
union  must  rest  will  not  in  future  incur  the  furious 
and  unswerving  hostility  that  would  have  greeted 
them  twenty  years  ago.  It  is  getting  to  be  under- 
stood that  Free  Trade  is  made  for  man,  not  man  for 
Free  Trade,  and  any  changes  that  may  be  proposed 
will  have  a  better  chance  of  being  discussed  upon 
their  own  merits  rather  than  in  the  light  of  high-and- 
dry  theory  backed  by  outcries  of  the  thin  edge  of  the 
wedge.  The  British  Empire  is  so  large  and  so  com- 
pletely self-supporting,  that  it  could  very  well  afford, 
for  the  sake  of  serious  political  gain,  to  surround 
itself  with  a  moderate  fence.' 

And  again,  discussing  a  resolution  passed  in  the 
Dominion  House  of  Commons  in  favour  of  preferen- 
tial trade  with  Great  Britain,  the  same  journal  has 
lately  said : — 

'  We  have  not  disguised  our  opinion  that  if  the 
colonies  as  a  whole,  and  without  arrttre  pensee,  were 
prepared  to  enter  into  a  Customs  Union  with  the 
mother-country  on  mutually  advantageous  terms, 
there  would  be  a  strong  body  of  public  opinion  in 
favour  of  meeting  the  offer,  if  possible,  even  at  the 
cost  of  some  departure  from  the  rigorous  doctrines  of 

Free  Trade If,  by  not  too  great  a  departure 

from  the  strict  lines  of  Free  Trade,  it  were  possible 
to  bind  the  great  self-governing  colonies  in  close 


CH.  XIII]          TRADE  AND   FISCAL   POLICY.  285 

and  permanent  commercial  alliance  with  the  mother- 
country,  securing  not  only  a  vast  reserve  of  political 
strength  but  the  command  of  large  and  rapidly  grow- 
ing markets,  it  would  probably  be  thought  well  worth 
while  to  incur  some  sacrifice.  When  nations  like  the 
United  States,  Russia,  and  France  are  strengthening 
their  exclusive  systems  against  us,  and  when  central 
Europe  is  involved  in  a  network  of  commercial  treaties, 
it  is  not  pleasant  to  contemplate  the  possibility  that, 
under  protective  tariffs  of  increasing  stringency,  our 
colonial  trade  may  slip  from  us,  and  the  political 
allegiance  of  our  colonial  subjects  may  be  gradually 
broken  down.' 

In  expressions  such  as  these,  which  might  be 
multiplied,  those  who  advocate  a  return  to  preferential 
trade  relations  within  the  Empire  find  proof  of  a  great 
change  in  English  public  opinion.  But  after  all  has 
been  said  that  can  be  said  it  is  clear  to  any  unpre- 
judiced observer  that  on  the  whole  an  overwhelming 
majority  of  the  people  of  the  United  Kingdom  still 
sincerely  regard  free  trade  with  all  the  world  as 
necessary  to  the  welfare  of  the  masses,  and  to  the 
stability  of  the  vast  industries  of  the  country.  No 
political  party  would  as  yet  dare  to  face  an  election 
on  a  platform  of  Protection  or  Fair  Trade.  The  reason 
is  obvious.  Dependence  on  sources  of  food  supply 
outside  the  Empire  is  still  so  great  that  any  change  of 
policy  would  be  thought  to  involve  great  risk  and 
anxiety.  Though  a  few  years  of  strenuous  effort 
would  doubtless  make  the  Empire  self-sufficing  in  the 


286  IMPERIAL   FEDERATION.  [Cn.  XIII 

matter  of  food,  still  those  few  years  of  transition 
would  be  a  critical  period.  Clear  thinkers  outside  of 
the  United  Kingdom  recognize  this.  It  is  well  known 
how  strongly  Sir  John  Macdonald  held  the  opinion 
that  the  Empire  would  be  strengthened  and  drawn 
together  by  preferential  trade  between  its  different 
communities.  Yet  he  said  to  me  in  1889:  'Till 
England  sees  that  we  can  feed  her  or  with  a  little 
encouragement  can  do  so,  we  must  not  expect  to 
work  out  Federation  on  a  trade  basis.  But  as  soon 
as  we  have  proved  what  our  North  West  can  do  and 
English  people  see  that  they  can  get  all  the  wheat 
they  want  from  ourselves  and  the  other  colonies,  the 
English  point  of  view  will  change,  and  trade  advantage 
can  be  made  to  supplement  the  other  forces  which 
make  for  British  unity.'  Sir  Charles  Tupper  argues 
for  immediate  discrimination,  but  he  as  fully  recognizes 
that  it  should  not  affect  the  prices  of  food  for  the 
vast  masses  which,  in  England,  depend  on  outside 
supplies. 

He  has  given  illustrations  which  he  thinks  indicate 
that  a  fiscal  arrangement  which  favours  the  produc- 
tions of  the  colonies  would  not  result  in  raising  the 
price  of  food  materially  in  Great  Britain,  while  it 
would  give  stimulus  to  colonial  industry  and  increase 
the  colonial  market  for  British  manufactures  to  the 
great  advantage  of  the  British  working  man. 

He  points  out  that  the  Mark  Lane  prices  of  corn 
during  the  year  1890  and  1891,  as  shown  by  the 
report  of  the  Board  of  Agriculture,  indicate  a  flue- 


CH.  XIII]  TRADE   AND   FISCAL   POLICY.  287 

tuation  in  price  of  ten  shillings  a  quarter,  and  it  was 
only  when  the  maximum  advance  of  ten  shillings 
a  quarter  was  reached  that  a  half-penny  difference 
was  made  upon  the  four-pound  loaf.  From  this  fact 
he  draws  the  conclusion  that  five  shillings  a  quarter 
could  be  imposed  upon  foreign  wheat  without  making 
any  appreciable  advance  in  the  price  of  bread. 

A  second  illustration  he  draws  from  the  meat 
supply.  In  consequence  of  the  existence  of  pleuro- 
pneumonia  in  the  United  States,  cattle  sent  from 
that  country  to  Great  Britain  have  to  be  slaughtered 
upon  their  arrival,  while  the  freedom  of  Canada  from 
the  disease  exempts  Canadian  cattle  from  this  regu- 
lation. The  advantage  given  to  Canada  by  this 
distinction  is  estimated  by  Mr.  Rush,  the  highest 
American  authority  upon  the  subject,  at  between 
eight  and  twelve  dollars  a  head.  The  result  has  been 
an  immense  expansion  of  this  trade  for  Canada,  which 
last  year  sent  123,000  head  of  cattle  to  England,  for 
which  Canadian  stock  raisers  would  receive  about 
a  million  dollars  more  than  Americans  would  obtain 
for  the  same  number  of  cattle,  while  Sir  Charles 
Tupper  claims  that  no  one  has  even  suggested  that 
any  difference  has  thereby  been  made  in  the  price 
of  meat.  Lastly,  he  points  to  the  experience  of 
France  and  Germany,  where,  after  a  much  higher 
duty  had  been  imposed  on  corn,  the  cost  of  bread 
was  less  than  before l. 

1   On  this  point  Lord  Dunraven  says — Nineteenth  Century,  March, 
1891  :  'The  duty  on  wheat  in  France  in  1882  was  only  2-8d.  per 


288 


IMPERIAL   FEDERATION. 


[On.  XIII 


But  if  the  price  of  wheat  be  not  changed,  what,  it 
is  asked,  will  be  the  advantage  to  the  colonies,  and 
what  is  to  be  the  compensation  to  the  mother-country 
for  making  the  change  ? 

The  colonial  advantage  will  come  from  the  new 
direction  given  to  emigration.  The  great  numbers 
of  emigrants  who  now  go  under  a  foreign  flag  to 
produce  the  grain  and  other  food  which  the  United 
Kingdom  buys  will  go  to  British  countries  where  they 
will  enjoy  the  advantage  of  the  easier  access  to  British 
markets  and  by  so  doing  will  add  to  the  wealth  and 
strength  of  the  colonies  and  the  Empire. 

cwt. ;  in  1885  it  was  raised  to  150?.  per  cwt.,  or  536  per  cent. 
According  to  some  economists,  the  price  of  wheat  should  have  gone 
up  in  like  proportion,  and  the  masses  have  had  to  pay  dearer  for 
their  bread.  But  what  are  the  facts  ?  The  price  of  wheat  actually 
fell  from  an  average  of  10-085.  per  cwt.  in  1883,  the  year  following 
the  low  duty,  to  9-295.  in  1886,  the  year  following  the  increased 
duty,  or  8  per  cent.  Instead  of  the  poor  man  in  France  having  to 
pay  dearer  for  his  bread,  he  paid  less  in  1886  than  in  1883,  as  the 
following  table  shows : — 


BREAD 

1883 

1884 

1885 

1886 

First  Quality   .     . 

i-57 

1-49 

i-39 

i-39 

Second  Quality    . 

i-35 

1-26 

1-17 

1-22 

Third  Quality  .     . 

1-17 

i-i3 

1-04 

I-09 

In  Germany,  too,  I  find  the  same  results  follow  from  increased 
duties.  Wheat  went  down  from  10-305.  per  cwt.  in  1882,  when  the 
duty  was  6d.  per  cwt.,  to  9-395.  per  cwt.  in  1889,  or  9  per  cent, 
when  the  duty  was  25.  6d.,  per  cwt.  or  500  per  cent,  higher,  while 
bread  remained  at  about  the  same  price.  Internal  development 
appears  in  both  these  cases  to  have  more  than  compensated  for  any 
restriction  of  foreign  imports,  and  it  is  only  fair  to  remember  that 
the  resources  of  the  British  Empire  in  respect  of  food  supply  are 
immeasurably  greater  than  those  of  France  or  Germany.' 


CH.  XIII]  TRADE   AND    FISCAL   POLICY.  289 

To  understand  the  anticipated  advantage  to  the 
mother-country  we  must  study  some  extremely  sug- 
gestive facts  connected  with  inter-imperial  trade. 

Man  for  man  the  people  of  the  colonies,  leaving 
out  India,  consume  British  products  out  of  all  pro- 
portion to  foreigners.  The  figures  fluctuate  from 
year  to  year,  but  taking  the  countries  with  which  the 
United  Kingdom  carries  on  the  greatest  amount 
of  trade  a  sufficiently  accurate  average  can  be 
given  of  the  ordinary  annual  consumption  per  head 
of  British  manufactures  in  each.  In  Germany  and 
the  United  States  this  consumption  is  about  8s.  per 
head,  in  France  9^.,  in  Canada  £i  i$s.,  in  the  West 
Indies  £2  5^.,  in  South  Africa  £3,  in  Australasia 
nearly  £8.  Thus  three  or  four  millions  of  people  in 
Australasia  take  more  of  British  goods  than  about 
fifty  millions  of  people  in  Germany,  and  nearly  as 
much  as  sixty  millions  of  people  in  the  United  States. 
Only  an  artificial  boundary  separates  Canada  from 
the  United  States,  yet  an  emigrant  who  goes  north 
of  that  boundary  immediately  begins  to  purchase 
more  than  three  times  as  much  of  British  goods 
as  one  who  goes  south  of  it.  As  a  customer  to 
the  British  artizan  one  Australian  is  worth  sixteen 
Americans ;  one  South  African  is  worth  seven  or 
eight  Germans.  Figures  such  as  these  have  suggested 
the  remark  that  'trade  follows  the  flag.'  It  is  perhaps 
a  more  adequate  explanation  to  say  that  trade  follows 
not  merely  the  flag,  with  the  protection  and  prestige 
which  it  gives,  but  that  it  follows  along  the  line  of 

U 


290  IMPERIAL   FEDERATION.  [Cn.  XIII 

the  tastes,  customs  and  habits  of  life  which  the 
emigrant  carries  with  him ;  along  the  line  of  intimate 
social  and  financial  connection  such  as  that  which 
exists  between  England  and  her  colonies.  The  lowest 
prices  current  do  not  altogether  determine  the  direc- 
tion of  commerce.  Social,  political,  financial  and  even 
sentimental  considerations  unite  to  create  the  wants 
of  a  people  and  so  in  a  measure  to  give  tendencies  to 
trade. 

Putting  all  these  facts  together  it  is  claimed  that 
a  national  policy  which  inclined  emigration  towards 
the  colonies  would  create  with  great  rapidity  new 
markets  for  British  products  and  would  send  back 
in  increasing  volume  the  productions  which  Britain 
wants  to  buy.  while  adding  greatly  to  the  strength 
and  self-sustaining  capacity  of  the  whole  nation. 
Hence  it  is  that  many  advocates  of  British  unity 
sincerely  believe  that  the  adoption  of  preferential 
trade  relations  within  the  Empire  is  the  readiest  way 
to  the  great  end  in  view.  They  hold  that  trade 
advantage  constitutes  the  best  outward  token  of 
national  union,  and  by  its  sense  of  common  benefit 
would  do  more  than  anything  else  to  make  all  willing 
to  contribute  to  national  expense. 

This  view  is  held  very  strongly  in  Canada,  South 
Africa  and  the  West  Indies :  less  importance  is  at- 
tached to  it  in  New  Zealand  and  still  less  in  Australia. 

It  should  not  be  wondered  at  in  England  that 
Canadians  bent  upon  the  maintenance  of  British 
connection  think  of  preferential  trade  relations  with 


CH.  XIII]  TRADE   AND   FISCAL   POLICY.  291 

the  mother-land  as  a  way  of  escape  from  the  anoma- 
lous position  in  which  they  have  of  late  been  placed. 
'  Let  it  be  clearly  understood,'  says  Principal  Grant, 
'  that  Canada  has  only  two  markets  worth  speaking 
of.  One  of  these,  Gieat  Britain,  she  shares  on  equal 
terms  with  every  foreign  nation,  and  from  the  other, 
the  United  States,  she  is  debarred  as  long  as  she  is 
connected  with  Britain.  The  former  would  be  as 
open  to  her  as  it  is  now  were  she  to  unite  commercially 
with  the  Republic  and  against  Britain,  and,  were  she 
to  do  so,  she  would  then  at  once  get  the  other  market 
also.'  Is  it  right  or  politic,  he  asks,  that  an  important 
part  of  the  Empire  should  be  left  to  such  a  choice  ? 
Principal  Grant,  however,  goes  further,  and  argues 
that  a  preferential  arrangement  within  the  Empire 
would  only  be  required  as  a  temporary  measure,  and 
would  really  lead  to  the  Free  Trade  relations  which 
are  desired  with  the  United  States.  'So  all-import- 
ant,1 he  says,  '  is  the  British  market  to  the  United 
States  voter,  that  the  mere  prospect  of  a  preference 
being  given  in  it  to  his  rivals  would  be  enough  to 
bring  him  to  a  business  frame  of  mind  ;  he  thoroughly 
believes  in  the  "  cash  value  of  his  markets,"  and 
would  be  ready  to  give,  for  what  he  believes  to  be 
a  sufficient  consideration,  that  value  which  he  will 
never  dream  of  giving  for  nothing.' 

While  the  Canadian  accustomed  to  the  thought  of 
protection  would  thus  build  up  the  Empire,  strengthen 
the  union,  and  deepen  the  sense  of  nationality  by 
preferential  trade  relations,  the  English  Free  Trader 

U  2 


292  IMPERIAL   FEDERATION.  [On.  XIII 

suggests  another  solution  He  says  to  Canada  :  Throw 
down  your  tariff  walls  against  English  manufactures, 
so  far  at  any  rate  as  your  revenue  necessities  permit, 
and  thereby  make  Canada  the  one  cheap  country  to 
live  in  on  the  American  continent.  When  your  farmer 
buys  his  clothes,  builds  his  house,  gets  his  machinery, 
his  earthenware,  his  hardware  at  a  far  lower  cost  than 
the  farmer  who  is  being  bled  to  satisfy  the  McKinley 
tariff,  he  will  then  have  an  advantage  over  his  com- 
petitors far  greater  than  could  be  given  by  a  pre- 
ferential tariff  in  England.  Your  North-West  will 
be  filled  with  immigrants  crowding  even  from  the 
United  States  to  the  centre  of  cheap-  living  and 
therefore  cheap  production  ;  your  Eastern  farmer  will 
have  an  increased  profit  on  the  meat,  the  poultry, 
the  eggs,  the  fruit  which  he  sends  to  the  British  or 
the  American  market ;  British  capital  will  flow  freely 
into  the  country ;  railroads,  canals,  ports,  shipping 
will  feel  the  pressure  and  the  prosperity  of  inward 
and  outward  trade ;  manufactures  suitable  to  each 
locality  will  increase  with  the  greater  prosperity  of 
the  country  and  the  diminished  cost  of  living.  Even 
the  McKinley  tariff  may  be  forced  to  give  way  in 
face  of  the  striking  illustration  which  Canada  would 
give  on  the  American  continent,  of  the  benefits  flowing 
from  free  commercial  movement.  The  farmer  of  the 
Western  States,  handicapped  beside  the  farmer  of  the 
Canadian  North- West,  would  in  all  probability  use 
his  vote  to  compel  the  Eastern  manufacturer  to  come 
to  terms  with  England  and  Canada. 


CH.  XIII]  TRADE   AND   FISCAL   POLICY.  293 

But  even  if  other  nations  refused  to  yield  to  such 
influences,  an  empire  covering  one  fifth  of  the  world, 
and  capable  of  producing  everything  required  by 
man,  would  have  before  it,  under  a  system  of  free 
commercial  intercourse  and  common  citizenship,  a 
period  of  prosperity  unparalleled  in  the  history  of 
the  world. 

The  venerable  Earl  Grey,  in  an  appeal  specially 
addressed  to  the  Canadian  people — an  appeal  which 
has  stamped  upon  every  sentence  good -will  for  Canada, 
and  sincere  regard  for  her  interests — has  urged  that 
the  Dominion  should  not  merely  throw  open  its 
markets  to  England,  but  to  the  United  States  as  well, 
and  argues  with  all  the  earnestness  of  his  youthful 
convictions  that  such  a  course  would  not  only  bring 
to  Canada  the  same  prosperity  which  Free  Trade 
brought  to  England,  but,  on  account  of  Canada's 
peculiar  relations  to  the  United  States,  would  go  far 
to  break  down  all  systems  of  excessive  protection. 

We  have  then,  in  matters  of  trade,  great  variations 
of  system  between  the  different  communities  of  the 
Empire,  and  great  differences  of  opinion  within  each 
of  the  communities  themselves. 

Does  this  conflict  of  thought  upon  trade  policy 
present  an  insuperable  obstacle  to  national  unity  ? 
There  are  those  who  claim  that  mutually  advantageous 
trade  relations  furnish  the  only  basis  on  which  it  is 
worth  while  to  discuss  Imperial  Federation  with  any 
hope  of  practical  result.  This  opinion  is  held  alike 
by  some  who  look  to  preferential  treatment,  and 


294  IMPERIAL   FEDERATION.  [Cn.  XIII 

others  who  look  to  exceptional  freedom  of  inter- 
change within  the  Empire  for  the  necessary  bond. 

With  this  extreme  view  I  have  never  been  able  to 
agree.  Even  without  trade  advantage  between  its 
parts  there  are  decisive  reasons  why  the  nation  should 
present  a  united  front  to  the  world.  Unity  is  essential 
to  safety,  as  I  have  tried  to  prove,  and  at  any  moment 
the  outbreak  of  a  great  war  may  make  safe  trade  of 
more  vital  consequence  for  British  people  than  either 
Free  Trade  or  trade  depending  on  tariffs.  The 
wealth  created  by  either  must  be  defended,  and  with 
the  least  possible  burden  on  the  individual  com- 
munity. A  common  system  of  defence  therefore 
seems  of  itself  a  sufficient  justification  for  close  poli- 
tical union.  This  is  a  permanent  condition. 

On  the  other  hand,  it  can  scarcely  be  questioned 
that  ideas  on  trade  policy  all  around  the  world  are 
in  a  state  of  flux.  That  systems  now  existing  may 
be  modified,  perhaps  reversed,  within  a  few  years, 
is  not  only  possible,  but  highly  probable.  The 
greater  freedom  or  greater  restriction  of  trade  is 
a  temporary  condition1. 

1  Prof.  Shield  Nicholson  quotes  Adam  Smith's  sentence :  '  To 
expect  that  the  freedom  of  trade  would  ever  be  entirely  restored  in 
Great  Britain  is  as  absurd  as  to  expect  that  an  Oceana  or  Utopia 
should  ever  be  established  in  it,'  and  goes  on  to  say :  '  this  curious 
example  of  the  danger  of  political  prophecy  should  suffice  to  dispel 
the  apathy  generally  disp^ed  towards  any  consideration  of  the 

fiscal   aspects    of  Britannic    confederation Nothing  is   more 

common  than  to  speak  of  the  complicated  tariffs  and  the  vested 
interests  of  the  newest  colonies  as  insuperable  obstacles  to  any 
general  fiscal  reform.  As  a  matter  of  historical  fact,  however,  in 


CH.  XIII]  TRADE   AND   FISCAL   POLICY.  295 

That  the  temporary  difficulty  of  conflicting  tariffs 
should  be  a  bar  to  the  attainment  of  permanent 
national  security,  seems,,  on  the  face  of  it,  absurd. 

In  any  attempt  at  Federal  organization  it  would 
probably  at  first  be  necessary  to  leave  to  each  com- 
munity the  choice  of  the  method  by  which  its  revenues 
are  raised.  To  do  so  would  not  apparently  put  too 
great  a  strain  on  the  admitted  flexibility  of  the 
Federal  system.  But  it  can  scarcely  be  doubted  that 
one  of  the  first  effects  of  a  close  political  union,  in 
which  common  ends  are  constantly  kept  in  view,  and 
the  strength  and  prosperity  of  each  part  are  an  im- 
mediate concern  to  all,  would  be  to  break  down  by 
degrees  all  existing  barriers  to  the  advantageous 
movement  of  inter-imperial  commerce. 

much  less  than  a  century  the  commercial  policy  of  the  British  Empire 
has  passed,  speaking  broadly,  from  the  extreme  of  central  regulation 
to  the  extreme  of  non-interference,  and  there  is,  prima  facie,  no 
reason  why  a  reaction  should  not  occur  if  such  a  course  is  shown  to 
be  to  the  mutual  advantage  of  the  colonies  and  the  mother-country.' 


CHAPTER    XIV. 

PLANS.    CONCLUSION. 

1  There  is  not  the  least  probability  that  the  British  constitution 
would  be  hurt  by  the  union  of  Great  Britain  with  the  colonies. 
That  constitution,  on  the  contrary,  would  be  completed  by  it,  and 
seems  to  be  imperfect  without  it.  The  assembly  which  deliberates 
and  decides  concerning  the  affairs  of  every  part  of  the  Empire,  in 
order  to  be  properly  informed,  ought  certainly  to  have  representatives 
from  every  part  of  it.  That  this  union,  however,  could  be  easily 
effectuated,  or  that  difficulties  and  great  difficulties  might  not  occur 
in  the  execution,  I  do  not  pretend.  I  have  yet  heard  of  none,  how- 
ever, which  appear  insurmountable.' — Adam  Smith's  Wealth  of 
Nations. 

THE  advocates  of  national  consolidation  have  been 
constantly  subjected,  as  every  one  familiar  with 
current  discussion  knows,  to  two  diametrically  op- 
posite forms  of  criticism.  They  are  vigorously 
reproached  by  writers  like  Mr.  Goldwin  Smith  for 
not  stating  in  detail  the  method  by  which  their  pur- 
poses are  to  be  accomplished  ;  they  are  ridiculed  by 
others  as  people  who  aim  at  binding  together  by 
means  of  a  '  cut  and  dried  plan '  an  Empire  which  has 
hitherto  depended  upon  slow  processes  of  growth  for 
its  constitutional  development.  It  will  be  well  to 
form  a  just  estimate  of  these  contradictory  lines  of 
criticism. 


PLANS.      CONCLUSION.  297 

The  demand  so  often  made  for  a  formal  and  de- 
tailed statement  of  the  precise  constitutional  methods 
by  which  national  unity  is  to  be  secured  appears  to 
me  to  be  put  forward  in  defiance  of  the  teachings 
of  history.  The  grounds  upon  which  this  opinion  is 
based  are  obvious  to  any  one  who  studies  the 
methods  by  which  Federal  organization  has  been 
effected  in  the  past. 

Take  first  the  case  of  the  United  States.  The 
time  between  the  recognition  of  American  Indepen- 
dence in  1783  and  the  adoption  of  the  Federal  con- 
stitution in  1788  has  been  well  called  the  'critical 
period  of  American  history.'  During  this  period  of 
strenuous  agitation  Alexander  Hamilton,  Madison, 
and  other  American  statesmen  had  freely  discussed  in 
a  general  way  their  ideas  upon  Federal  union,  and  had 
made  many  but  widely  divergent  attempts  to  outline 
the  main  principles  upon  which  it  should  be  based. 

Still,  when  the  famous  convention  which  met  in 
1787,  eleven  years  after  the  declaration  of  indepen- 
dence, entered  upon  its  discussions,  it  had  to  deal, 
not  with  any  single  plan,  but  with  many  contradictory 
plans,  brought  forward  by  states  or  individuals.  It 
is  now  known  that  weeks  and  indeed  months  spent 
in  anxious  consultation  elapsed  before  even  the  most 
sanguine  among  the  delegates  began  to  feel  assur- 
ance that  a  plan  which  would  harmonize  conflicting 
ideas  could  be  devised.  Even  when  the  Federal 
constitution  was  at  length  drafted,  and  Alexander 
Hamilton,  at  the  last  session  of  the  convention,  made 


298  IMPERIAL   FEDERATION.  [Cn.  XIV 

a  final  plea  for  its  adoption,  he  emphasized  his  demand 
for  the  sacrifice  of  personal  preferences  by  pointing 
out  how  remote  its  provisions  were  from  the  ideas 
which  he  had  at  the  outset  entertained  and  had  in- 
deed supported  throughout  the  discussions.  It  was 
at  a  later  period  that  Hamilton  and  other  leaders  of 
the  Federation  movement  made  their  contributions 
to  the  famous  '  Federalist,'  a  series  of  discussions 
avowedly  written  with  a  view  to  secure  popular  sup- 
port for  a  plan  which  had  previously,  however,  only 
been  elaborated  by  the  united  wisdom  of  the  trained 
statesmanship  of  the  country 1. 

The  discussion  of  Canadian  Confederation  had  been 
conducted  only  upon  general  lines  up  to  the  time 
when  the  leading  public  men  of  Canada,  drawn  alike 
from  all  political  parties,  met  in  conference  at  Quebec 
in  1866.  The  Federal  system  of  the  United  States 
had  given  general  direction  to  the  public  thought, 
but  the  actual  scheme  by  which  Confederation  was 
accomplished  had  been  barely  outlined  in  the  minds 
of  a  few  of  the  principal  delegates  ;  the  resolutions  at 
first  proposed  were  submitted  to  much  criticism  and 
revision,  and  the  final  form  of  the  constitution  was 
only  adopted  after  weeks  of  earnest  discussion.  Even 
Sir  John  Macdonald  admitted  that  on  the  quite 

1  '  In  nothing  could  the  flexibleness  of  Hamilton's  intellect,  or  the 
genuineness  of  his  patriotism,  have  been  more  finely  shown  than  in 
the  hearty  zeal  and  transcendant  ability  with  which  he  now  wrote  in 
defence  of  a  plan  of  government  so  different  from  what  he  would 
have  himself  proposed.' — The  Critical  Period  of  American  History, 
p.  342,  John  Fiske. 


CH.  XIV]  PLANS.       CONCLUSION.  299 

fundamental  question  of  whether  the  union  should  or 
should  not  be  Legislative,  he  only  yielded  his  own 
convictions  to  the  manifest  objection  of  the  majority 
in  the  Conference. 

The  agitation  for  Federal  Union  in  Australia  has 
gone  on  for  many  years  ;  the  examples  of  both  the 
United  States  and  Canada  have  been  open  to  Austra- 
lian study,  and  hence  the  easy  construction  of  a 
system  might  have  been  assumed.  Yet  it  was  only 
when  the  responsible  statesmen  of  the  different  colo- 
nies, and  of  the  different  political  parties  in  these 
colonies,  had  met  in  general  conference  that  a  formal 
plan  other  than  the  essays  of  amateurs  was  placed 
before  the  public. 

We  have  in  our  own  generation  seen  the  union  of 
Italy  and  that  of  Germany  consummated  under  the 
strain  of  intense  national  passion,  and  yet  we  know 
that  even  the  chief  agents  in  working  out  those  great 
movements  could  only  feel  their  way  as  they  went 
along,  taking  advantage  of  opportunities  and  ad- 
vancing with  the  advance  of  public  sentiment — and 
that  it  was  only  when  near  their  goal  that  they  saw 
clearly  the  precise  form  which  national  unity  would 
take. 

One  may  therefore  with  some  confidence  appeal 
to  history  in  support  of  the  position  that  no  great 
work  of  national  consolidation  has  ever  been  carried 
out  which  started  from  a  defined  initial  plan.  The 
plan  has  been  the  crown  of  effort,  not  its  starting- 
point. 


300  IMPERIAL   FEDERATION.  [CH.  XIV 

For  this  there  are  two  manifest  reasons.  Years 
of  discussion  and  agitation  are  almost  necessary, 
especially  under  free  popular  constitutions,  before 
that  public  opinion  can  be  formed  which  enables 
statesmen  to  determine  what  sacrifices  or  concessions 
communities  are  willing  to  make  to  secure  even  a 
great  end.  Again,  only  statesmen  practically  and 
closely  in  touch  with  the  people,  familiar  with  the 
passions  or  prejudices  of  the  communities  concerned, 
and  accustomed,  moreover,  to  the  work  of  practical 
administration,  are  able  to  give  adequate  constitu- 
tional expression  to  aspirations  or  desires  for  unity— 
necessarily  more  or  less  vague  even  when  vehement  ; 
they  alone  can  judge  where  compromise  or  concession 
must  be  made,  or  where  it  would-be  fatal. 

It  is  on  such  grounds  as  these  that  advocates  of  the 
more  complete  political  unity  of  the  Empire  have 
hitherto  chiefly  confined  themselves,  to  pointing  out 
the  fundamental  defects  of  the  existing  system,  to 
the  inculcation  of  principles,  the  study  of  facts,  and 
the  dissemination  of  information  bearing  upon  the 
question.  They  have  directed  their  efforts  to  bringing 
about  conferences  of  statesmen  duly  qualified  to  deal 
with  the  questions  at  issue,  and  at  the  same  time  to 
creating  a  public  opinion  which  would  justify  such 
conferences  in  taking  vigorous  action.  They  have 
felt  that  the  formulation  of  detailed  plans  should  be 
left  for  statesmen  who  had  received  a  mandate  from 
the  people,  and  who  would  be  responsible  to  the 
people  for  the  results  of  their  decisions. 


CH.  XIV]  PLANS.      CONCLUSION.  ?>oi 

This  policy  constitutes  the  best  answer  to  those 
who  ridicule  or  reproach  them  with  attempting  to 
bind  the  Empire  together  by  some  preconceived 
system  of  their  own.  The  only  plan  to  which  they 
look  forward  is  such  a  one  as  may  be  the  outcome  of 
the  will  of  the  people  and  the  wisdom  of  responsible 
statesmen  representing  the  different  parts  of  the 
Empire. 

While  the  demand  for  a  formal  and  detailed  plan 
is  illogical,  the  suggestion  of  plans  is  useful  and 
helpful  so  far  as  they  give  definiteness  to  men's 
thought,  and  so  help  to  form  or  strengthen  public 
opinion. 

But  in  approaching  the  study  of  possible  plans  we 
are  met  by  a  primary  consideration. 

There  are  clearly  two  ways  in  which  national  unity 
might  be  attained.  One  would  be  by  a  great  act  of 
constructive  statesmanship,  such  as  that  which  gave 
a  constitution  to  the  United  States,  that  which 
confederated  Canada,  that  which  is  doing  the  same 
for  Australia,  that  which  in  other  states  has  changed 
an  old  system  for  a  new.  Such  an  effort  is  what 
people  have  undertaken  when  they  saw  before  them 
a  great  national  problem,  knew  distinctly  what  they 
wished  to  accomplish,  and  were  ready  to  run  the  risks 
always  involved  in  radical  change  for  the  sake  of  the 
end  to  be  obtained  by  new  organization.  To  make 
such  an  effort  requires  statesmen  with  courage  to 
lead,  and  with  judgment  to  plan  so  as  to  command 
public  approval ;  courage  and  judgment  such  as 


302  IMPERIAL   FEDERATION.  [Cn.  XIV 

those  which  unified  Germany  and  Italy,  or  those 
which  federated  the  United  States  and  Canada.  On 
a  smaller  scale  we  have  in  the  history  of  the  United 
Kingdom  examples  of  this  bold  and  definite  states- 
manship, as  opposed  to  slow  constitutional  growth 
and  change,  in  the  acts  of  Union  with  Ireland  and 
Scotland,  or  in  the  Reform  Bills  of  half  a  century  ago 
which  gave  to.  the  vast  but  newly-formed  industrial 
centres  their  true  weight  in  the  government  of  the 
country.  To  make  decisive  constitutional  changes  to 
meet  distinct  national  necessities  is  strictly  in  keeping 
with  our  political  traditions.  An  attempt  to  federate 
the  Empire  by  a  great  act  of  political  reconstruction 
would  therefore  differ  from  other  events  in  our  history 
not  so  much  in  kind  as  in  degree.  If  the  task  to  be  under- 
taken seems  great,  we  must  remember  that  it  would 
be  faced  in  order  to  deal  with  facts  of  national  growth 
and  change  without  precedent  in  human  history. 

It  can  scarcely  be  denied  that  at  any  time  circum- 
stances may  arise  which  would  almost  compel  such 
an  act  of  reconstruction.  The  demand  of  a  single 
great  colony  to  know  the  terms  on  which  it  might 
remain  within  the  Empire  as  an  alternative  to  inde- 
pendence would  make  the  question  practical  at  once. 
A  great  struggle  for  national  safety  or  national 
existence  would  probably  have  the  same  effect.  That 
the  public  mind  should  be  prepared  to  deal  intelli- 
gently with  such  a  question  is  the  strongest  reason 
for  the  careful  education  of  popular  opinion  on  all 
matters  relating  to  our  national  position. 


CH.  XIV]  PLANS.      CONCLUSION.  303 

There  is,  however,  another  very  different  method 
by  which  the  object  in  view  may  be  attained  or  at 
least  approached  with  the  prospect  of  final  attainment. 
Instead  of  radical  change  and  reconstruction  we  may 
look  to  a  policy  of  gradual  but  steady  adaptation  of 
existing  national  machinery  to  the  new  work  which 
must  be  done. 

This  method  commends  itself  more  especially  to 
thinkers  in  the  mother-land,  who  are  accustomed  to 
consider  that  the  supreme  merit  of  the  British 
institution  consists  in  the  fact  that  it  is  not  a  written 
rule, — not  a  system  struck  off  at  white  heat  by  the 
efforts  of  legislators,  but  is,  in  the  main,  the  result 
of  a  progressive  historical  development.  To  them 
further  progress  would  seem  safer  if  pursued  on 
similar  lines.  The  policy  seems  of  less  consequence 
to  colonists,  living  as  they  do  in  countries  going 
through  rapid  changes,  and  lending  themselves  more 
readily  to  new  organization. 

The  ideal  of  Federation  which  naturally  presents 
itself  to  the  mind  is  one  which  provides  a  supreme 
Parliament  or  Council,  national  not  merely  in  name 
but  in  reality,  because  containing  in  just  proportion 
representatives  of  all  the  self-governing  communities 
of  the  Empire.  Such  a  body,  relegating  the  manage- 
ment of  local  affairs  to  local  Governments,  and 
devoting  its  attention  to  a  clearly  defined  range  of 
purely  Imperial  concerns,  would  seem  to  satisfy  a 
great  national  necessity.  It  would  secure  represen- 
tation for  all  the  great  interests  of  the  Empire,  it 


304  IMPERIAL   FEDERATION.  [Cn.  XIV 

would  bring  together  those  best  fitted  to  give  advice 
on  Imperial  matters,  and  it  would  be  free  from  that 
overwhelming  responsibility  for  petty  administration 
which  now  paralyzes,  and  at  times  renders  ridiculous, 
the  supreme  council  of  the  greatest  nation  in  the 
world. 

This,  it  seems  to  me,  is  the  ideal  which  must  be 
kept  in  view  as  the  ultimate  goal  of  our  national 
aspiration  and  effort.  It  is  a  reasonable  ideal,  one 
which,  as  we  have  seen,  long  since  commended  itself 
to  the  philosophic  mind  of  Adam  Smith,  and  which 
has  to-day,  under  the  changed  conditions  of  inter- 
course, infinitely  more  to  justify  it,  and  infinitely  less 
to  hinder  its  attainment  than  in  his  time.  Even  Burke, 
to  whom  it  also  occurred  as  a  reasonable  political  con- 
ception, would  have  hesitated  to  employ  the  phrase, 
opposuit  natura,  with  which  he  dismissed  it,  could  he 
have  grasped  the  possibility  of  what  steam  and  the 
telegraph  have  done  during  the  last  half  century.  The 
realization  of  some  such  an  ideal  as  this  — a  common 
representative  body,  Parliament  or  Council,  direct- 
ing the  common  policy  of  the  Empire,  while  absolute 
independence  of  local  government  is  secured  for  the 
various  members — may  fairly  be  looked  upon  as  the 
only  ultimate  alternative  to  national  disintegration, 
the  only  thing  which  can  fully  satisfy  our  Anglo-Saxon 
instincts  of  self-government,  and  give  finality  to  our 
political  system. 

Meanwhile  I  have  found  that  practical  statesmen 
throughout  the  Empire,  even  those  most  devoted  to 


CH.  XIV]  PLANS.      CONCLUSION.  305 

the  cause  of  national  unity,  while  recognizing  that  the 
difficulties  constantly  tend  to  diminish,  look  upon  the 
immediate  realization  of  this  ideal  as  impracticable, 
or  as  involving  too  great  a  political  effort,  too  sweeping 
a  change  in  the  existing  machinery  of  national  govern- 
ment. They  turn  themselves  to  the  consideration  of 
measures  which  will  by  gradual  steps  and  a  process  of 
constitutional  growth  lead  up  to  the  desired  end. 

Prominent  among  such  measures  must  be  placed  the 
proposal  to  summon  periodical  conferences  of  duly 
qualified  representatives  of  the  great  colonies  to  consult 
with  the  home  government  and  with  each  other  on  all 
questions  of  common  concern.  The  public  recognition 
of  the  right  of  consultation,  the  formal  summoning 
of  such  conferences  by  the  Head  of  the  State,  would 
of  itself  be  a  signal  proof  to  the  outside  world  of 
the  reality  of  national  unity,  a  decisive  step  towards 
its  complete  attainment.  By  bringing  the  leading 
statesmen  of  the  colonies  from  time  to  time  into  im- 
mediate contact  with  those  of  the  mother-land,  the 
opportunity  would  be  furnished  for  that  personal  un- 
derstanding which  becomes  more  and  more  necessary 
in  the  conduct  of  politics  and  diplomacy.  In  pro- 
portion as  dignity  is  given  to  these  conferences,  and 
as  their  decisions  are  carried  into  effect,  their  influence 
on  the  policy  of  the  Empire  would  increase  till,  it  is 
believed,  they  would  either  themselves  develop  into 
an  adequate  Federal  council,  or  would  have  gained  an 
authority  and  experience  entitling  them  to  indicate 
the  lines  on  which- such  a  council  could  be  created. 

x 


306  IMPERIAL   FEDERATION.  [Cn.  XIV 

The  Conference  of  1887,  though  merely  tentative, 
proved  how  great  is  the  variety  of  subjects  which 
may  usefully  come  under  the  consideration  of  such 
gatherings.  New  questions  are  constantly  arising. 
A  single  illustration  may  be  given.  The  right  of 
Canada  to  make  independent  treaties  has  been  so 
strongly  urged  by  the  leaders  of  the  Opposition  in  the 
Dominion  Parliament  that  it  is  difficult  to  see  how, 
when  next  in  power,  they  can  avoid  pressing  the 
claim  upon  the  Imperial  Government.  In  the  con- 
stitution outlined  by  the  Australian  convention  at 
Sydney  *  external  affairs  and  treaties '  were  among 
the  subjects  specially  reserved  for  the  Federal  Govern- 
ment. A  prominent  Victorian  barrister  has  pointed 
out  that  this  provision  would  bring  up  the  whole 
question  of  the  nature  and  limits  of  the  Imperial 
connection.  Newfoundland  is  now  claiming  the 
right  to  form  separate  treaties  with  foreign  powers, 
and  has  thereby  come  into  conflict  with  Canadian 
interests.  It  is  clear  that  such  questions  should  be 
settled  on  broad  principles  of  general  application. 
The  fixing  of  such  principles  would  of  itself  justify 
a  conference  of  representatives  of  all  the  communities 
concerned.  But  conferences  are  occasional,  and  it 
would  still  be  necessary  to  provide  some  means  of 
more  continuous  contact  between  the  thought  of  the 
Governments  of  the  colonies  and  that  of  the  mother- 
land. On  this  point  of  an  adequate  constitutional 
nexus  we  have  many  important  suggestions,  to  a  few 
of  which  reference  should  be  made. 


CH.  XIV]  PLANS.      CONCLUSION.  307 

Sir  Frederick  Pollock,  in  an  article  contributed  to 
an  English  journal  in  March,  1891,  says:  *  Is  there 
not  any  way,  short  of  a  gigantic  constitutional  ex- 
periment, of  providing  a  visible  symbol  and  rallying- 
point  for  the  feeling  of  Imperial  patriotism  which  has 
so  notably  increased  within  the  last  ten  years  ?  I 
think  there  is.  One  part  of  our  constitution  retains, 
not  only  in  form,  but  in  fact,  the  vigour  of  perpetual 
youth,  and  is  capable  of  indefinite  new  growth  as 
occasion  may  require,  without  doing  any  violence  to 
established  usage.  I  mean  the  Privy  Council.  From 
the  Privy  Council  there  have  sprung  within  modern 
times  the  Board  of  Trade,  the  Judicial  Committee, 
the  Education  Department,  the  Universities  Com- 
mittee, and  virtually  though  not  quite  formally,  the 
Local  Government  Board,  and  the  several  commis- 
sions now  merged  in  the  Agricultural  Board.  Why 
should  there  not  be  a  Colonial  and  Imperial  Com- 
mittee of  the  Privy  Council,  on  which  the  interests 
of  the  various  parts  of  the  Empire  might  be  repre- 
sented without  the  disturbance  of  any  existing  institu- 
tion whatever,  and  whose  functions  might  safely  be 
left,  to  a  large  extent,  to  be  moulded  and  defined  by 
experience  ?  ...  It  might  be  summoned  to  confer 
with  the  Cabinet,  the  Foreign  or  Colonial  Minister, 
the  Admiralty,  or  the  War  Office,  at  the  discretion 
of  the  Prime  Minister  or  of  the  department  concerned  ; 
and  its  proceedings  would  be  confidential  ...  It  is 
hardly  needful  to  mention  the  Agents-General  of  the 
self-governing  colonies  as  the  kind  of  persons  who 

X  2 


308  IMPERIAL   FEDERATION.  [Cn.  XIV 

should  be  members  of  the  Committee  now  suggested, 
being,  of  course,  first  made  Privy  Councillors  .  .  . 
I  believe  that  such  a  Committee  might  give  us  some- 
thing much  better  than  a  written  constitution  for  the 
British  Empire ;  it  might  become  the  centre  of  an 
unwritten  one.' 

In  the  Nineteenth  Century  for  October,  1891,  Sir 
Charles  Tupper  suggests  a  plan  similar  in  principle 
to  that  of  Sir  Frederick  Pollock,  but  more  clearly 
defined.  Assuming  that  at  no  distant  date  the 
Australasian  and  the  North  African  groups  of  colonies 
will  be  federated,  as  the  Canadian  provinces  now  are, 
he  proposes  that  each  of  these  three  great  British 
communities  shall  be  represented  in  this  country  by 
leading  members  of  the  Cabinets  of  the  countries  to 
which  they  belong,  ministers  going  out  of  office  when 
their  own  governments  are  changed,  and  so  perma- 
nently representing  the  views  of  the  government  in 
power.  Such  a  minister  should  in  England  be  sworn 
ex  officio  a  member  of  the  Privy  Council,  and  though 
not  a  member  of  the  Imperial  Cabinet  would  be  in 
a  constitutional  position  to  be  called  upon  to  meet  it 
on  every  question  of  foreign  policy  or  when  any 
question  that  touched  the  interest  of  a  colony  was 
being  considered.  To  this  suggestion  Sir  Charles 
Tupper  lends  not  only  the  great  weight  of  his  per- 
sonal authority,  but  he  supports  his  proposal  by  the 
expressed  opinion  of  men  like  Earl  Grey,  the  Marquis 
of  Lome,  W.  E.  Forster,  and  others. 

Once  more,  Lord  Thring,  looking  at  the  question 


CH.  XIV]  PLANS.      CONCLUSION. 


309 


as  a  constitutional  expert,  has  stated  his  opinion  that 
the  best  way  in  which  the  colonies  could  at  present 
directly  intervene  in  the  general  policy  of  the  Empire 
would  be  by  elevating  the  position  of  Agents-General 
to  one  akin  to  that  of  a  minister  of  a  foreign  state, 
and  by  giving  them  in  addition,  as  members  of  the 
Privy  Council,  the  right  of  constitutional  access  to  the 
British  Government.  This,  he  thinks,  would  satisfy 
the  immediate  necessities  of  the  case,  and  would  pave 
the  way  for  the  fuller  representation  which  must  come 
with  the  fuller  acceptance  of  national  responsibility. 

Nothing  can  more  fully  show  the  change  that  has 
come  over  the  public  mind  than  the  fact  that  pro- 
posals such  as  these  are  now  made  by  constitutional 
authorities  and  responsible  public  men.  It  illustrates 
a  complete  reversal  of  the  policy  which  was  assumed 
without  question  by  the  statesmen  of  the  last  genera- 
tion. The  discussion  has  become  one  not  of  the 
principle  of  unity,  but  of  ways  and  means  to  arrive 
at  the  most  satisfactory  constitutional  nexus  between 
the  mother-land  and  her  offshoots. 

But  it  must  not  be  thought  that  discovering  the 
precise  point  of  constitutional  connection  is  the  only  or 
even  the  most  important  step  towards  effective  unity. 
While  the  constitutional  question  is  being  debated  there 
is  much  which  Parliaments  can  do,  much  in  which 
every  voter  in  the  Empire,  by  the  use  of  his  political 
influence  can  assist,  to  forward  the  cause  of  political 
unification.  Foremost  among  these  practical  measures 
may  be  put  the  establishment  of  the  cheapest  possible 

x  3 


3io  IMPERIAL   FEDERATION.  [CH.  XIV 

postal  and  telegraphic  communication.  The  practical 
advantages  which  would  flow  from  an  inter-Imperial 
system  of  Penny  Postage  have  been  so  often  and  so 
effectively  presented  by  those  who  have  given  special 
attention  to  the  question,  that  it  is  unnecessary  to 
dwell  upon  them  here.  But  from  another  aspect 
it  may  be  said  that  when  the  emigrant  of  the  re- 
motest colony  knows  that,  because  he  is  a  British 
citizen,  the  penny  stamp  upon  his  letter  will  carry 
the  home  news  of  father,  mother,  brother  or  sister 
over  all  the  extent  of  a  world-wide  empire,  such  a 
fact  will  be  more  to  the  nation  than  the  strength  of 
many  ironclads  in  the  stronger  national  sentiment, 
the  deeper  feeling  of  national  unity  which  it  will 
evoke. 

The  same  may  be  said  of  extended  and  cheapened 
telegraphic  communication,  which  even  now  makes 
possible  an  extraordinary  sympathy  of  national 
thought. 

The  beginning  which  has  been  made  in  co-operation 
for  naval  defence  and  in  the  strengthening  of  posts 
essential  to  common  security,  can  with  advantage  be 
carried  much  further  than  it  has  yet  been. 

The  addition  to  the  judicial  committee  of  the  Privy 
Council  of  representative  judges  of  the  greater  colo- 
nies, on  the  same  principle  that  Indian  law  is  now 
represented,  is  a  practical  measure  which  would  give 
a  more  complete  judicial  unity  to  the  Empire,  and 
perhaps  lay  the  foundation  of  a  supreme  court  of 
final  appeal  for  the  federated  nation.  These  are  but 


CH.  XIV]  PLANS.      CONCLUSION.  311 

illustrations  of  lines  on  which  immediate  action  can  be 
taken  and  progress  made. 

But  the  work  of  unifying  a  great  nation  is  not  one 
that  can  or  should  be  left  to  legislators  alone.  States- 
men must  have  behind  them  the  strength  of  a  trained 
and  intelligent  public  opinion  ;  the  warmth  of  national 
passion.  In  forming  such  a  public  opinion  and  de- 
veloping such  a  passion  there  is  abundant  room  for 
the  patriotic  effort  of  every  believer  in  the  greatness 
and  goodness  of  the  cause,  whatever  may  be  his  walk 
in  life. 

Chambers  of  Commerce,  by  the  careful  and  prac- 
tical study  which  they  are  able  to  give  to  commercial 
relations  ;  by  the  opportunities  which  their  associa- 
tions furnish  of  bringing  together  the  representatives 
of  those  trading  interests  upon  which  the  Empire  has 
been  so  largely  built  up,  should  be  able  to  exercise 
a  profound  influence  on  public  thought,  and  provide 
important  information  for  the  guidance  of  political 
leaders. 

The  discussion  in  working  men's  clubs  of  the  in- 
dustrial and  political  relations  of  the  Empire  is  most 
desirable.  So  far  from  being  remote  from  the 
ordinary  interests  of  the  working  man,  such  discus- 
sions would  be  found  to  touch  more  closely  than 
almost  any  others  upon  his  daily  work,  wages,  and 
food.  It  may  with  confidence  be  said,  that  a  working 
man  who  does  not  have  some  fair  knowledge  of  inter- 
Imperial  relations  is  not  fit  to  exercise  the  franchise 
for  the  Imperial  Parliament. 


31.2  IMPERIAL   FEDERATION.  [Cn.  XIV 

The  equipment  of  all  public  reading-rooms  and 
working  men's  clubs  with  maps  specially  designed 
to  stimulate  geographical  imagination,  and  books  to 
furnish  accurate  geographical  information  about  the 
Empire,  would  serve  a  highly  useful  purpose. 

Upon  the  journalism  of  the  Empire  a  great  respon- 
sibility is  laid.  It  is  only  a  few  years  since  even  the 
most  prominent  English  journals  published  colonial 
news  under  the  head  of  foreign  intelligence.  Canadian 
news  came  to  London  by  way  of  Philadelphia.  All 
that  is  now  changed.  Four  or  five  of  the  leading 
London  dailies,  and  most  of  the  greater  provincial 
journals,  now  make  the  careful  and  conscientious 
study  of  colonial  problems  a  marked  feature  of  their 
work.  One  suggestion  perhaps  remains  to  be  made. 
If  the  British  interests  at  stake  determine  such 
questions,  the  time  will  probably  soon  come  when 
in  three  if  not  four  of  the  outlying  parts  of  the 
Empire  the  greatest  English  journals  should  have  as 
able  and  as  well  paid  correspondents  as  in  the  great 
capitals  of  Europe.  The  work  of  such  men,  devoting 
their  time  to  the  study  of  colonial  conditions,  would 
do  much  to  make  English  information  accurate,  and 
to  create  in  the  colonies  confidence  in  English  opinion 
on  their  affairs. 

It  is  a  crying  evil  that  much  of  the  English  news 
published  in  the  daily  Canadian  press,  reaches  it,  even 
now,  by  way  of  New  York,  and  has  characteristics 
specially  given  to  it  to  meet  the  demands  of  anti- 
British  classes  of  American  newspaper  readers.  Cana- 


CH.  XIV]  PLANS.      CONCLUSION.  313 

dian  journalism  can  alone  apply  the  remedy  of  direct 
communication  carried  on  under  reliable  control. 

In  schools  there  is  an  immense  work  to  be  done. 
The  cultivation  of  national  sentiment  in  the  minds  of 
the  young,  on  the  basis  of  sound  knowledge,  historical, 
geographical  and  industrial,  is  not  only  a  legitimate 
work,  but  a  primary  duty  for  the  schools  of  a  country. 
Especially  is  this  true  of  countries  where  good  govern- 
ment rests  on  the  intelligence  of  the  masses.  Above 
all  is  it  true  for  a  nation  which  has  the  great  birthright 
of  free  popular  institutions  ;  which  has  more  than  once 
stood  as  the  bulwark  of  modern  liberty,  as  it  may  have 
to  stand  again ;  which  has  traditions  behind  and  pro- 
spects ahead  fitted  to  fire  the  noblest  and  purest 
enthusiasm.  Somewhat  extended  observation  has 
led  me  to  conclude  that  there  is  a  very  great  lack  of 
historical  and  geographical  teaching  in  portions  of  the 
Empire.  The  deficiency  is  most  marked  on  the  his- 
torical side  in  the  colonies,  and  especially  in  parts  of 
Australia ;  on  the  geographical  side  in  the  mother- 
land. The  remark  applies  equally  to  elementary  and 
to  secondary  schools.  It  seems  a  lamentable  thing 
that  any  British  child  abroad  should  grow  up  without 
having  felt  the  splendid  inspiration  to  be  drawn  from 
the  study  of  British  history ;  a  disgraceful  thing  that 
any  British  child  in  the  mother-land  should  grow  up 
to  exercise  the  franchise  without  a  fair  idea  of  the 
geography  of  the  Empire  whose  destiny  will  be  in- 
fluenced by  his  vote. 

I  appeal  to  the  teachers  of  our  British  world,  and 


314  IMPERIAL  FEDERATION. 

to  all  who  have  to  do  with  the  direction  of  its  educa- 
tion, to  remedy  this  deficiency.  The  spread  of  educa- 
tional facilities  has  placed  in  their  hands  a  wonderful 
leverage  with  which  to  give  direction  to  the  destinies 
of  the  Empire.  One  hesitates  whether  to  press  this 
duty  most  strongly  upon  those  who  control  the 
*  Public  '  and  secondary  schools,  which  chiefly  educate 
the  professional  and  political  classes,  or  the  common 
schools  which  give  to  the  voting  masses  most  of  the 
early  training  which  they  get.  Let  both  equally  feel 
the  significance  of  this  great  national  responsibility. 

This  work  of  giving  education  upon  the  imme- 
diate problems  of  national  life,  begun  at  school,  should 
be  carried  on  at  our  colleges  and  universities.  The 
author  of  the  '  Expansion  of  England '  has  shown 
how  much  can  be  done  from  a  single  centre  and  by  a 
single  teacher  when  the  highest  resources  of  historical 
knowledge  and  literary  skill  are  turned  to  the  eluci- 
dation of  national  problems. 

By  manifold  agencies  and  influences,  then,  is  the 
problem  of  British  unity  to  be  worked  out.  Our 
freedom,  our  national  traditions,  our  institutions,  our 
Anglo-Saxon  civilization,  are  the  common  heritage  of 
all.  It  is  the  business  of  all  to  labour  for  their  main- 
tenance and  for  their  security. 


1,&>. 
IAT!ON:'OP  in 


MESSRS.  MACMIILAN  &  CO.'S  NEW  BOOKS. 

NEW  BOOK  BY  SIR  CHARLES  DILKE  AND  SPENSER  WILKINSON. 

Nearly  ready,  crown  8vo,  3$.  6ci. 

IMPERIAL  DEFENCE.  By  the  Right  Hon.  Sir  CHARLES  W.  DILKE, 
Bart.,  Author  of"  Greater  Britain,"  and  "  Problems  of  Greater  Britain/' 
and  SPENSER  WILKINSON,  Author  of  "Citizen  Soldiers,"  and  "  The 
Brain  of  an  Army." 

TIMES. — "  The  volume  is  a  serious  and  reasoned  exposition  of  a  defensive  policy, 
adapted  to  the  conditions  and  needs  of  the  British  Empire,  and  starting  from  a  view  of 
national  duty,  interest,  and  responsibility,  which  holds  neither  war  nor  peace  to  be  an 
end  in  itself,  but  regards  both  as  subordinate  to  the  supreme  and  paramount  ends  of 
national  security,  individuality,  honour,  and  self-respect.  .  .  .  The  exposition  given  of 
the  true  meaning  of  the  command  of  the  sea,  and  its  relation  to  the  defensive  policy 
of  the  British  Empire,  is  singularly  clear  and  forcible.  ...  On  the  whole,  however,  the 
book  is  a  contribution  to  the  higher  policy  of  defence  which  invites  serious  study,  and 
will  reward  it  even  if  the  attitude  of  the  reader  towards  the  writers  is  often  one  of 
dissent." 

LONDON  AND  CHINA  TELEGRAPH.-"^*  whole  book  is  clearly  and  frankly 
expressed — there  is  no  hesitation  in  opinions,  and  whether  adopted  or  not,  their  expres- 
sion will  do  good.  They  are  a  really  serious  exposition  of  a  true  defensive  policy  worthy 
of  close  study." 

DAILY  CHRONICLE- — "  No  two  men  in  this  country  outside  the  highest  ranks  of 
professional  soldiers,  and  not  many  even  among  them,  have  paid  more  attention  to  the 
question  of  the  defence  of  Great  and  Greater  Britain  than  the  two  civilians  whose  names 
are  on  the  title  of  this  most  notable  volume.  .  .  .  An  excellent,  a  readable,  and  a  very 
suggestive  book." 

SCOTSMAN, — "The  questions  discussed  are  of  the  very  first  importance,  and  the 
facts,  arguments,  and  suggestions  here  brought  forward  are  all  well  worth  the  considera- 
tion, and  many  of  them  worth  the  acceptance,  of  the  naval  and  military  authorities, 
and  others  responsible  for  the  peace  and  the  strength  of  the  British  Empire." 

EARL  GREY. 
8vo,  paper  covers,  is.  net. 

THE  COMMERCIAL  POLICY  OF  THE  BRITISH  COLONIES 
AND  THE  McKINLEY  TARIFF.  By  EARL  GREY. 

BY  PROFESSOR  JENFS. 
8vo,  14$. 

THE  GOVERNMP:NT  OF  VICTORIA  (AUSTRALIA).   By  EDWARD 

JENKS,  M.A.,  Fellow  of  King's  College,  Cambridge,  Professor  of  Law 
in  the  University  of  Melbourne. 

TIMES. — "A  more  important  work  upon  the  public  law  of  any  British  colony  than 
The  Government  of  Victoria  has  seldom  if  ever  appeared.  ...  It  forms  a  complete 
constitutional  history  of  the  colony,  and  a  complete  survey  of  the  present  state  of  its 
constitution  and  organic  law.  We  shall  be  surprised  if  Mr.  Jenks'  work  does  not 
forthwith  become  indispensable  to  every  Australian  politician,  while  it  must  be  constantly 
referred  to  by  our  own  public  men." 

SCOTSMAN. — "It  is,  in  the  best  sense,  a  work  of  weight  and  value." 

LEEDS  MERCURY. — ''An  interesting  contribution  to  the  constitutional  history  of 
the  colonies  .  .  .  sketches  in  broad  and  philosophic  outline  the  growth  of  legislation  and 
the  functions  of  government  at  the  Antipodes.  .  .  .  The  book,  as  a  whole,  throws 
considerable  light  on  the  inner  working  of  the  machinery  of  government  under  the 
existing  condition-  of  affairs." 

MACMILLAN  AND  CO.,  LONDON. 


MESSES.  MACMILLAU  &  CO.'S  KECEIfT  BOOKS. 

By  JAMES  BRYCE,  D.C.L.,  M.P. 
Two  Volumes.     Extra  Crown  8vo,  25$. 

THE  AMERICAN   COMMONWEALTH.      By  JAMES  BRYCE,   M.P., 
D.C.L.,  Regius  Professor  of  Civil  Law  in  the  University  of  Oxford. 


Part    I.  THE    NATIONAL    GOVERN- 


Part  II.  THE  STATE  GOVERNMENTS. 
Part  III.  THE  PARTY  SYSTEM. 


Part  IV.  PUBLIC  OPINION. 


MENT*  Part  V.  ILLUSTRATIONS  AND  RE- 

FLECTIONS. 

Part  VI.  SOCIAL  INSTITUTIONS. 


TIMES. — "  Mr.  Bryce's  volumes  belong  to  a  very  small  and  rare  class.  They  challenge, 
and  they  merit,  the  most  careful  examination  ....  For  a  long  time  to  come,  we  are  con- 
fident, this  will  be  the  classical  work  upon  a  subject  the  interest  in  which  cannot  diminish.'* 

ST.  JAMES'S  GAZETTE.—"  After  much  labour  and  long  preparation  Professor 
Biyce's  great  work — for  it  deserves  the  epithet — on  the  constitution,  government,  and 
p(  liticsof  the  United  States  is  at  last  before  us.  It  is  a  work  which  its  author  was  well 
fitted  to  undertake,  a  work  nomiw  press/tut  in  annum — which  both  Englishmen  and 
Americans  can  turn  to  as  authoritative,  sober,  impartial,  and  impressive." 

PALL  MALL  GAZETTE.—"  Mr.  Bryce  has  produced  a  work  remarkable  alike  for 
penetration  of  judgment,  for  felicity  of  style,  and  for  solidity  of  research." 

BY  SIR  CHARLES  W.  DILKE. 
Fourth  and  Cheaper  Edition,  Revised.     Extra  crown  8vo,  i2S.  6d. 

PROBLEMS  OF  GREATER  BRITAIN.  By  the  Right  Hon.  Sir 
CHARLES  W.  DILKE,  Bart.  Fouith  and  Cheaper  Edition,  Revised. 
With  Maps. 

*#*  In  this  edition  the  author  has  made  some  small  corrections  and  added 
some  notes  to  meet  changes  in  the  constitution  of  colonial  governments  which 
have  occurred  during  the  last  ten  months. 

SPECTATOR  —"Sir  Charles  Dilke's  very  able  bock To  deal  adequately  with 

a  book  so  stuffed  with  facts,  and  occupied  with  so  vast  a  variety  of  subjects,  is  utterly  im- 
rossible  even  in  the  course  of  two  notices.  All  we  can  do  is  to  fasten  upon  one  or  two  of 
the  most  interesting  features." 

Crown  8vo,  cloth,  6s. 

STUDIES  IN  CONSTITUTIONAL  LAW— FRANCE,  ENGLAND, 
UNITED  STATES.  By  EMILE  BOUTMY.  Member  of  the  Institute 
of  France,  Principal  of  the  School  of  Political  Science.  Translated 
from  the  second  French  Edition  by  E.  M.  DICEY.  With  an  Introduc- 
tion by  A.  V.  DICEY,  B.C.L.,  Vinerian  Professor  of  English  Law, 
Oxford. 

DUBLIN  MAIL. — "  Unquestionably  a  marvel  of  lucidity  and  conciseness,  combined 
with  critical  power  and  intimate  knowledge  of  the  English,  American,  and  Foreign  con- 
stitutions   It  is  the  result  of  a  careful  study  of  the  foremost  writers  on  Constitu- 
tional Law  in  America,  England,  and  France." 

MACMILLAN  AND  CO.,  LONDON.