IMAGE EVALUATION
TEST TARGET (MT-3)
LO
I.I
IIIIM
IIIM
IIIIIM
IIIM
1 2.2
2.0
1.8
1.25
1.4
1.6
<
6" -
►
^
^
y
<^
/}.
%
'0=^1
■<w
:-9 <•
'c2
r'^..
V
^
-^
w
Photographic
Sciences .
Corporation
23 WEST MAIN STREET
WEBSTER, N.Y. 14580
(716) 072-4503
s.
^
V
^v
\\
c
«■
*
r^
4>
O
%
V
r^
6^
CIHM/ICMH
Microfiche
Series.
CIHM/ICMH
Collection de
microfiches.
Canadian Institute for Historical Microreproductions
Institut Canadian de microreproductions historiques
1980
Technical and Bibliographic Notna/Notat techniques et bibiiographiques
The Institute has attempted to obtain the best
original copy available for filming. Features of this
copy which may be bibliographically unique,
which may alter any of the images in the
reproduction, or wh-^.h may significantly change
the usual method ot filming, are checked below.
n
n
n
□
n
n
D
a
Coloured covers/
Couverture de couieur
Covers damaged/
Couverture endommagde
Covers restored and/or laminated/
Couverture restaurie et/ou peliicul6e
Cover title missing/
Le titre de couverture manque
Coloured maps/
Cartes g^ographiques en couieur
Coloured ink (i.e. other than blue or black)/
Enjre de couieur (i.e. autre que bleue ou noire)
Coloured plates and/or illustrations/
Planches et/ou illustrations en couieur
Bound with other material/
Re\\6 avec d'autres documents
Tight binding may cause shadows or distortion
along interior margin/
La reliure serr^e peut causer de I'ombre ou de la
distortion le long de la marge intdrieure
Blank leaves added during restoration may
appear within the text. Whenever possible, these
have been omitted from filming/
II se peut que certaines pages blanches ajout^es
lors d'une restauration apparaissent dans le texte,
mais, lorsque cela 6tait possible, ces pages n'ont
pas 6t6 film^es.
Additiona! comments:/
Commentaires suppl6mentaires:
L'Institut a microfilm^ le meilleur exemplaire
qu'il lui a 6t6 possible de se procurer. Les ditaiie
de cat exemplaire qui sent peut-Atre uniques du
point de vue bibliographique, qui peuvent modifier
une image reproduite, ou qui peuvent exiger une
modification dana la m6thode normale de filmage
sont indiqu6s ci-dessous.
□ Coloured pages/
Pages de couieur
' I Pages damaged/
I I Pages endommagdes
□ Pages restored and/or laminated/
Pages restaurdes et/ou peliiculdes
I I Pages discoloured, stained or foxed/
D
Pages d6color6es, tacheties ou piqu6es
Pages detached/
Pages d6tach6es
Showthrough/
Transparence
Quality of prir
Qualit^ in6gale de I'impression
Includes supplementary materia
Comprend du materiel supplementaire
Only edition available/
Seule Edition disponible
I I Pages detached/
I I Showthrough/
I I Quality of print varies/
I I Includes supplementary material/
I I Only edition available/
Pages wholly or partially obscured by errata
slips, tissues, etc., have been refiimed to
ensure the best possible image/
Les pages totalement ou partiellement
obscurcies par un feuillet d'errata, une pelure,
etc., ont 6t6 filmdes d nouveau de fagon d
obtenir '.a meilleure image possible.
This item is filmed at the reduction ratio checked below/
Ce document est i'\\m6 au taux de reduction indiqud ci-dessous.
10X
14X
_ A
18X
22X
26X
30X
7
12X
16X
20X
24X
28X
32X
t
s
o
T
s
T
v\
IV
dj
ei
b(
ri{
re
m
Tha copy filmed here hus been reproduced thanks
to the generosity of:
Nationai Library of Canada
L'exemplaire film6 fut reproduit grdce d la
g6n6ro8it6 de:
Bibliothdque nationale du Canada
The images appearing here are the best quality
possible considering the condition and legibility
of the original copy and in keeping with the
filming contract specifications.
Original copies in printed paper covers are filmed
beginning with the front cover and ending on
the last page with a printed or illustrated impres
sion, cr the back cover when appropriat^i. All
other original copies are filmed beginning on the
first page with a printed or illustrated impres-
sion, and ending on the last page with a printed
or illustrated impression.
The last recorded frame on each microfiche
shall contain the symbol — ^ (meaning "CON-
TIIMUED"), or the symbol V (meaning "END"),
whichever applies.
Maps, plates, charts, etc., may be filmed at
different reduction ratios. Those too large to be
entirely included in one exposure are filmed
beginning in the upper left hand corner, i^ft to
right and top to bottom, as many frames ais
required. The following diagrams illustrate the
method:
Les imagec suivantes ont 6t6 reproduites avec le
plus grand soin, compte tenu de la condition at
de la nettet6 de l'exemplaire filmd, et en
conformity avec les conditions du contrat de
filmage.
Les exemplaires originaux dont la couverture en
papier est imprimde sont film^s en commengant
par le premier plat et an terminant soit par la
derni&.e page qui comporte une empreinte
d'impression ou d'illustration, soit par le second
plat, solon la cay. Tous les autres exemplaires
originaux sont film6s en commenqant par la
premidro page qui comporte une empreinte
d'impression ou d'illustration et en terminant par
la dernidre page qui comporte une telle
empreinte.
Un des symboles suivants apparattra sur la
dernidre image c'e cheque microfiche, selon le
cas: le symbole — ► signifie "A SUIVRE", le
symbole V signifie "FIN".
Les cartes, planches, tableaux, etc., peuvent Stre
filmds A des taux de reduction diffdrents.
Lorsque le document est trop grand pour Stre
reproduit en un seul ciich6, il est filmS d partir
de I'angle supdrieur gauche, de gauche d droite,
et de haut en bas, en prenant le nombre
d'images nScessaire. Les diagrammes suivants
illustrent la mSthode.
1
2
3
32X
1 2 3
4 5 6
1 l-m
}
/
/
A^a
'C^?.
-1>»-Tf-
^=je^
THE
onial question
^mrg ^^sagg on
ikPEEIAL FEDERALISM
tc
BY THE AUTHOR OF
O-XIsrX'S 'B^E-Zif"
I**
author's edition.
MONTREAL :
DAWSON BROTHERS, PUBLISHERS
1871 * %
.■%■
I? I
■5^1
■ ^; -r
M
THE
COLONIAL QUESTION
$cin0 (1088^8 on
IMPEEIAL FEDEEALISM
BY THE AUTHOR OF
ic
C3-IITX'S B-A^SIT"
author's edition.
■.-Tt
MONTREAL;
DAWSON BROTHERS, PUBLISHERS
t871
^5-3
1
Entered, according to Act of Parliament of Canada, in th year
one thousand eight hundred and seventy one, by Diwsom
Brothers, in th» office of the Minister of Agriculture.
Printed by Eus&bb Senegal, Montreal.
i
A
^
i
PUBLISHKRS' NOTICE.
V^
1
The ^Publishers have great pleasure in bringing
before the public of the Dominion the following essays
by the author of " Ginx's Baby."
They have attracted much attention in England
where the periodicals in which they appear hare a
large circulation.
Their circulation in Canada is however limited ;
while the subjects discussed are of the utmost import-
ance to the Canadian public. The Publishers have
therefore, arranged with the author for a Canadian
edition.
Whatever conclusion the reader may arrive at as
to the matter of these essays, the bold handling and^
vigorous style of the author cannot fail to arrest
attention and stimulate thought on these important
subjects.
"ik
1 i
t
Y-
^
CONTENTS
Pace.';
IMPERIAL FEDERALISM 3
AN IMPERIAL CONFEDERATION 47
THE TWO SOLUTIONS gy
.jif i»v.r-Y • ■ T •
,t!
rf
' I
.1
H
it-
i'
.'ill
. ."-i m^fwm^^i'^^'mim^i^f^nmmmmmim^Kmmm^
IMPEEIAL FEDEEALISM
(Contemporary Review, January, 1871.)
/v:T;^; < :, T^;,t;i;^Wj' ! «pih',|nity ! t^iMj i u|l ii iL i p ii^^
w^^W
I I
.iiidiir Kiftfiiiiiiiiiiiili
wmmm
mmm^
This is the period of Drift. Swept along by wind
and current, our political and social tendencies appear
to be escaping from our governance and to be man-
oeuvred by fate. It needs no deep mind to discover it.
Capping leaded leaders in our daily papers, or sug-
gesting to the " artists " of some of the many vulgar
comics — O sad misnomer ! — a subject of grotesque
satire, the idea of Drifting is clearly recognised as a
thing of the age. Drifting into war, drifting into a con-
ference, drifting into danger, drifting into Church and
State controversy, drifting to imperial dissolution —
the term is now a favourite one to apply to our politi-
cal movement — the tendency even seems to be favour-
ably acquiesced in.
Drifting to Imperial Dissolution : I wish before
heaven that I could lay hold and arrest the move-
ment with a good, strong Samson's or Cromwell's
hand! I cannot; but 1 have a voice, and I appeal
from the politicians to the people of the Empire.
Driftwood politicians ; sweeping on before the breath
.>#
■^^^
t )
4
IMPERIAL FEDERALISM.
of popularity — with no stern, proud principles to rule
their motions— both parties of them eddying round
and round here in a Reform whirlwind, tossed out
of the way there by an Irish gust, spun about again
by a German-French tempest, inanely watching the
play of a Russian nor'-easter — and liking it ! seeming
contented with that lot, absolutely looking for the
winds and currents as god-sends to be yielded to-
glad if they blow hard enough to make it clear that
it is the way they must go. I pray you, any sensible
bystander, any interested Briton, whose own and his
children's fate is in the boat with these helmsmen ;
and even you, captain and mates ! do you call this
statesmanship or farce ?
Ought not these men to announce boldly in the face
of us all : " This and this is our design — this is our
best gospel in such and such a matter : there is the
point we mean to try to reach, blow wind or run
tide ever so strongly against us : if you don't approve
of our intentions, they are honourable, and in all
honesty don't expect us to carry out any other. Here
we resign to any man who has another plan, if you
think it a better one. Our scheme is true, we belie v^e,
and will hold on to be true though the very founda-
tions of the world were discovered ; ani. till we can
preach it fairly into your convictions, we shall cease
to be responsible for the steering." If we get not
soon some such determined and specific-minded capt-
ains, brother citizens, we are lost. >
At this moment we are drifting to the disintegra-
tion of our Empire. Few believe it. Few have seen
the great currents sweeping away off beyond the
m
IMPERIAL FEDERALISM. 5
horizon, commencing their vast circuits even at the
antipodes, but ere long the cyclone will burst upon
us, and every one, especially the chief officers, w^ill
acknowledge a divine wind, and calmly resign them-
selves to see the vessel rocked and blown to pieces,
saving themselves, no doubt, " some on boards, and
some on broken pieces of the ship. And so it came
to pass that they " I should like to know where
our island of Melita will be, and whether the bar-
barians are likely to be civil. Meantime, I pray your
earnest attention to the matters hereafter to be sub-
mitted, too conscious that my voice is weak in con-
test with the now boisterous elements of Drift, but
having faith in my soul that these matters are serious
and true.
The idea of the Unity of the Empire has two aspects*,
both involved in the term Imperial Federalism. Viewed
from the observation-point of a central, organising
power, it is imperial ; from the local basis of each
province or colony, it involves in some degree the
notion of federalism. Federalism as an imperial ques-
tion relates to the union of the different constituents
of the empire for imperial purposes : ^.s a local ques-
tion it has to do with imperial union for the advant-
age of each constituent.
It will be convenient, therefore, although these
/
<;..
B -i
{1
6 IMPERIAL FEDERALISM.
divisions must necessarily have reciprocal relations,
to regard distinctly (1) the Imperial and (2) the local
aspects of Federalism.
I define Imperial Federalism to be : The doctrine
ot a legislative union, in the form of a confederation,
of each subordinate self-governing community which
is now included within the British Empire. To pre-
serve that empire intact, on the ground that such
a policy is not only imperial but dictated by the
selfish interest of each constituent ; to combine in
some flexible and comprehensive system the great
concourse of subordinate states whereof our empire
is composed, for the benefit of all ; and lastly, to con-
firm to every individual member of the Imperial
Community those rights and privileges to which he
is born — rights and privileges justly inalienable from
himself or his children : these three things must be at
once the aim and the reason for Imperial Federalism.
The gravity of the questions depending on this
doctrine, every day pressing more urgently for solu-
tion, must ere long drive it to the front rank of ^poli-
tical movement. What shall our Empire be fifty years
hence ? What shall become of those sons and
daughters gone from our bosom to far-off territories,
bearing with them a portion of our strength, our
civilization, our freedom, our love of motherland ?
Who are to be the legatees of the vastest national
estate ever accumulated in one sovereign hand ? Are
our colonies destined to be our weakness or our
strength — to sap or to solidify our power ? Is it the
wisest policy to smooth the way to Imperial dissolu-
tion, or our duty and poUcy together, by every honest
V
\U
■^
4
IMPERIAL FEDERALISM. 7
means, by every honourable bond, to perpetuate
Imperial integrity ? Are the hopes of unborn genera-
tions most engaged in the maintenance of an united
empire, or the developement of separate nations?
Such and a hundred other questions, crop up in the
hitherto unexplored regions of the subject designated
by me Imperial Federalism.
I say unexplored. Federation within the empire is
a fact, but Imperial Federalism has, if anything, been
but a shadow. The idea, if not new, has never been
more than glanced at. Its proportions loomed so wide,
so magnificent, enclosed such long and endless wilds
of discussion, who can wonder that, until the day of
necessity came, men shrank from the exploration ? I
think the day of necessity has come — the day when
we must either boldly expedite this doctrine or drift
to Imperial disorganisation.
I have said that fedcx. ,tion exists already within
the Queen's dominions. In 1856 the proposal to con-
federate the British North American provinces is
stated to have beer regarded by Canadian statesmen
" as visionary." In 1867 it was adopted throughout
those vast provinces and by the Imperial Govern-
ment. This should convey to those who are prepared
to magnify the obstacles to similar consummation of
a wider union, the lesson to be moderate in their
unbelief, if not indeed to be active in their faith. In
the Canadian confederacy — as in the sister Republic
— while each province preserves a certain portion of
its autonomy, whatever is of common interest to all
is entrusted to the action of the central government.
The immediate effect in the two Canadas, for ins-
• t im^ Wf i^i - i-*^ » < «i^>'*«»i*
8
IMPERIAL FEDERALISM.
tance, has been to facilitate the settlement of ques-
tions which were before sources of angry recrimi-
nation. In the province of Quebec a legislature,
representing an enormously excessive constituency
of Roman Catholics, conceded to the Protestant
minority, on a question of education, what probably
they would never have yielded to more equally-pro-
portioned forces when Upper and Lower Canada were
united under one government. Each legislature, re-
lieved of the more general subjects of legislation and
debate, is now vigorously pursuing the policy of
developement — extending education, promoting colo-
nization-roads and railways, and encouraging immi-
gration. Here we have before us, within our own
realms, not only a precedent but a demonstration.
In the West Indies, Sir Benjamin Pyne has recently
been able to induce several islands to unite upon a
confederation scheme, which will receive the sanc-
tion of the Home Government.
Following these accomplished facts, the principle
of Federalism has naturally found its way to Aus-
tralia, where, as we shall directly see, it has assumed
a serious aspect. But the idea has not been allowed
to float about and drop its seeds only on the extremi-
ties of the empire. From them it has been borne
home to ourselves, and has begun to germinate in
Ireland. There, though perhaps fostered more by
disaffection than the spirit of patriotism, it would yet
be the most wanton prejudice to permit its infelici-
tous associations to distort our judgement of its poli-
tical promises. It may perhaps hereafter be shown
that some of the most urgent reasons for a federation
"m
IMPERIAL FEDERALISM.
V
')
of the Empire lie at home, and are not wholly to be
sought in the necessities or the aspirations of our
colonial provinces. In the extremities of our domi^
nion, the yearning of our colonies is for closer union
with each other. Shall there be no responsive quick-
ening at the heart ?
The time is not distant when the doctrine that
colonies were essential to our developement and
power was maintained with armies and fleets against
all the world. It is curious to have had so recently
recalled to our memories, by the " Life of Viscount
Palmerston," that within his official experience not
a few fine possessions were confirmed to our domi-
nion. If some think it impossible at this day to defend
the mode by which those territories were acquired
or the principle of territorial aggrandisement at the
expense of other nations, we may at least be allowed
to recognise the prescient instinct of our predecessors
in their policy of colonial extension. They foresaw,
or seem to have foreseen, that the day would come
when for the teeming masses of Great Britain these
colonies would be the happy outlet, when from them
we should draw no indifferent proportion of our
wealth and strength. Whether they foresaw this or
not, has it not been demonstrated ? Turn where we
will, we find Britain flourishing by the help of her
own offspring— toiling, tilling, trading in and from
her distant provinces. To every clime have her adven-
turous sons borne the civilization along with the
enterprise of their race. Prairies and deserts have
changed their features, and from their rich unnum-
bered acres has been brought the blessed food for
^j < l\«\«imfw^'im\iuf
wemtmmmm
40
IMPERIAL FEDERALISM.
millions at home. Nor this alone. The thoughtful
workman here looks out with hopeful pride to com-
raunities of growing wealth and power, whose increas-
ing necessities daily add to the demands for the
products of his labour. They provide him with food,
they provide him with staples of manufacture, they
provide him with work, and they offer him, should
he aim at higher things, the safest and most inviting
field for his energies. To know that wherever he goes
he still retains his English rights, still is safe under
English protection, may at any time return and lie
down to rest a citizen in his English home — is not this
to make him feel the true value of an imperial des-
tiny ? Is not this to give courage to the men and women
who otherwise would perish here in the hopeless
rivalry of wretchedness ? Is not this a true, righteous,
practical thing to devise and confirm for the good of
every living soul within these crowded kingdoms ?
What would not Germany give for such another
empire as Australia ? What energy or money, or poli-
tical and legislative zeal, or commercial enterprise
would she not lavish in establishing and riveting her
relations with such a colony ? What a strength would
she not draw from that young strong son ? And we !
We play with the Imperial sentiment and air our
new Manchester calico ideas, and swear by no god
but Mammon, by no prophets but the Utilitarian Eco-
nomists, and no political economy but that of dead
money ; so much wanted here, so much to come from
there — " supply and demand ; " no matter if in the
transit from repletion to vacuum it roll over and
crush down thousands of human souls !
%/
""lira
IMPERIAL FEDERALISM.
11
There is not much doubt that the bonds between
what is now incorrectly termed the mother-country
and our colonies are perilously strained. I say " incor-
rectly" because, since the accomplishment of Amer-
ican Independence and the vigorous developement of
independent life in our colonial communities, English
ministries have seen that parental authority, at least,
cannot be enforced against our quondam children—
well be it if parental affection go not also 1 It has of
late years been the apparent policy of our Govern-
ment, whether in Whig or Tory hands, to encourage
independence in our greater provinces, especially
independence of us in the matter of expense, this
being most fatally the prime reason ; a proper thing
to encourage if it means a vigorous self-reliant energy
and life, but an ignoble and foolish policy if thereby
is instigated a factious disavowal of Imperial rela-
tions. Yet the clumsy management of two or three
Secretaries of State has nearly brought us to the
latter point. But to give to each province the maxi-
mum of independent action, and yet preserve for it
and for the Empire at large the maximum ( ' mutual
aid and benefit, is a problem that seems not to have
occurred to, far less to have been attempted by, these
summary statesmen. This is the exact problem, which
I venture to affirm Imperial Federalism alone can
solve.
Starting from the basis of the present relations of
our colonies to the Empire, accepting their qualified
independence as a fact, have we not in their desire
to retain their Imperial position and in the associa-
tion of interests, a powerful lever to assist in raising
,,/u. ti 'v'^'n; ,?^
12
IMPERIAL FEDERALISM.
a Structure of imperial unity and power ? But if effort
be neglected, if we permit our blind leaders to bring
us to the very edge of dissolution, if, with changing
circumstances in each colony we have not an admin-
istration at home sufficiently wise and flexible to
devise appropriate methods of mutual action, if we
testify no regard for the ties urged upon us by both
nature and policy, if we allow the Empire to drift—
as in North or South America one may see a combi-
nation raft booming among the cataracts, the raftsmen
meanwhile watching from the river-bank careless
whether it reach the bottom in one or many pieces —
our inditference will suddenly receive a shock in the
decisive action of our dependencies. Therefore, I say,
with all diligence let us seek to infuse into our domes-
tic and colonial communities the grand idea of a per-
manent federated Empire. It behoves us soon to recog-
nise all the independence of our colonies, while
they and we recognise our dependence on each other.
In considering Federalism from the Imperial point
of view, we shall the better apprehend the true gra-
vity of the question when we come to examine the
perilous condition of the existing relations between
Great Britain and the colonial provinces. Not to exag-
gerate the danger, we are justified in observing that
the doctrine of colonial independence has been so
rudely pressed upon the colonies as to incline some
of them to adopt it in its integrity. Canada, during
last year, was thrown into a state of excitement by
the prospect of a " Fenian invasion," that is to say, a
rotten-raid of senseless cut-throats. Who were these
people ? Were they immediate enemies of the Gana-
"T"
■^^^^P"^»p*
ip™p
IMPERIAL FEDERALISM.
13
dians, or was their fell purpose excited by hatred for
a British Government far away ? — This was the un-
happy time chosen for the affirmance of the new
'* Imperial policy 1 " Not only so ; but the Foreign
Office intervenes at the wrong moment, and thanks
the American Government for a tardy recognition of
the fact that a filibuster expedition had been fitted
out under its own eyes and with too criminal a delay
of protest on the part of American statesmen. I
cannot refrain from quoting the rough but truthful
description of Canadian opinion on this matter by a
correspondent of the New York Herald:—,
" Close on the heels of the agitation" (consequent on the an-
nouncement of the Imperial policy which I shall hereafter quote)
" came the Fenian flasco, the repulse of the marauders by the
volunteers, and the general expression of satisfaction on the part
of England at the manner in which America had fulQUed her
obligations as a neutral or rather a friendly power. This was the
last feather. At once Canadians began to perceive the full force
of the logic so frequently presented to them in the New York
Herald. [This is the crudest cut of all 1 To have succeeded in
driving our colonists to adopt the logic of the New York Herald /]
Here were Canadians called upon to fight and pay for a quarrel
proper to the mother-country. Canadians who have for half a
century clung like bull-calves to the teats of the said mother-
country. That was the eflbct of British connection. But that
the States should be specially thanked for their services, when
these same Slates had encouraged Fenianism, and were respon-
sible for the whole thing, th'.s was, in the words of Artemus
"Ward, ' a darned sight too much.' A general howl went up all
over the country. Every newspaper cursed the truckling, cringing
Cabinet of St. James's, bewailed the evils and expense of having
to do their own police, and declared that England would have
to put things right, or else— or else what ? — annexation."
It is difficult to pin down the noble lord, then
Secretary of State for the Colonies, to any specific
Act or expression which can convict him of revolu-
tionary intentions; but, unquestionably, the Cana-
^
•mf'
t4
IMPERIAL FEDERALISM.
M^
dians were led to suspect that the policy of the Home
Government was to wean the youngling Dominion,
and encourage it to look forward to absolute inde*
pendence. That this suspicion was not groundless
seems to have been shown by the circumstances at-
tending the offer of a knighthood and order to Mr.
Gait, the late finance minister of Canada. On the
22nd of February last, in the Canadian Parliament,
Sir Alexander Gait explained how he, who was an
advocate of a policy, '' framed with reference to that
which appeared to him to be inevitable, the separation
of the Dominion from Great Britain," had come to
accept an honour from the Imperial Governmeiit.
When he had received the offer, he stated his views
to the Governor, then Sir John Young, and was asked
to put them in writing. They were in favour of
independence.
" He (Sir Alexander) said, that holding these views, and re-
serving to himself the right to state them in public, he Cell that
he must not accept the distinction that was offered to him unless
his Excellency would be allowed to convey his (Sir Alexander
Gait's) opinion to her Majesty's Government, and that if he
learned that her Majesty's Government would be pleased to
confer the honour, he would be extremely grateful for it, and
would accept it ; but that if, on the other hand, they felt that
there was anything in the views he entertained which ought to
forbid its being conferred, he would accept the decision and
acquiesce in the propriety of it. He was not at liberty to give
the words of the answer, but they could judge from the facts
that the decision was confirmative, and therefore if there was
anything in his position which was offensive to the loyally of the
honourable gentleman, all he could say was simply this — that he
stood on the same ground as the Ministers of the Crown in
England 1 "
The Colonial Secretary in the House *of Lords and
Mr. Monsell in the House of Commons were after-
^^
■ |r
'i-
■MM
^^m^m
»1
IMPERIAL PBUBRALISM.
i&
V
/
wards forced to explain away the effect of this awk-
ward declaration ; but it was impossible to deny that
Iiord Granville's communication had been of an
equivocal character. Accordingly^ we need not be
surprised to find that some Canadian statesmen are
disposed to prepare the Dominion by active measures
for the fate apparently contemplated for it by our
Government. The Hon. Mr. Huntingdon, Sir A. T»
Gait— the ablest statesman, perhaps, in all our colo-
nies — the Hon. John Young, an influential Montreal
merchant, and other gentlemen, have publicly sup-
ported the doctrine of independence. It is rather
significant that some of these gentlemen have in time
past been propounders of annexation with the United
States, a result certain to follow upon the attainment
of independence. An elaborate paper, contributed to
the New York Herald of July 6th, and admitted by
Canadian papers to be partly based on fact, contains
some singular disclosures. Questionable as is the
authority, the allegations are so specific and impor-
tant as to demand attention. According to this state-
ment, an independence party have for some years
been organizing treason in Canada. This party con-
sisted of two wings " — to use the Yankee figure
derived from the sacred bird of their nationality — the
American wing and the Canadian wing, the former
for propelling the body politic into the toils of the
United States, the other flapping to keep it in its
Canadian nest. The latter are said to have " believed
Independence with a British alliance desirable and
possible, and (to have) advocated it as a safeguard
against annexation."
\ J ■v'^f5:?'^r^<f^3»^^»5r?H!!^^
16
IMPERIAL FEDERALISM.
il
\
" The American wing," adds this authority, " who only advo-
cated independence as a step towards annexation, had organs in
the Star and Pays, and exercised no little influence. They were
in correspondence with leading American statesmen, endeavour-
ing to mould the policy of the States towards Canada, while they
kept the loyal (independence) wing in communication with the
English anti-colonials so as to further the work of severing
British connection."
Who are the " English anti-colonials ? " Is it pos-
sible that much of the perilous manoeuvring of the
Cabinet on colonial questions was due to such
tricksters — nay, are there any of them in the Colonial
Office ? This office seems to me, more than any depart-
ment of State, to need a visit from a strong reformer
with a good broom. Two or three times does the
writer reiterate the allegations about co-conspirators
in England. For instance : —
" On the day that Mr. Huntingdon and Mr. Young held their
Waterloo meeting, assurances were received from their friends
in England that the Gladstone Cabinet could be depended upon to
carry out the policy of indtpendence."
Again : —
" In the Fall of 1869 very positive assurances were forwarded
to Canada by friends who could speak semi-o/ficially that the
English administration had resolved on the following programme
with regard to Canada: — 1. The withdrawal of the Imperial
forces. 2. The cessation of the system of Imperial guarantee.
3. The declaration of the independence of Canada at the earliest
possible moment."
No one who has watched the details of our recent
intercourse with the Dominion will be disposed to
think the above statements improbable. I deem it
my duty to insert them here that they may be dis-
tinctly contradicted if untrue. This looks like Drift
again, only with a hope that Drift will be in a certain
IV
i
4.\
Tr
(I
\ I
IMPERIAL FEDERALISM.
V\
i
4 I t-
direction. We are exposed to the possibility of waking
up unexpectedly to find our Empire slipped away in
a night ; cut loose by our statesmen. No indifferent
reason for an immediate decision of *he public upou
the nature of our future policy.
The New Zealand case is too fresh in every one's
mind to require that I should do more than refer to
it. Jt proved by one example how dtlicate were the
relations between ourselves and the whole of the
Pacific colonies. At a time when the Northern
Island was threatened with a general native war,
Lord Granville mercilessly consummated the Imperial
military policy. The Government of the colony
were at their wits' end. We who had encouraged
the emigration of our sons to New Zealand under the
protection of our flag, who had from time to time
made ourselves to a great extent responsible for the
action of its Government towards the natives, denied
to the inhabitants even the moral support of our
soldiery, and left them to cope unaided with enemies
strictly more ours than theirs. Not only this. We
withdrew from the natives that protection from vin-
dictive extermination which enraged cotonists are too
apt to consider necessary to their self-protection. The
colony raised its own forces and repressed the insur-
rection, but it bitterly resented the cold inflexibility
of the English Cabinet, not less than Lord Granville's
recommendation to acknowledge within the Queen's
dominions the sovereignty of a Maori chief 1 Some
of the first men of the colony began to look, as its
only hope, to junction with the United States, who
were certain to supply necessary forces to defend any
i8
IMPERIAL FEDERALISM.
member of their confederacy. The Imperial Gov-
ernment was successfully threatened with the alter-
native of help or secession. Under the fear and
pressure of public opinion at home, Lord Granville
yielded only at the latest hour before the fatal tele-
gram was to have been sent to the New Zealand
Government.
Within the last month significant news has reached
this country from Australia. During the last session
of the Victoria Parliament Mr. Duffy moved for a
committee, which was appointed and transformed
into a Royal Commission, to consider the possibility
of a confederation of the Australian colonies. 1 take
the report of the result, with some observations from
the letter of the Times^ correspondent at Melbourne,
dated October 16, and published in the Times on
December 1 :—
" < On the primary question of the necessity of a Federal
Union,' say the Commissioners, ' apart from all considerations cf
the time and method of bringing such a union about, there was
a unanimity of opinion.' But touching the relations of our colony
with England in time of war, the Commissioners were divided in
opinion. The majority, however, concurred in the following
views. They say : —
" < The British colonies, from which British troops have been
withdrawn, present the unprecedented phenomenon of responsi-
bility without either any corresponding authority or any corres-
ponding protection. They are as liable to all the hizards of war
as the L! ailed Kingdom ; but they can influence the commence-
ment or continuance of war no more than ti:ey can control the
movements of the solar system, and they have no certain assu-
rance of that aid against an enemy at war with the United
Kingdom upon which integral portions of the Empire can confi-
dently reckon. This is a relation so wanting in mutuality that it can-
not be safely regarded as permanent, and it becomes necessary
to consider how it may become so modilied as to afford a greater
security for permanence.'
" The Commissioners pro^iose to meet this difilculty by consti-
•X'
IMPERIAL FEDERALISM.
19
'.uting, under the sanction of the Imperial Parliament, the
Australian colonies quasi-sovereign States, subject to her Majes-
ty, with power to make treaties with each other and with other
States, and with power to concur in or stand aloof from England's
quarrels, as may to the Colonies seem wise and expedient. They
cite Vattel, who says : —
" ' Two Sovereign States may be subject to the same prince
without any dependence on each other, and each may retain its
rights as a free and Sovereigrr State. The King of Prussia is
sovereign Prince of Neufchatel, in Switzerland, without the prin-
cipality being in any manner united to his other dominions.'
" The former relations of Hanover and of the Ionian Islands
with Great Britain are also relied on for the same purpose, and
the Commissioners proceed to remark as follows : —
" ' Without overlooking the distinction between colonies con-
sisting of men of the same origin as the population of the United
Kingdom, and States inherited by the Grown, like Hanover, or
obtained by treaty, like the Ionian Islands, it is suggested for
consideration whether the rule of international law under which
they are declared neutrals in war would not become applicable
to colonies enjoying self-government by a single modification of
the colonial constitution.'
" For the purpose of making good the pretensions of the Aus-
tralians to this position, the Commissioners call attention to the
following facts :—
" ' That the colony possesses a separate Parliament, Govern-
ment, and flag, a separate navy and militia ; that all public
appointments without exception are made by the local Govern-
ment ; that the only officer commissioned from England who
exercises authority within its limits is the Queen's Representa-
tive, and that in Hanover and the Ionian Islands, while they
were confessedly Sovereign Slates, the Queen's Representative
was appointed in the same manner.'
" The large population o*" the Australian colonies, together
with their extensive territory, and ' a revenue greater than the
revenue of six of the kingdoms of Europe,' are also thrown in to
show that wo possess the proportions, although not invested with
the rank of a Sovereign Power."
No Stronger hint could be given to us at home to
arrive at a rapid decision upon our future Imperial
policy. When the disintegration of our Empire is
recommended by a Royal Commission, it is time to
consider whether her Majesty is to be Queen only of
mm
20
IMPERIAL FEDERALISM.
Great Britain or an Imperial sovereign. The proposal
of the Victoria statesmen is unpractical. Such a
relation of independent "sovereignties" could not be
maintained in this age, and we have seen even in
democratic America how the attempt to assert state
sovereignty against confederated power was stifled
in blood. The Australians will look to one or other
of the great leading powers of the Anglo-Saxon race ;
and a continuance of our repulsive policy will drive
them, not to indenendence, but to the United Stales.
The quaint warnnig of an American diplomatist to a
political friend of mine is not so exaggerated as might
be supposed : " The United States is watching^ and I
guess sheHl pick up everything you let drop." Not
another nation under heaven is sfe suicidally regard-
less of the pillars of its power.
Before such schemes are further elaborated, may
not we and the Australian colonies judiciously
consider what claims the Imperial Government, re-
presenting the British nation, has upon those provin-
ces ? Colonial ministers acting under the Grown have
from time to time constituted small patches of society,
excised from our own community, the absolute
owners of property held, in all moral and political
honesty, in trust for the people and Government of
these islands ; for it was won and maintained by our
adventure and sacrifice. A slip of an imperial pen
has unreservedly transferred whole provinces to those
casual communities ; but this has been done with the
implied trust that they should be held and used onr.
in harmony with Imperial interests. No minister or
government had the power to confer more. These
M:
\\\
IMPERIAL FEDERALISM.
21
territories, from which we might have drawn Imper-
ial revenues, are now administered solely in the
interest of the settlers. We exact from them no direct
pecuniary profit. They have been the gift by which
we meant to reward the enterprise of our adventurous
sons. But they must not suppose that they have the
right to divest them of the Imperial dominium. They
hold them, as our fellow-citizens, on the basis of their
citizenship, and against the Imperial will they cannot
assume the right of removing them from our sover-
eignty. Every man, woman, and child in these islands
has a right and voice in the future position of our
colonies ; "the sooner they and we understand it the
better for all. The " unwashed " millions may claim
their interest in the matter, and insist that careless
statesmanship and intemperate politics shall not
jeopardize the enormous stake they have in the integ-
rity of our dominions.
If anybody should represent that in permitting our
colonies to separate from us we and they should be
fulfilling our destiny, my retort is that destiny appears
very much to be under the control of men : within
certain limits our destiny is what we make it. If this
sort of argument is to prevail, then allow Ireland to
drift upon the current of destiny — withdraw your
troops, abolish your police, and invite the Irish people
to adopt their fate ! Surely the principle that is good
for one is good for the other of our provinces. If it
is worth while to legislate and administer, to concede
and conciliate, in order to secure the permanent
adhesion of Ireland, why may it not be, within certain
limits, an equally proper and worthy aim of states-
I'ilr
22
IMPERIAL FEDERALISM,
manship to cement in more enduring accord the
colonies and Great Britain ? With what propriety
shall we attribute to destiny the natural results of
our indifference ?
T. I now propose to consider the advantages to be
acquired or perpetuated by the Federalisation of the
Imperial provinces.
An argument often used in favour of disintegration
is that our colonies would be a source of weakness in
time of war. That argument, if based on fact, would
be far from conclusive, since, pushed to its limit, it
would almost proscribe the possession of any national
territory. That it is easy to attack any single colony
is transparent, but what cogency, there may be in
urging this as a reason for deserting it is invisible.
Should we be at war with a great Power, it is
conceivable that one of our colonies — Canada, for
instance — might for a time be at its mercy. Looking
simply at the question whether Canada was worth the
blood and sacrifice its defence would cost, it might
be admitted for argument's sake that in itself it was
not; but regarding the terrible crucial question,
whether an empire is worth maintaining in its integ-
rity or not, the matter bears another aspect. Regarded
thus, Canada becomes as dear, as necessary as Ireland,
or the Isle of Man, or the Isle of Wight, For let us
reverse the glass, and look from the enemies' side.
I have been informed that an American officer of high
reputation has, in reporting to his Government
concerning the relative forces of England and the
United States in the event of a war, put down our
colonies as worth to us at least a million of men. And
J
i
-1 -T'"","Ai__^"' i-P^^FWIwr*!?*!
IMPERIAL FEDERALISM.
23
1,
probably with reason. For, if our colonies should be
hard to defend, they are equally hard to attack.
Their extent and number would require successive
armies to conquer and hold them, even if in them-
selves Ihey could supply but an indifferent defensive
force. No state could hope to do more than damage
the extremities of our empire by occasional incursions
or temporary occupation — to hold all or any of them
permanently against a determined people were an
impossibility. There is also a robust power in the
colonies themselves. Sir John Rose, in the admirable
letters of " A Colonist " to the Times in February last,
says : —
" The population of Canada comprehends nearly as many fight-
ing men as the Southern States ever brought into the field. She
has 40,000 of an active militia, well trained, armed, and in case of
need it is computed that she could supply at least 300,000 men
capable of bearing arms, leaving still a reasonable proportion of
her population for the indispensable work of life."
Australia and New Zealand could do at least as
much as Canada.
An enemy engaged in widespread eff'orts to cripple
our colonial empire would find that the greater the
extent of it, the greater our defensive strength, since
he must necessarily weaken himself in proportion to
the magnitude and variety of his operations. The
question from the Imperial point of view would appear
to be, not how shall we lessen the number of points
in which we may be attacked, but how shall we
strengthen and establish a loyal union of ail our
forces ? Though a single colony might suffer much
in a war, our effort should be to prove that the suffer-
ing would be more than balanced by the advantages
■J»«^
■fp«*p
^pp
mtBWfifm^
u
IMPERIAL FEDERALISM.
of Imperial connection. On the face of things, a
world-wide confederation, which has not only navies
but territories in every part of the earth, is not
likely to be the subject of wanton attack by other
Powers. The infusion of the Imperial spirit into every
member of the Empire, the federation of these mem-
bers upon an equitable basis of common interests,
would tend more surely than disintegration to estab-
lish enduring peace and prosperity. From the Imperial
point of view, therefore, I take it that in a military
estimation the united spirit and action of every por-
tion of our Empire would add triple strength to our
power.
How much we have to gain in time of peace by the
consolidation of Imperial connections it is needless
here at any length to recall. The arguments used in
support of emigration — the proofs adduced of mutual
profit from intercourse and trade are only strength-
ened when we consider their bearing under a more
organized and complete union. Should a federal sys-
tem be devised, whereby every colony had its rightful
place and representation in the Imperial connection,
whereby to every colonist was assured Imperial
citizenship, with all its resultant rights of protection
and freedom, it is impossible but that the ideal dis-
tinctions between " home " and " the colonies " would
vanish away. Instead of hearing ignorant men among
the uninstructed classes, and unwise men among the
instructed classes, speak of an emigrant as " an exile,"
and our birthright estates beyond the seas as "foreign
lands, " we should know no difference between
England, Scotland, Ireland, Canada, and Australia,
■m^
r
1,^1 i,.imii»i, I.
" " ' «j j ' ' ' ' ^— •
Ifffff^WW
IMPERIAL FEDERALISM.
25
except the divisions of space, and no boundary of
" home " other than the limits of our Empire. I can-
not think that the establishment of that fact would be
of indifferent consequence, when 1 see how power-
fully the opposite idea restricts the movements of
emigration even at this time.
The effects upon our trade of a Federated Imperial
system are not to be foreshewn with any statistical
accuracy, but that they would be important is evident
on the surface. As in each of the colonies which
united to form the Dominion of Canada it was neces
sary to introduce modifications of the customs and
excise, and to make an uniform tariff, a similar effect
would ensue upon the practical adoption of the federal
system throughout the Empire. Instead of each
colony, as at present, raising its revenues by imposing
restrictions on the manufactures of other parts of the
empire, these restrictions would be removed, and
FREE-TRADE would be established as between the
Imperial constituents. If we preach this as a boon to
all nations, we should preach it as a boon to ourselves.
How the apparent immediate loss to any colony thus
deprived of a source of revenue might bo balanced
may be judged in the case of Canada, which has been
forced by the policy of our government to raise, her
militia estimates from £80,000 sterling, in 1857, to
£400,000 sterling in 1867, the whole of which expense
would in a Federation fall on the Imperial fund, and,
subject to the consideration that the colony would
contribute something to that fund, relieve the colonial
Government from the necessity of imposing on
English manufactures a hostile duty. How further it
^^^^
III i>ii v ii r ,>» I ^ j jii,
. ^
26
IMPERIAL FEDERALISM.
would be balanced may be demonstrated by aggre-
gating all the arguments in favour of free-trade
generally, all that proves hovrvastly every industry
benefits by the removal of tax restrictions. Moreover,
much that a colonial government has to do, because
the colony is gruasi-independent, would be taken ofT
its hands under an Imperial federation : while local
revenue would be drawn by direct taxation from the
locality it was immediately to benefit, and not, as
now, be principally excised by tariff from the profits
of other portions of the Empire.
We are, therefore, justified at first glance in expect-
ing by honest inquiry to be able to demonstrate that
an immense impetus would be given to commutual
trade by the removal, consequent on federation, of
hostile tariffs. Nor is this all. The timidity of wealth,
as well as that of thinking labour and personality, to
which I have already alluded, partly arises from the
uncertainty of our relations to our colonies, which
along with considerable ignorance regarding the
colonies themselves, makes the capitalist hesitate to
trust his money in colonial enterprises. If Canada is
likely to become independent, if New Zealand is any
day to go off in a pet, who can foresee what the value
of their securities, or their railways, or their public
works or private speculati9ns will be ? But confirmed
in federal union, with ultimate resort to federal
courts, with more constant intercourse and a per-
manent official representation at the Imperial capital
— ^with the whole system of our English business
expanded, its banks, trades, companies, agencies, com-
municating and acting together within the Empire as
H i n n n ii n
wmmm
IMPERIAL FEDERALISM.
2t
(,
they now do within Great Britain—we forcBee in
Federalism a promise of developementfor our wealth
hitherto unconceived by the most dreamy worshipper
of Plutus. And the possibility has been concluded by
the steam and telegraph, which have destroyed the
obstacles of distance. The colonies also would gain
their advantage from the new relation, in the ready
inflow of capital for all purposes of developement.
Not only in this way would the wealth of the
Empire be quickened into more general circulation,
but from the Imperial point of view Federalism pro-
mises to settle in the happiest way the difficulties
arising through the unequal incidence of the burthens
of Imperial Expense. I do not here advert to the
National Debt, a subject which would need special
arrangements under any system of federation. One of
the prime conditions of federation would be that the
charges in matters of common interest should be
equally borne, those of more immediate concern to
any member of the confederacy being left to the adju-
dication of its local government. Under this arrange-
ment Englishmen in England could no longer com-
plain that they were unfairly taxed for the benefit of
Englishmen in America, or Africa, or Australia ; for
even granting that at any period any single member
of the confederacy should need peculiar assistance,.
its constant contribution to the Imperial exchequer
would in the end more than outweigh the temporary
obligation.
Again. In promoting general efficiency of legisla-
tion the doctrine of Federalism promises extraord-
inary results.
28
IMPERIAL FEDERALISM.
Granted the inexpediency of dissolving the Empire,
not the least forcible of the arguments in favour of
Federalism, is the yearly aggravated plethora of
business at Westminster. Crowding about the doors,
filling the lobbies, blocking up the committee-rooms
are questions affecting nations side by side with the
rights of greasy corporations, or speculating compa-
nies, or private individualSi The Premier or some
other minister may be called on to show cause for
his fatuous neglect of the Temperance question in a
Queen's Speech — to explain why it was necessary to
reduce the number of quill pens issued to civil
servants, or why the Government was so criminally
neglectful as to have permitted a silly magistrate to
say ihat he disagreed with the Queen on a point of
patriotism. Even less gravely are they liable to be
worried by the numberless legislative flies, whose
only policy is to buzz loud enough for their constit-
uents to hear them. Measures of Imperial, national,
or coloni.'il importance are hustled out of the way by
one or two, sometimes of secondary consequence,
which have happened to engage popular sympathies.
Here is the secret of ministerial worship of Drift.
Some of the most crying evils of the day retain their
vicious power, some of the most needful reforms are
unaccomplished, because there are limits to legislative
lime and human endurance. If this pressure con-
tinues in anything like the present ratio of increase
the Empire must perish of congestion of the brain.
A review of the legislation of last session will illus-
trate with striking clearness the incapacity of our
present legislative powers, and the waste '^ven of
■pp^PHf^
iwp^
mmm
S
IMPERIAL FEDERALISM.
29
those limited powers upon matters of subordinate
interest.
Disregarding for a time the vast amount of rtuga-
tory speechification and technical discussion, I will
analyze the legislation that was accomplished. During
the session there were passed of —
Acts technically denominated " Public and General "
" •' " Local and Personal "
<« " '< Private "
112
177
4
Total 293
The latter Acts, passed with all formality by an
Imperial legislature, were for the following pur-
poses : —
1. Enabling the Rector of St. LukeV Chelsea, to
grant leases.
2. Extension of Owen's College, Mancl " ter.
3. To enable Lord Cornwallis's trustees to develope
estates at Hastings.
4. Respecting the Downie Park Estate, Forfarshire.
At first blush, therefore, 181:112 is the proportion
of Acts of limited importance. Assigning these Acts
to their proper kingdoms I find that of them there
were : —
Relating to borougfis, railways, corporations, gas and water
supplies, and personal matters, etc., etc., in England . .
" " Scotland. .
" " •' Ireland . .
The rest, relating to coast-fisheries and ocean-telegraphs may
perhaps fairly be considered of an Imperial character . .
140
19
19
181
SSBSS
•*■
3G
IMPERIAL FEDERALISM.
Among these Imperial Acts you find such as No.
xviii., " for better supplying with water the town and
parish of Beccles in Suffolk, " a cleanly and godly
thing in itself for the said town and parish, and con-
ducive to the health of its rustic inhabitants, but to
perform which it is sheer waste to concentrate the
huge enacting forces of an Empire. As appropriately
might we send the British army or a Royal Commis-
sion, well provided with Imperial soap, brushes,
towels, and water-basins to scrub the Becclesian
townsfolk.
Before we leave these subordinate enactments it is
worth while to observe the discrepancy between the
numbers arising out of the three kingdoms. The pro-
portion of English statutes is too largely in excess of
those from Scotland and Ireland to be accounted for
simply by the disproportion of population, wealth
and prosperity. It must be taken that from either of
the lesser provinces there would, in the event of
greater legislative facilities, be more legislation, and
the activity of legislation is a better sign for a country
than its inertness. Conversely I assume that the
deficiency of legislation of the kind here under dis-
cussion, for two countries like Scotland and Ireland,
j*?, in part, fairly attributable to a deficiency of facil-
ities for accomplishing it.
Those Acts of a quasi-imperial character termed
" Public and General Statutes, " yield the following
results, allowing to the description Imperial the widest
scope : —
wmmm
IMPERIAL FEDERALISM. 31
Imperial statutes, e.g., Army, Navy, Revenue, etc., etc. 45
Technical statutes — amending laws or affecting legal
questions, etc, , ;these might be either local or Imperial). 15
Local statutes : — England 26
" Ireland 16
" Scotland 7
« India 2
*' England and Ireland . i
— 52
Total- ... 112
Hence, had there existed an Imperial Parliament
and separate local Governments in England, Scotland,
and Ireland, less than one half of the Public General
Statutes would have come within the province of
Imperial legislation — that is, 45 out of 97.
The result upon the whole legislation is, that out
of 293 Acts there were —
Imperial 48
Terhnical 15
English 166
Irish 35
Scotch 26
Indian . • 2
England and Ireland together . . I
Total 293
Less than one-sixth in number of all the Acts of last
session could be characterized as Imperial ; the rest
were properly referable to the localities immediately
affected by them. One of them, on a matter properly
belonging to local legislation, occupied a large pro-
portion of Imperial time. Were there space, I should
pursue the inquiry further, with an analysis of the
subjects discussed in the two Houses of Parliament
during the last session, but any one accustomed to
32
IMPERIAL FEDERALISM.
read the reports of debates in the newspapers will be
prepared to believe how great a discrepancy exists in
abortive legislation between Imperial and local sub-
jects, and that a vast amount of time is wasted over
questions too subordinate or too purely local to be
properly entertained by the Parliament for an empire.
It is a sorry sight to see a Chancellor of the Exchequer
haggling about the ground for law courts intended
only for that corner of the British empire called
England.
But to me the notable thing is not alone how much
is done that ought not to be done, but how much, in
consequence of the plethora of matter to be investi-
gated, discussed, and acted upon, is left undone that
ought to be done. This is the most serious point of
the whole subject. Year after year, at the close of
the session, there are plunged into the Dead Sea of
impossibility many inchoate Acts of extreme useful-
ness and even of pressing importance. This trans-
action is facetiously termed by a relieved public and
legislature the " Slaughter, " or " Massacre of the
Innocents " — a joke with a sad side when we look
upon the hopes, the promises of good that are often
buried in their grave. A weary cabinet minister sees
himself forced by sheer exhaustion to drop measure
after measure of necessary remedy — to give for ano-
ther or another year a further lease to some vested
absurdity or wrong. Every one thinks the Poor Law
requires revision, but who will be the Hercules ? The
ratepayers of the metropolis are crying out from year
to year fora reform of its government, but Bumbledom
can beat the breath out of a half-dead ministry, carry-
^
IVPP
^1^
-^:,
IMPERIAL FEDERALISM.
3^
i
ing on its back an Irish Church or Land Bill. If we '
had a local legislature for England, such questions
would be settled in a year. If we had such local
Parliaments, who can doubt that education would
have followed the first instead of the second Reforni
Bill?
II. When we regard Federalism in its local aspects,
not only are many material interests of th(3 colonies,
as we have partly seen, involved in it, but it promises
to remove the difficulties so frequently arising out of
the Imperial connection in its present form.
It has been alleged that the colonies are not pro-
perly represented in the Imperial Government. Last
year a wild and abortive attempt was made towards
a redress of this grievance, and late suggostions from
able pens are proof that it is considered to be a sub-
ject of practical inquiry. That it is a grievance no
one intimate with colonial wants and circumstances
can fail to see. An office, presided over by a shifting
partizan, however able, however honest, however
industrious — actually conducted by a permanent staff,
seldom, if ever, selected for any reputation of expe-
rience in colonial life— an office, to visit which is for
a colonist like reconnoitring an enemy — to negotiate
with which is like a war parley, and to assault which
needs almost a forlorn hope and a battery — is, spite
of any brilliant abilities existing in it, incapable of
discharging with success the infinitely varied, nume-
rous, delicate, and detailed diMies essential to its
business. To every colony, each with its own wrongs
or rights or difficulties, such an office is sure to
appear unwise or tyrannical, because, in its very
3
34
IMPERIAL FEDERALISM.
constitution, its aspect is to then? foreign. Their dele-
gates do not meet officials from their own colony —
Ihey meet bigoted domestic Englishmen. Not infre-
quently, before they can open a negotiation, or even
make a statement, they are obliged to give imperfect
instruction in the conditions of the people or places
to be the subject of ofFicial attention. This cannot
continue long. The colonies must have better audience
at Whitehall, or they will have done knocking at
our doors. They may serve us with a notice that
they will no longer preserve even a calling acquaint-
ance because our gentlemen are so insolent.
To destroy this anomaly would naturally be the
first result, as it would be one of the essential aims,
of Federalism. A senate or parliament of represen-
tatives from every province, deliberating in public,
and acting on the decision of the majority, would of
necessity satisfy all the objections to the present
system. All other schemes, such as that of a repre-
stentative colonial council, colonist ministers, limited
representation in the Imperial Parliament, and \0
forth, dwindle before the practical simplicity of
federal union. That alone would relieve the new
Parliament of more than it imposed upon it. Believing
that the time has come when the colonies may fairly
claim some such representation in London, I pro-
pound this as the simplest and best way of satisfying
their requirements.
One cannot here more than sketch in outline how
important an effect the opening to British colonists
of a great field of Imperial ambition would have on
each provincial community in inciting to enterprise,
S\
^'.
IMPERIAL FEDERALISM.
35
quickening education, awakening talent ; or, con-
versely, how great an access of ability would be
made to Imperial councils by sifting every part of
the empire to minister to their force. Some of our
ablest statesmen were schooled in the colonies, and
there are abler men behind them. Very scanty Im-
perial honours are now open to colonists, unless,
indeed, they make the desperate venture of perman-
ently forsaking their homes and associations, and
battling for fame in the over-crowded arena of Great
Britain. The colonial field is not sufficiently exten-
sive ; the ambition of a colonial soldier, or statesman,
or minister of religion, or barrister, or physician, —
of any professional or commercial man, is restricted.
Honoured at the extremity of the Empire, when he
arrives at London he finds himself unknown, and
drops into the pool of mediocrity. On the other hand,
what is there lo attract a man of any ambition into
the military service of a place like New Zealand, if
he knows that his utmost attainments are bounded
by the limits of the colony ; and that, in case of a
general war, he will be looked upon as inferior to
the Imperial soldiery ? Similarly, by the severance
of the Imperial connection, the chances of attaining
to Imperial distinctions in art, science, law, medicine,
or society, would be reduced to insignificance. It
has been argued by some colonists that, on attaining
their independence, fields of honour would be opened
to their sons in the diplomatic and military services,
as well as the official honours of their own Govern-
ment. But in an Imperial federation, higher and
more numerous honours would be possible to every
36
IMPERIAL FEDERALISM.
colonist, while the concentration into one federal
hand of diplomatic and military management would
save each province from a considerable burthen in the
maintenance of an independent nationality.
I have left to the last, because it is a local and
subordinate object, though very important, and in
some quarters put forward as a main argument for
Federalism — the consideration of the part which
Ireland has in this great question. Latterly, at least,
she cannot justly complain of Imperial inattention,
though it is not so clear that she can be grateful for
the Imperial estimate of her requirements. One of
the questions which recently convulsed the empire,
I mean the land question, was properly local, and its
final settlement might even now be facilitated by
leaving it to an Irish House of Commons. There is
no denying that at present Ireland is governed by
superior force, moral and physical, from without
herself, and such a relation must be, nay ought to
be, a source of discontent. The contingent which she
contributes to the Imperial legislature is so over-
powered by the other representatives as to divest of
anything except pretence the notion that her people
are governed in accordance with their wishes. All
that they can do is to chaffer with successive minis-
tries, buying concessions at one time for votes given
at another. This is an ignoble position for us, a
dastardly position for a high-spirited race like the
Irish. It is neither the status of an independent
community, nor of a society coherent with our own.
Can we wonder that the Irish people are jealous of
our sincerest attempts to bless them, and we in-
■I,.
IMPERIAL FEDERALISM.
37
4
dignant at their honest attempts to damn us ? The
most earnest thing we ever did for Ireland, the Irish
Church legislation, disquieted the only party in the
country that had persistently been loyal to our in-
terests. Is not this a lesson that in such a community
it is better to suffer forces to balance themselves,
and not by the importation of foreign make-weights
to throw them still more thoroughly out of gear?
Would it not be policy to let the Irish people manage
their domestic affairs for themselves ? Would not the
re-establishment of a provincial government, with
such limited powers as Federalism must necessarily
leave them, elected by household suffrage, recon-
struct, encourage, awaken, educate the whole of Irish
society, which needs all this from top to bottom ?
The antagonisms of faith, the difficulties of educa-
tional or property legislation, the evils of absenteeism
(not so much felt in any single State of the American
Union because each protects herself), would be com-
pulsorily subdued by the necessity of mutual con-
cession, when no help from without, except the
Imperial arm to maintain peace at any cost, could be
hoped for by either party. I have already adduced
the instance of Lower Canada, where the Protestants
obtained from a Roman Catholic minister and a legis-
lature overwhelmed by Roman Catholics a liberal
educational measure.
In Ireland I should anticipate similar results from
federalization. The conditions of the establishment
of a local government would be different now from
those under which the Irish Parliament existed.
Society and politics have changed their features.
TT"
38
IMPERIAL FEDERALISM.
What is needed to complete the regeneration is to
cast upon her people the responsibility of their own
future. They would know that their action must be
regulated by certain principles of liberty which
would be enforced for the benefit of the whole Em-
pire. No possibility of Church and State establish-
ment ; no chance for preponderating numbers to
injure the rights of Imperial citizens within their
province ; no power to restrict the enjoyment of the
franchise.
It is a significantly hopeful token that the notion of
Federalism, though one as I suggest too limited in
its scope, has drawn together in Ireland an associa-
tion of men representing all shades of religious and
political opinion. In the prospectus of the " Home
Government Association" they have declared: —
" We strongly and emphatically disclaim any desire to promote
the ascendancy of any form of religion in Ireland. We declare
that efforts made by any party in that direction would have
neither sanction nor support from us, but would meet with our
most strenuous opposition ; and we equally disclaim any desire
or purpose of interference with the settlement of property in
Ireland. To leave no doubt on this subject, the Association
propose that articles affording the fullest possible guarantees on
those points shall form a fundamental part of the [Irish] Federal
Constitution."
The opinions which instigated or prompt this
movement are, in the present inquiry, of little con-
sequence to us, and need not be reviewed. The
specific proposals made by Mr. Butt in his pamphlet
are not immediately important, because I have
attempted to support a wider sweep of Imperial rela-
tion, and one involving more splendid consequences
than the regulation of the British trinity. Perhaps
'\
-V
'\jimmim^m^
"1
IMPERIAL FEDERALISM.
%i
^'l -r
some light will be thrown upon the advantages of
Federalism to Ireland by the brief examination of
the Canadian system with which I shall conclude
this paper. It may hereafter be my part to discuss
schemes of federation, and in so doing to answer the
rather one-sided, though able, reflections of a writer
upon the Irish movement in Eraser's Magazine for
December last.
One local objection certain to be urged against
Federalism is that the discrepancies between the
laws of the three kingdoms are already too flagrant,
and that these diversities the establishment of sepa-
rate local governments would contribute to increase.
But it can be shown that we have good ground to
anticipate a precisely opposite result. The simplest
answer is that it is easy to provide against such a
contingency by the terms of union. This is capable
of proof, not only by reference to the United States,
where the tendency of general law is to uniformity,
but also bv the Act of Union for the Dominion of
Canada. 30 Vict., chap. iii. section 91, contains the
following list of subjects to which the authority of
the central government exclusively extends : —
1. The Public Debt and Property.
2. The Regulation of Trade and Commerce.
3. The raising of Money by any Mode or System of Taxation.
4. The borrowing of Money on the Public Credit.
5. Postal Service.
6. The Census and Statistics.
7. Militia, Military and Naval Service, and Defence.
8. The fixing of and providing for the Salaries and Allowan-
ces of Civil and other Officers of the Government of Canada.
9. Beacons, Buoys, Lighthouses, and Sable Island.
10. Navigation and Shipping.
I
40
IMPERIAL FEDERALISM.
11. Quarantine and the Establishment and Maintenance of
Marine Hospitals.
12. Sea Coast and Inland Fisheries.
13. Ferries between a Province and a British or Foreign Coun-
try or between two Provinces.
14. Currency and Coinage.
15. Banking, Incorporation of Banks, and the Issue of Paper
Money.
16. Savings Banks.
17. Weights and Measures.
18. Bills of Exchange and Promissory Notes.
19. Interest.
20. Legal Tender.
21. Bankruptcy and Insolvency.
22. Patents of Invention and Discovery.
23. Copyi'ighta.
24. Indians, and Lands reserved for the Indians.
25. Naturalization and Aliens.
26. Marriage and Divorce.
27. The Criminal Law, except the Constitution of Courts of
Crimiual Jurisdiction, but including the Procedure in Criminal
matters.
28. The Establishment, Maintenance, and Management of
Penitentiaries.
29. Such Classes of Subjects as are expressly excepted in the
Enumeration of the classes of subjects by this Act assigned
exclusively to the Legislatures of the Provinces.
This list is worthy of careful study collaterally with
one directly to be cited. Any one conversant with the
difficulties arising out of the conflict of laws in
the three kingdoms will at once see hoW considerably
such an allotment ofsubjects would facilitate uniform-
ity between their laws. Bankruptcy and insolvency,
marriage and divorce, criminal law — here are subjects
of legal differences committed to the legislative con-
trol of one body, whose interest and policy it would
be to assimilate them. Divested of the mass of
business next to be specified, such a body would have
more lime to devote to a reform so difficult. In section
'
'I
<'
-*^-
II HI III
IMPERIAL FEDERALISM.
41
92 are enumerated the subjects of cognizance by
local legislatures : —
1.
V
3.
4.
€.
8.
9.
10.
(
11.
12.
13.
14.
15.
The Amendment from time to time, notwithstanding any-
thing in this Act, of the Constitution of the Province, except
as regards the Office of Lieutenant Governor.
Direct Taxalion within the Province in order to the laising of
a Revenue for Provincial Purposes.
The borrowing of Money on the solo Credit of the Province.
The Establishment and Tenure of Provincial Offices and the
Appointment and Payment of Provincial Officers.
The Management and Sale of the Public Lands belonging to
the Province and of the Timber and Wood thereon.
The Establishment, Maintenance, and Management of Public
and Reformatory Prisons in and for the Province.
The Establishment, Maintenance, and Management of Hospi-
tals, Asylums, Charities, and Eleemosynary Institutions in
and for the Province, other than Marino Hospitals.
Municipal Institutions in the Province.
Shop, Saloon, Tavern, Auctioneer, and other Licences in
order to the raising of a Revenue for Provincial, Local, or
Municipal Purposes.
Local Works and Undertakings other than such as are of the
following Classes, —
a. Lines of Steam or other Ships, Railways, Canals, Tele-
graphs, and other Works and Undertakings connecting
the Province, with any other or others of the Provinces,
or extending beyond the limits of the Province.
b. Lines of Steam Ships between the Province and any
British or Foreign Country :
c. Such work as, although wholly situate within the Pro-
vince, are before or after their Execution declared by
the Parliament of Canada to be for the general Advan-
tage of two or more of the Provinces.
The Incorporation of Companies with Provincial Objects.
The Solemnization of Marriage in the Province.
Properly and Civil Rights in the Province.
The Administration of Justice in the Province, including the
Constitution, Maintenance, and Organization of Provincial
Courts, both of Civil and of Criminal Jurisdiction, and
including Procedure in Civil Matters in those Courts
The Imposition of Punishment by Pine, Penalty, or Imprison-
ment for enforcing any Law of the Province made in relation
to any Matter coming within any of the Classes of Subjects
enumerated in this Section.
H%
T-
42
IMPERIAL FEDERALISM.
16. Generally all Mailers of a merely local or private nature in
the Province.
What relief would the removal of such an incubus
of legislation be to the central government : what
scope would it afford to local improvements I The
94th section provides egislation by the central
legislature, for uniforraK/ of the laws of property and
civil rights, but only with the assent of the local
''-tSsemblies. But the discussion and adoption by the
central legislature of a scheme of uniformity would
exercise considerable influence upon public opinion
in each of the provinces, and pave the way to their
concurrence. Lastly, the 93rd section guards the
educational liberties of every class and sect.
Nothing need be added to prove that the Federal
principle is capable of embodiment in a form at once
promoting unity, prote '^ng personal liberty, and
fostering local indepen ^e, while in enlarging the
scope of Imperial splenoour it gives strength to the
play of Imperial loyalty.
I have sought simply to preach the doctrine of
Federalism, not to indicate the method of Federation.
Without pretence of exhaustive treatment enough
has I hope been said to prove the desirability of
inquiring throughout our "Empire whether Fede-
ration be feasible or impossible. It is likely that I
shall be met with the familiar sneer thai I have
dreamed a magnificent dream. Had Bismarck ten
years ago dreamed aloud the actual happenings of
these wondrous and terrible days, would he not have
been consigned to some careful asylum ?
.
"
mmmmummm
mmmmm
III I rt»iig»i>iwiiiIlKii
- ^
di
mmm-
•PIIIPRI
wsmm
TT
r. I -1
V;'
mmm
r
^"^
n^
-^
V;'
AN IMPERIAL CONFEDERATION
(GowTEMPORARY REVIEW, April, 1871.)
f
V
^-
mmmmmmm H * mK ' .
The Briton who spreads before him a map of the
world on Mercator's projection, and encloses in one
view the magnificent cordon of empire that British
might and prowess have drawn about the globe, may
begin to realize to himself the true significance of
our Imperial destiny to the present and the future.
In the relative situation of its constituent provinces,
in the range and variety of their resources, in capa-
cities boundless and almost universal, while he sees
much to excite his pride he may find more to nerve
his noblest National aspirations. But, most likely, the
prominent thought in his mind will be, that this vast
stretch of empire represents not alone the energy of
a race unrivalled in history, not only physical and
moral forces which might perhaps beard the world
in arms, but principles of freedom, of justice, and of
Christianity, however, and however often marred by
invidious accidents, yet, shedding over the whole a
surpassing and peculiar lustre
Let us glance at this empire as it extends its huge
coils around the earth, starting from that indifferent
NM
I-
mm^.
48
AN IMPERIAL CONFEDERATION.-
group of islands whose people have stamped so sharp*
and deep an impress on the destinies of mankind. Its
superficial area is nearly five millions of square miles,
peopled by more than two hundred millions of human
beings, nearly a third of the habitable globe, a fourth
of all its population. On every continent, in every
the solid evidences of its supremacy. Its
sea, are
people, gifted with rare commercial energy, have
built up a trade which makes the world wonder.
Thirty-nine thousand registered vessels, th^ir tonnage
exceeding seven millions, bearher enormous freights
on oceans, on internal seas and rivers. The aggregated
exports of the various provinces of this dominion,
amount to £320,417,000 sterling, and the imports to
£426,220,000— constituting the fabulous trade oi'jiearly
seven liundred and fifty millions of pounds per an-
num ; which it may assist us to realise if we make
the simple calculation that an impost of one penny in
the pound on such a sum would produce a yearly
revenue of sixty-two millions and a half. When again
we consider how much this represents, what untold
wealth in lands and moveable properties lie at the
basis of this commercial pyramid, the mind shrinks
from the endeavour to appreciate that which is even
beyond the range of fancy.
The better to aid in some apprehension of this
peerless empire, as well as to a conception of the task
set before those who would more firmly hold and
knit it together, I propose, in rather rapid detail, to
pass in review its several constituents. We will begin
as I have said, at its kernel in Europe, these cele-
brated islands, embracing an area of 120,879 square
{f
,
\ >..
ri
AN IMPERIAL CONFEDERATION.
49^
miles, a population of 3 1 ,000,000, producing a revenue
of £71,000,000 per annum ; with a trade, in one year,
reaching the sum of £532,470,000 ; with a tonnage of
its own outrivalhng that of any other naval state.
Hence let us, omitting the unimportant post of Heli-
goland, descend to Gibraltar, which holds for us the
key of the great European lake; to Malta, impreg-
nably maintaining onr naval superiority in the midst
of the Mediterranean ; to Aden, guarding the entrance
and the outlet of the Red Sea ; and so across the
Arabian sea, until we arrive at India and Ceylon.
Here are realms that were populous and civilized
before we began to emerge from the antique chaos
of history, (lie fabled treasury of unbounded riches,
won and held by our overmastering arms. Here is
an empire in itself, comprising, if we take India
and Ceylon together, 1,012,545 square miles of terri-
tory, dwelt in by 153,000,000 of people, and these,
under oar benign sway, improving in civilization,
enlarging their capacities of production and absorp-
tion, second only to England in trade ; their imports
£55,346,000, their exports £57,493,000 per annum.
Thence, down the Straits of Malacca, we pass thai series
of small but important settlements which continue tiie
chain of our trade, and afford eyries of proleclion for
our richest commerce, as it wings eastward and west-
ward to and from China and our Pacific dependen-
cies ; settlements containing 1,095 square miles, and
a population of 282,831, yet whose expansive trade
yearly reaches the comparatively enormons sum of
£16,000,000 sterling. Past Singapore, and facing the
China sea, we observe the little region of Sarawak,
4
50
AN IMPERIAL CONFEDERATION.
the prize of a romantic and adventurous ambition,
which, though not recognised as a colony, affords us
a foothold on the great Island of Borneo, and a means
of tapping its inexhaustible productions ; while to
the northward the Island of Labuan supplies coal to
our naval or commercial marine. On the edge of the
great human ocean of China, one of the conduit-
pipes of an enormous trade, lies Hongkong— a place,
so long as the opium trade continues, to be regarded
only with sorrow and shame by any Englishman who
is the subject of such fine but feeble sensations.
Next we reach a new continent, which couP almost
(with its splendid accessories of New Zealand and
Van Diemen's Land) embrace all Europe — a continent
of gold and corn and cattle, of endless varieties of
climate and soil, of wonderful productiveness, prof-
fering homes to innumerable millions, fields of enter-
prise to the vigour or the ambition of many genera-
tions. Nobly its spreads out its broad bosom, with its
area of 2,582,070 square miles, as yet devoted to
only 2,000,000 of people, who export every year
£33,256,000 and import £31,566,000. Round Gape
Horn we come upon the Falkland Islands, and going
northward, find on the round elbow of the South
American continent, the splendid colony of British
Guiana, 76,000 square miles in extent, whose popu-
lation of 160,000 sent forth last year 100,000 hogs-
heads of sugar and 60,000 puncheons of rum. From
Belize, or British Honduras, containing 18,500 square
miles and 25,600 people, we look out lo the Caribbean
Sea, over a stretch of 1,500 miles and more, upon a
jewelled girdle of islands, smiling in tropical beauty,
i^d
)\
\\
\
wmmmmamttf^^
\
AN IMPERIAL CONFEDERATION.
51
■
Jind rich with tropical exuberance ; the whole of these
West Indian dependencies, including together more
than 100,000 square miles, populated by 1,123,000
souls, calling for millions more from east or west to
come and gather their lavish wealth, and at present
carrying on an annual trade of £13,500,000. Still
farther to "the north, by Bermuda, another strong
naval station, standing as a ward between the golden
possessions of the Antilles and the Dominion of the
North, we come upon a fourth empire, lying across
the broad shoulders of the continent, from Atlantic
to Pacific, extending, with many varieties of soil and
climate, from the latitude of Rome to the Northern
Pole ; the finest agricultural country in the world,
traversed by belts of territory unsurpassed for the
growth of cereals, wealthy in mines, bordering on a
series of interior water-communications incompar-
ably convenient ; a country of bracing climate, of
vigorous life, and destined to nurse a hardy race ; a
confederation of states, with an area of 030,000
square miles, and an inadequate population of
about 4,000,000, who already send out to the
world £12,730,000 per annum and receive from it
£17,000,000. Its shipping tonnage rivals that of first-
rate powers, is greater than that of Prussia, of Austria,
of Spain, exceeds the half of that of the whole German
empire ; its organised militia number 600,000 men.*
Already our review seems like a magnificent extra-
* " From the head of Lake Superior, " said the late Hon.
D'Arcy McGee, illustrating the extent of his adopted country,
" the same craft may coast uninterruptedly, always within sight
of our own shores, nearly the distance of a voyage to England—'
to St. John, Newfoundland."
52
AN IMPERIAL CONFEDERATION.
vaganza, but there are yet more. In the mid-ocean,
Ascension and St. Helena ; along the west coast of
Africa are Sierra Leone, the Gold Coast, and Gambia.
And southwards, again, we find another budding
empire — a region pointed out, in a recent debate, to
be now as large and as populous as the original
American federation : 220,000 square miles", the home
of 760,000 persons ; importing yearly £2,3 1 3,000, and
exporting £2,592,000. Rich and broad are its lands ;
neighbouring provinces are ready to confederate
with it. It is in the position, had it the power, to hold
in either hand the commerce and the naval supremacy
of two hemispheres. To complete the marvellous
summary, out in the ocean, towards India, lie two
islands of productive soil, wealthy to a degree ; since,
with their small area, and populated by 322,000
people, they send out annually £2,339,000 of their
products, and take in £2,200,000, chiefly from our-
selves. This is the British Empire, over which —
<' day by day
The sun goes round
Where'er yon flag's unfurled,
And still Ihrough dews of morn
Comes back to find Britannia crown'd,
And tell her of her world."—
It were well for those who talk of empire as a
thing of naught, who act as if it were not worth the
high business of preservation, to sit and ponder over
these wide dominions, — to review these accumulated
statistics of their extent, their commerce and their
power. Then may they ask themselves whether all
these empires were aggregated only to be scattered
again to the four quarters of heaven : or whether, in
V .1 V
^^
^1
mmmmmm"
wmmm
AN IMPERIAL CONFEDERATION.
53
^ I ^
«^^
the nature and position of our imperial provinces,
their mutual dependency and capabilities of mutual
support, their protracted course around the globe,
their history and present condition, there is not a
significance far other than sentimental, a broadly-
written dictate of policy as practical as it is dazzling.
In the January number of this Review * I considered
generally the doctrine of Federation in its relation to
the British Empire. It was then my aim chiefly to
show how the condition of our dependencies, and the
nature of their connection with us, tended to one or
other of two conclusions — Federation or disintegra-
tion ; and I then endeavoured rather to prove that
Federalism, or the doctrine of Federation, offered an
attractive, and seemingly practical, way to the solu-
tion of that difficulty which we are accustomed to
enshroud in the vague term of " the colonial ques-
tion." While I sought to wake up British statesmen
and British people to a sense of sharp and peculiar
danger, I wished also to point out to them how that
peril might possibly be averted. I desired to prompt
inquiry on all hands, not alone amongst ourselves,
but amongst the people of our own greater colonies,
into the feasibility of Federation. I now propose to.
pursue the subject somewhat further, — to ascertain, if
possible, with greater definiteness something of the
outline and scope of that association, which the
doctrine of my previous paper was designed to pro-
pound. Yet I do not deem it expedient to elaborate
any specific scheme of federal union. I shall be
* Vide Essay on Imperial Federalism.
54
AN IMPERIAL CONFEDERATION.
content to review the general principles upon which
that scheme must be framed. Indeed, attempts, such
as have recently been made, by able and sincere
advocates, to limn out in detail the form of a Bri-
tish Federal system, are, from the conspicuousness of
their failure, more likely to injure than to advance
their cause. For it is manifestly impossible that any
single individual or group of individuals, not actually
burdened with the representative responsibility of
solving the problem, should know so much of the
laws and conditions of the various colonies, should
so thoroughly master its details, so well apprehend
all the difficulties and the requirements of such an
union, as to be able to produce anything but an
imperfect scheme. At present it is for the Federalist
simply to show his doctrine to be reasonable, his
suggestions to be primd-facie practical, his system to
be desirable, and to demonstrate that it deserves to
be made the subject of united conference and nego-
tiation. When he steps beyond that he opens a field
of free-lance controversy on many points of detail
which, while afTording grounds for attack by in-
genious critics, and putting the whole question in
peril, may be matters that would never receive the
serious discussion of a practical body conferring on
the possibility and the method of union.
In discussing Imperial Federalism, great stress was
laid upon the delicacy of our relations with some of
the colonies. I advanced statements, particularly
with respect to Canada, which affected very high
officials, and of which I challenged repudiation. No
repudiation has been made. It is clear that the policy
^ T'
AN IMPERIAL CONFEDERATION.
&5
of colonial independence, which Lord Granville was
endeavouring to quicken into speedier consumma.
tion, V, 18 afterwards, upon the outcry happily raised
in this country by a few earnest men, abandoned, or
at least postponed. But we are still exposed to a
double danger. Impolitic management by our Co-
lonial Office is the danger that moves from this side ;
the impatient or resentful independence of Ihe
colonists is the danger which moves from that side.
It is not difficult to find illustrations of these dangers.
The Dominion of Canada affords the best, because by
a singular coincidence that colony and Great Britain
are, severally and jointly, placed in a position of
great delicacy towards the same nation. When the
American War broke out, the strong drift of public
opinion, both amongst ourselves and the Canadians,
settled at first in the direction of the South. We and
they were, on the whole, throughout the war at one
in our policy toward the United States. HA hostili-
ties resulted from the Mason and Slidell affair, the
Canadian people would gladly have joined with us
in bearing the brunt of the conflict. The effect, how-
ever, of our combined neutral policy was to dissatisfy
the Americans, and the depredations of the Alabama^
built and equipped in England and, if at all involving
any criminality, involving it only on the part of the
English Government and people, raised a question
between the United States and the Empire ; a question
to which, as the nearest adjacent portion of our
dominions, Canada became an immediate party. She
had on foot a treaty with the United States, affecting
only herself, though nominally in the name of the
wm
56
AN IMPERIAL CONFEDERATION.
Queen ; that treaty was abrogated. Attached to her
territory were valuable fishing rights, modified by
the treaty, while it lasted ; these were resumed upon
its abrogation. Now, allhough it is unquestionable,
that the Imperial Government might legally and
constitutionally transfer or abandon the whole of those
rights without reference to the colony affected, yet
there has gradually grown up between the Colonial
and Imperial Government such an understanding
respecting the qualified autonomy of the North Amer-
ican colony, that he would be a bold man who at-
tempted so extreme an assertion of Imperial supremacy.
We are in Mr. Adderley's third period. We have
taught our child to walk without our help or inter-
ference. We have asked and encouraged the colony to
act in local nic.',L»}rs for itself — while her citizens are
our citizens, our Queen her Queen, her Government
subject in a measure to ours. Consider the delicacy of
the position ! Conceive the almost impossible tact and
judgement that are requisite to maintain it ! Yet
further, appreciate the dilBculty that arises out of it
in negotiating with our troublesome claimant ! He
has at this moment two grievances— one, in a sense,
only against us ; the other, in a sense, only against
them ; both, in proper constilulional and interna-
tional reality equally against the Empire of Great
Britain. With a little cleverness, he can work the
permutations and combin •' iis again^^t one or the
other, or both, as V pl( his quandary what
do our minister ' le hand they have
declared that l1 iO as much as possi-
ble for thems j. Th policy seems to point to
!KE5I55!!^
AN IMPERIAL CONFEDERATION.
57
^ /
the propriety of allowing Canada to negotiate her
own treaty with the United Stales. But, should
Canada be unreasonable, the United States will be
only too happy to pick a quarrel with us : so that we
are driven to take some part and responsibility in the
negotiations or to repudiate altogether our connec-
tion with Canada. Canada, on her side, may say-
that she has little interest in the Alabama question,
save that, if a war arise out of it, she will be the
chief sufferer. Yet the English ministry has agreed
to refer to the same commission their own difficulty
and that of Canada together. Can we be surprised
that there is uneasiness in the Dominion— fear lest,
to get the one Imperial knot untied, the Canadian
noose will be slipped ? Should that unhappily take
place, it is probable that the dreadou day will have
come when the policy of the last twenty years Is to
bear its fruit. Sir John MacDonald, before departing
to take his seat in the High Commission, received a
significant hint from the Canadian Parliament that
he must not suffer their rights to be trifled with in
order to purchase peace for Great Britain.
Another question in which the same parties are
involved illustrates the nicety of the situation. We
have attached to us a province which we have never
had the tact to govern. Its people, fleeing from 'our
mismanagement, have found a home in the United
States. There they perpetuate their enmity in a
manner peculiar to their adopted society — by quaint
organizations, stump speeches, paper armies, — the
oflicers of which, however, are maintained by solid
subscriptions, — caucuses, and processions. If they con-
58
AN IMPERIAL CONFEDERATION.
fined themselves to these ludibrious manifestations,
the world might marvel, but, so far as i- lay beyond
the limits of the Republic, would sleep in peace.
But these people carry their hostility into open acts
against the nearest British possession. By the negli-
gence of their own Government, they are allowed to
collect an armed force of rufTians, and march them
across the line among peaceable citizens, in no
v/ay implicated with their wrongs. Consequently a
claim arises on the part of those citi-^ens, which the
subordinate Government estimates, verifies, and fixes
at £200,000 ; then it calls upon the Imperial Ministry
to vindicate its rights and theirs. This is extremely
business-like, but extremely awkward. At the moment
the Imperial Government is at its wits' end to answer
the offender's own claim against itself. Therefore
that of Canada is shelved with deprecations, perhaps
imprecations, and promises to present it at some more
favourable time. I do not blame the British Ministry.
It might .have been impolitic in them, pursuing a
peace at any price policy, to advance these Fenian
claims in the teeth of the exorbitant demands of the
United States ; but I cannot help seeing that there
appears to be some ground for the grumbling of the
Canadians. Nor can I do other than conclude that a
relation in which such singular, such anomalous
difficulties are arising, must be hazardous and un-
certain.
That these observations are not those of an imagi-
native alarmist, is confirmed by a comment made by
Sir A. T. Gait on " Imperial Federalism." It (Fede-
ration) used to be a favourite idea with me ; and^
i
,ii
I
AN IMPERIAL CONFEDERATION.
5^
though undoubtedly presenting many difficulties, I
still think it offers the best, I may say the only,
chance of holding the British Empire together. But
as regards Canada, it is too late — our drift is too rapid
to be arrested." It is as clear as noon-light, that if
we do not arrange for a more complete union, only
some singular interposition of Providence can prevent
the raising of that crucial question which shall sever
Canada from the Empire.
I shall now lay it down as an indisputable propo-
sition, that Federalism alone^ in some form or other^ is
the principle upon which the constituents of the Empire
can he permanently welded together. The '• third period"
has matured itself with marked rapidity. Modifica-
tions assumed by the colonies, admitted by the
Colonial OfTice — gradual con^««sions of limited, and
at last almost absolute independence— the indefinite-
ne*3 and suspense of the principles which sway or
regulate our present colonial policy — imperfect ap-
preciation of what the colonies ask and require — their
own indistinctness of policy and aim — are matters
pointing but to one conclusion : separation — by
compact or revolution. As if to assist this consum-
mation, it is carefully announced to the colonies^
that should any of them evince a desire to be inde-
pendent, we should not attempt to restriin them, ia
other words, we invite them to consider, what no
colony has proposed or even seriously contemplated,
— disruption. When relations stand upon such fickle
bases as these, it is no bold thing to proclaim them
imbecile. Reconstitution of our relations is the
essential condition of establishing their permanence :
60
AN IMPERIAL CONFEDERATION.
and when that is proved, it will be found that no
system is possible except Federation. No other con-
stitution for such extended dominions is conceivably
permanent. Confederation or Confusion,
This can be very briefly demonstrated To recon-
stitute the Empire on the basis of resuming to the
Imperial Government as it stands some of the powers
impliedly and actually assigned to these colonies,
will be granted to be impossible. We cannot recover
our abandoned right of interference in local legisla-
tion respecting the Grown lands and so forth, nor
can we in the present relationship assume the right
to levy taxes or raise armies in those colonies without
their assent. Suppose then, to meet this, the colonies
were asked to send a proportionate or limited number
of representatives to the present Imperial Parliament,
which regulates not only the affairs of Empire, but
the local legislation of these kingdoms. It could not,
even wilh those additions, practically interfere in the
local affairs cf the colonies. The representation
would be delusive and the colonies would refuse to
be bound by it. On the other hand, it would be a
peculiar anomaly that the Parliament which consist-
ed partly of English peers, partly of British repre-
sentatives, which regulated home matters, should
permit colonial deputies to interpose in those matters
while the whole body together regulated Imperial
and international affairs. But any other arrangement
than the one supposed ; or the present, as it is or
slightly modified — and this every day is proving to
be impracticable; — or some lurm of Federalism,
exhausts the possibilities. My proposition therefore
I
in
\t
AN IMPERIAL CONFEDERATION.
6f
lies in a nut-shell. We cannot go back; we cnnnot
remain as we are : our only chance of unity is Fede-
ration. This I hope to make more evident before 1
have done.
Since there are those, both amongst ourselves and
in the colonies, who profess to regard wilh indiffe-
rence the prospect of separation, it were well briefly,
before propounding the alternative, to sum up the
consequences of that catastrophe. The only colonies
which can plausibly be invited to assume independ-
ence are those of Canada, Aubtralasia, and South
Africa. Not one of these is fairly in a position to
assume it.
First. From their point of view, what would they
gain? Whilst their people were absolved from the
responsibilities, they would also lose the benefits
of British citizenship. Transform Civls Britannicus —
yet a strong name, spite of recent diplomacy — into
Civis Canadiensis^ &.C., how soon on the Continent
and over the world would he learn the distinction
between the representative of a fifth-rate power
and of a great empire! Thrown upon its own
resources, the government of the colony would be
compelled to frame a diplomatic and consular service
of its own — to create a national army and navy at
great expense. It would be forced to reverse, in
fact, the beneficent operations usually aimed at by
Confederacy. At one blow its relations to Great
Britain would be cancelled. Separated in nationality,
the alliances of trade and of society would be in-
stantly unhinged. Many persons who had cast in
their fortunes with a British colony, like the •' U E
w 7
62
AN IMPERIAL CONFEDERATION.
Loyalists" of the American Independence, would,
especially under improved laws of naturalization,
refuse to imperil their own and their children's
citizenship. They would return upon our already
overstocked community. They would be lost to the
colony. Nay, that would also lose a large proportion
of the influx from ourselves most valuable to them,
that of men with large or small capital. Granted
that vigorous populations would be willing to frame
a system of self-defence, it may be qiieslioned whe-
ther any group of these colonies could put itself in a
position to maintain its dignity and its rights as a
separate state. Imagine Canada discussing alone
with her fretful and exorbitant neighbour the
Fisheries question, or the free navigation of the St.
Lawrence, or the San Juan difficulty. What now
restrains the unbridled lust for dominion of such a
democracy but the waving of the Imperial flag over
the ungarrisoned fortresses of Canada ? Therefore,
for the aerial remnant of right of self-government
which we still withhold from the colony, may I not
fairly sum up these as its compensations ? — Degrada-
tion of national status for every citizen ; check upon
the influx of capital and population ; additional
expense in maintaining government ; imbecility in
war ; revolution in its commerce. Moreover, there
is ground to believe that the ties which we are told
would naturally bind certain groups together might,
in a state of independence, be unloosed. New
Zealand, for instance, appears to consider that, except
within the Imperial circle, her interests are not con-
current with those of Australia. Already she has
AN IMPERIAL CONFEDERATION.
63
effected with American contractors an arrangement
for mail and passenger service through the United
States, from which she has jealously and deliberately
excluded her sister colonies. Diversities which might
play without collision in the common fraternity of
a British citizenship, might, divested of that, arouse
positive antagonisms — nay, might drive some mem-
bers to community with foreign states. Desert our
colonies, assert and perpetuate our recent policy of
a complacent watchfulness of national annexations
and annihilations, and what is to prevent the acqui-
sition by Germany, or Russia, or the United States,
of all the Australian provinces? Gould we be so
inconsistent as now to chafe against our liability to
defend an integral portion of our emipre, and should
we then be found so Quixotic as to go to war to save
a nation no longer within our dominion ? Let every
colony understand that in giving it up, we shall have
consigned it, like another Ishmael, to the tender
mercies of the world.
Secondly. And what, on the other hand, have we,
the people of GreatBritain, to gain by casting off these
colonies ? 1 confine it to these, because there are
colonies like India, Ceylon, and Hong Kong, which
British avarice would never consent to abandon ;
others, like the West Indies, which, I hope, our
Christianity would not allow us to consign to what
would be an inevitable barbarism. These three groups
of colonies are the three in which British vigour has
reproduced new British communities, and where cli-
mate and soil are peculiarly favourable to their
settlement. Those colonies are now the natural, most
64
AN IMPERIAL CONFEDERATION.
promising fields for our enterprise and our popuTa-
tion. And these are the colonies that are to be
disjointed from the Imperial body ! By permitting
them to cut themselves off from British citizenship,
we lay an obstruction at once to the currrnt of emi-
gration. Large as has been the exodus to the United
States, even of Englishmen, the numbers of those
who have gone thither from Great Britain with
capital, or on professional and business quests, has
been small, compared with the numbers that have-
swarmed to our colonies. These are the classes whose
movement would be especially affected by considera-
tions of citizenship. We must, therefore, expect that
our present congestion would be greatly aggravated.
Again, we should lose the slight influence we actually
exert, and the considerable influence we might indi-
rectly bring to bear on these colonies, in favour of
friendly tariffs. The United States has shown how
much a people will suffer under a mistaken policy,
how much they will sacrifice to build up independ-
ent manufactures. If they should adopt free-trade
to-morrow, they have established vast industries,
which could never have arisen to compete with ours
but for the fostering aid of their tariff. Time and
experience will no doubt teach the lessons of free-
trade ; but they can be more speedily and thoroughly
taught when there is community of interest, of race
and of citizenship.
Thirdly. We should lose both the moral and phy-
sical force which our huge extent of empire gives
us. While other nations are reforming their fronts,
reconstituting their governments, and combining
/I
.•t
AN IMPERIAL CONFEDERATION.
65
/■/'■
their constituents into federal unions, we propose
to reduce ourselves to an unit ! Stripped of these
noble possessions, in which chiefly dwell men of
our kindred and language, we should be deprived,
in any extremity, of sympathy and support we cannot
over-value. It is no small mortification to us to feel
(jven now how distant from us, in the moment of
serious extremity, would be the great people who
speak the same language and sprang from the same
stock. The colonies to be dismissed are the ones best
able to assist us. When we speak of coloni(^s as a
weakness, we forget that it is those colonies endued
with the most strength that will be lopped off. Most
of the others we should be forced to retain. The
trading stations are essential to our commerce. To
our naval supremacy are necessary our fortified
naval stations and the coaling depots. Were it not
well to ask ourselves whether these large colonies are
not the very backbone of our colonial system, essen-
tial to the co-ordination of the whole ? Sever these
from the body, and what is left but a sprawling mass
of inconsistent fragments ? Reduce the Empire by
these, and we may prepare to consider the (juestion
of retiring even from our Indian dominions. It would
be a very different England then, — the mere torso of
an empire, — that proposed, in the face of the world
and of the people themselves, to hold sway over two -
hundred millions of Asiatics.
Fourthly. We should have thrown back upon us at
home those serious problems to which the increasing
exodus of our people has seemed to afford the health-
iest solution. Now. men go and come. The lines
5
f
' V
66
AN IMPERIAL CONFEDERATION.
that weave us to our Imperial membership pass and
repass so multitudinously that every year augments
the strength and the intricacy of their connections.
Wealth acquired in the dependencies is brought home
to be expended, and in return new material of labour
finds its way to the colonies. T/ien, the men who
leave us will remain where their ambition keeps
them, where their interests are staked, where their
children are to be citizens, where their position is
established. In this way, many of those Londs will be
cut which ally us commercially and socially to the
colonies. Imperfect as this outline of contingencies
may be, it opens up a vista of grave possibilities that
may at least make him pause who flippantly or
ruthlessly contemplates the severance of a single
possession.
My review of the Empire has prepared the way for
a classification of its constituents. This is an essential
preliminary to the discussion of Federation. Great
errors are apt to arise, and have arisen, from confusing
our dependencies together under the common term
THE COLONIES. Souie of the constituents are self-govern-
ing or partly so, like our own kingdom and certain
colonies proper. Others are subject. Others are
trading or naval or coaling stations, which are prac-
tically incapable of self-government.*
I. Under the first head, along with the mother-
country, I include those dependencies which I shall
* The anti-colonial party in the Government and ParUament
seem to have made a great deal of capital out of the specious
confusion of the expenses of the latter with the expenses of the
former in the mind of the public and some of its Parliamentary
'representatires.
s
AN IMPEillAL CONFEDERATION.
67
now designate the Colonies. By these 1 mean not only
the larger provinces, to which have been already
accorded considerable rights of self-government, but
many of those called Grown colonies, wherein the
imperial power may still be said to exercise more
than a superintending sway. These are the con-
stituents which will be properly included as principal
parties in any scheme of Federation ; and where they
do not possess it in the requisite degree, may have
autonomy conceded to them for the purposes of
union.
2. The second class, embracing India and Ceylon,
must for the present be exempt from a compact, the
basis of which would be the equal and common
citizenship of the inhabitants coming within the area
of its action. In these places a very small proportion
of a superior race rules by pure moral and physical
force an inferior people. The Imperial Government
would in a Federation hold these countries as the
United States hold its territories, in a state of trust
for the Empire and of pupilage for the people them-
selves.
3. 'I'he third class of dependencies consists of the
stations for trade and various Imperial purposes.
These are Heligoland, Gibraltar, Malta, Aden, the
Straits Settlements, Labuan, Hongkong, the Falkland
Islands, Bermuda, Ascension, St. Helena, the West
African stations and Norfolk Island in the Pacific.
This classification shows on its face that we may
dismiss at once from any complication, as principals
in the federal compact, of the two latter classes of
dependencies. Let us, therefore, consider the idea of
68
AN IMPERIAL CONFEDERATION.
Federation as it relates to the provinces included in
the first class ; and, for convenience, I subdivide them
into groups.
a. The British group, including England and
Wales, Scotland, Ireland, and the adjacent islands.
h. The North A.merican, or Canadian group, con-
sisting of Prince Edward Island, Newfoundland,
New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Quebec, Ontario, Ma-
nitoba or the Red River territory, British Columbia,
ana Vancouver Island.
c. The West Indian group ; embracing our West
Indian Islands, British Guiana, and British Honduras.
The whole of these have very recently been placed
under one military command.
d. The Australasian group ; including New South
Wales, Victoria, Tasmania, Western Australia,
Queensland, and New Zealand.
e. The South African group ; Cape Colony and
Natal, to which perhaps Mauritius and Bourbon
might be attached. A proposition has recently been
made, and is lively to be adopted, for a federation,
comprising the two South African colonies and the
Dutch Republics of Trans Vaal and the Orange
River.*
These then are the elements out of which an Impe-
rial Confederation might be formed. They are ele-
ments varied and scattered, yet connected by
bonds of sympathy in the religion and race of their
predominant classes ; offering points of attraction
* See some admirable letters, " The Dutch Republics of South
Africa, " by F. W. Chesson. W. Tweedie. 1871.
AN IMPERIAL CONFEDERATION.
69
in their community of citizenship, of language,
of religion : presenting bases of union in -the simila-
rity, greater or less in degree, of their forms of
government. As regards the principal members of
our groups, no incongruities with each other in sys-
tems of government or in the general aims of legis-
lation offer a serious impediment to federation. Our
colonists have carried with them, along with the
social customs, the administrative and legislative
traditions of home, and with a qualified exception of
Lower Canada, some of the West Indies, and the
Cape Colonies, their laws based upon those of Eng-
land. The exceptions offer no obstruction. Like
Louisiana, Lower Canada, with French laws, has as
a fact been united with provinces regulated by dissi-
milar codes.
As to forms of government, we must meet the ques-
tion whether the fact that some local constitutions
«»?e less free than others of Imperial restraint would
interpose a hindrance to their confederation with the
rest. In colonies for instance like some of the West
Indies, there is limited or no representation of the
people, and the Crown agent with a few wealthy men
practically govern the colony. Will it be safe to
concede to such colonies greater independence in
local government ? The difficulty might of course
be removed by eliminating from the Federal system
all such colonies. But it will be admitted that if
Federation is to take place, its scope should be as wide
as possible ; and indeed it will directly appear that
the difficulty is not insuperable.
But this point raises questions which it would be
70
AN IMPERIAL CONFEDERATION.
inexpedient to discuss without some preliminary
outline oflhe nature and principles of federal govern-
ment. ^'The science of federal government," as it
was termed in the Federalist^ is perhaps more exact
and defined than that of any other form of human
constitution. Conspicuous existing instances, and
industrious philosophic commentaries on those of the
past, enable us to ascertain with considerable accuracy
the forms such a coalition may take, and the most
probable general outline. Mr. Freeman has commen-
ced a splendid and elaborate review of federal govern-
ment, * which must when finished become the text-
book of Federalism for a long time to come. Since
he published his first volume, the doctrine of Fede-
ralism has been discussed with great ability in the
Canadian parliament, and the confederated Dominion
of Canada has been established, in which were intro-
duced certain modifications of the federal form and
principle of a character peculiarly appro uriate to the
case of an Imperial Confederation.
It may be said that the leading object of pure
Federalism is to secure for each party to the federal
compact the utmost independence in its own affairs,
while it aims at combining into one central autho-
rity such forces as are best adapted to secure the
common welfare and common defence. Thus, within
the coalition, local life and vigour are not merged in
an overpowering and centralised despotism ; while
externally, and towards all other nations, it presents
a single and serried front.
iM
History of Federal Government, '■ vol. i. Macmillan. 1863.
iit-^'r^itiij-w' ''-r"'---*^""-^'r-''^'-^°'
AN IMPERIAL CONFEDERATION.
71
A leading distinction between possible forms of
federal relation needs to be observed at the outset of
an examination into the conditions of federal union.
There m.-iy be a federal compact between several
governments which brings the federal authority into
relation only to those governments and into no direct
relation to the people ; and there may be a federal
union between states in which the federal power,
co-ordinately with the state power, acts directly on
all the citizens. It will presently be seen that not to
regard this distinction would introduce hopeless con-
fusion into the investigation of our subject ; that in
fact it lies at the very root of our inquiry. Mr. Free-
man's definition is so clear that I cannot do better
than transcribe it : —
" In the one class the federal power represents only the
governments of the several members of the union ; its immed-
iate action is conlined to those governments ; its powers consist
simply in issuing those requisitions lo the stale governments,
which, when within the proper limits of the federal authorily, it
is the duty of those governments to carry out. If men or money
he needed for federal purposes, the federal power will demand
them of the sev^/al stale governments, which will raise them in
such ways as each will think best. In the other class, the federal
power will be, in the strictest sense, a government which, in the
first class, it can hardly be called. It will act not only on the
governments of the several Slates, but directly on every citizen
of those states. It will be, in short, a government co-ordinate
with the state governments ; sovereign in its own sphere, as
they are sovereign in their sphere. It will be a government with
the usual branches — legislative, executive, and judicial — with
the direct power of taxation, and the other usual powers of a
government; with its army, its navy, its civil service, and all
the usual apparatus of a government, all bearing directly on
every citizen of the union, without any reference to the govern-
ments of the several states. The state administration, within its
own range, will be carried on as freely as if there were no such
thing as an union ; the federal administration, within its own
range, will be carried on as freely as if there were no such thing
! j
72
AN IMPERIAL CONFEDERATION.
as a separate state. This last class is what writers on Intpriia-
tional law call a Composile Slate or Suprer.ie Federal Government.
The former class Ihny commonly remand to tlie head of mere
Confederacies, or at most Systems of Confederate States.''
I would now ask tha reader to observe how it is
that our colonies, even those most autonomous, are
not in federal relation to ourselves. That sovereign
erjuality of state with state, which is the criterion of
a federal constituency does not at present exist.*
They are pure dependencies unrepresented in the
central Imperial Parliament. But Mr. Freeman has
pointed out how nearly to the federal relation that
of the colonies to Great Britain already approaches.
'^ The colony may have the same internal indepen-
dence as the canton, but it differs in having no voice
in the general concerns of the empire." Hence to
endue the colonies with this right, this representation,
would be to convert a dependent into a federal rela
tioii, to lay indeed the basis of confederation.
Next I remark that in the Canadian Confederation
wc find an example of the form that federal govern-
ment might naturally at first assume in a Confede-
rated Britisn Empire. For it is likely that we cannot
leap at once to a perfect constitution — that this will
require to be matured through a gradual process of
adaptation. By the constitution of Canada the Sove-
reign retains her supremacy as the repository of
executive power. It is not a president elected by the
people, but her viceroy, who in the Dominion Govern-
ment represents that power. Each state moreover
has a lieutenant-governor, endued with some of the
* Freeman, p. 77, note I, and p.
25.
(
/•■'
AN IMPERIAL CONFEDERATION.
73
- C
powers of the executive, who is appointed by the
governor-general. The federal upper house or legis-
lative council, instead of being elective, as in the
neighbouring republic, is also nominated by the
Crown, the members holding office during life.
The lower house, called the House of Commons, is
elected by the people of the whole Confederation.
With I believe one exception the individual pro-
vinces are content with a lieutenant governor and
one elective branch of the legislation. Their local
niatters therefore are interfered with by the supreme
authority only in the appointment of the executive.
So far this is a modification of a pure federal system,
by the interposition, to this limited extent, of the
central authority in the local government. It remains
to be seen whether this could be permanently main-
tained; but at all events it would be a preparation
for the purer state independence of an ideally perfect
confederation.
I now return for a moment to dispose of the ques-
\on whether those less free colonies to which I have
above referred, could properly be brought within
the scope of Imperial Confederation. I judge that
the natural condition of such a confederation would
be the assignment to each of the colonies in our first
class, of independence in its local affairs, excepting
only the appointment of its governor, with the corre-
lative right of representation in the federal or Im-
perial Government. It is the deficiency of this corre-
lative right which must inevitably convert indepen-
dence into separation. But it is not essential for the
purposes of a confederation that the local govern-
W
i
74
AN IMPERIAL CONFEDERATION.
ments should be similar in form. Some state consti-
tutions may be more popular than others. In one
there might be household suffrage and representa-
tion by population, in another a limited constituency
with a considerable property qualification.* So far
therefore as relates to federal organization the oli-
garchic governments existing in some of our colonies
need oppose no obstruction. The. real difficulty will
arise in determining how far it will be safe to con-
cede to some of these colonies local independence.
The experiment of representative government has
failed in Jamaica, and there we have returned to '
rule by a governor and Council. In British Guiana a
governor and four other officials are supplemented in
the legislature by five representatives of a limited
constituency. So long as there is some popular and
local basis of government this might still continue.
The tendency in all confederations is the assimilation
of the constituents, and the spread of education
within, combined with the influences from without,
would gradually prepare such constitutions for greater
breadth and freedom. Even Mr. Adderley's faith seems
strong enough to enable him to look forward to a
time when freer institutions may exist in such colo-
nies, f
Having thus ascertained, with some accuracy, what
provinces of our dominions wol
separ;
properly
enter into the scheme of federation, the next inquiry
will be as to the general form of federal system appli-
-i
* See Fn3eman vol i, p. 257.
t " Colonial Policy,' etc., p. 222, 223.
AM IMPERIAL CONFEDERATION.
75^
■ >
cable to the exigencies of such an union. Shall it be
the '' System of Confederated States," or the '' Supreme
Federal Government?" — a league such as was sug-
gested by a recent royal commission at the Antipodes,
or an Imperial Federal Constitution ?
The answer to this question must depend on the
objects chiefly to be set before the people of the
Empire in proposing any such association at all. The
reason for demanding a change is the instability of
the existing system. Some of its weaknesses have been
stated with their possible, nay almost positive dangers
of rupture. Yet it is a strange and inspiriting fact
that, spite of these defects, there is in none of our
colonies any wide-spread desire for anything but
permanence and security of Imperial relations. Their
attitude is that of puzzled and cautious anxiety— not
of revolution — quite the reverse. This brings forward
at once a prominent object — namely, the maintenance
of the bond of common citizenship. Few colonists
are ready to throw away the glorious privilege of
being Britons ; few desire to lose th,^ jsgis of British
protection. For this they are willing, as we have seen
to do and to dare much. In return they must have
the correlative rights of British citizenship — namely,
a voice in the general government. This they
would not possess in a mere confederacy. That
indeed would be little better than the existing
system. The tendency of such an association would
be to isolate the interests and ambitions of each state
more and more from the lest, and to create a loyalty
of citizenship rather to its own Government than to
the FederalCouncil with which it transacted a species
76
AN IMPERIAL CONFEDERATION.
of diplomatic business. I take it, therefore, that the
form of federal government best adapted to meet the
case would be u form in which there was a direct
action of the Supreme Government on the citizen,
and a direct reciprocal interest of the citizen in the
Supreme Government. A second object will be the
organization of common defence, and its resulting
sense of security. It is almost lamentable to observe
the half-trembling anxiety of the Canadian Parlia-
ment about the sincerity of our guarantees of protec-
tion in case of war. They ioo evidently are afraid to
trust our economists. In a federal system these
guarantees would be indisputable, so that the smallest
state would be assured thai it could not be sacrificed
to the indifference or parsimony of the greatest. The
effect of this would be double : on the one hand a
sense of security to each member of the Imperial
union ; on the other, the respect it would of neces-
sity exact from foreign states. This object also would
seem to be best attained under the form of a Supreme
Federal Government. Under the alternate system the
Empire would be 'estored to its present inconstancy.
The central government would occupy much the
same position as the Imperial government occupies at
present. For instance, its demand upon a local legis-
lature for contribution to some federal expense, might
be met, as it would be now, with evasion or refusal,
and it would be unable to carry home to the body of
citizens those arguments for acquiescing in its con-
duct and assenting to its policy which would be avail-
able were their direct representatives engaged in
Federal legislation. Indeed, when we consider it but
AN IMPERIAL CONFEDERATION.
77
in outline, it seems useless to discuss the chances of
so loose a federal system. The first war would pro-
bably crack its high strung chords.
Other objects to be sought in a closer union would
be gradual assimilation of laws — an object, by the
way, which was directly avowed and sought for by
the Canadian Federalists, and is always a strong
argument in favour of federation — rapprochement in
commercial policy, the expansion on truer, freer, and
more widely acting principles of mutual commercial
relations, security to those relations under the broad
wings of a confederation, the increased availability
of capital, of labour, of talent, throughout and upon
avast Imperial field, whereon equal rights and equal
safety were assured to all.
The main object I have left to the last. Ft is the aim
"upon the surface, namely, to arrive at the most just,
most convenient and practical form of Imperial com-
bination. This is the general problem, discussed
from many points of view and under constantly
changing conditions, from Lord Durham's time to
the present. How, with justice to the British taxpayer,
and with justice to the enterprising British settler, to
maintain unbroken the Imperial dominion ? In blind
and blundering efforts to solve that problem, right
and wrong principles have been confounded, just
demands have been put forward on untenable grounds,
good policy has been pursued by mistaken methods,
and difficulties, instead of being mastered, have been
stifled, thrown aside or buried, only to rise up again
to fresh administrations with more troublesome live-
liness than before Had our ministers long since
i-
78
AN IMPERIAL CONFEDERATION.
resolved on carrying out a federal policy, had they
nursed the rising independence of the colonies, while
they maintained with care the super-eminent claims
of the mother-country ; had they facilitated the out-
going of our dense population, and fostered the vigour
of young communities, flot by wasting millions on
Imperial armaments, but by organising and encour-
aging local means of defence ; above all, had they
looked forward with a wise fon^sight to the day
when each of these communities as it grew up to a
strenglhful manhood, should be recognised, like a
territory in the United States, as an equal member
of the Imperial family, it is impossible but that we
should to-day have looked upon a more glorious,
more powerful, more prosperous and united empire,
instead of on a hazardous organism apparently
trembling to dissolution. It has been suggested by
some colonists whose opinions are entitled to weight,
that a Colonial Council, like that of India, should sit
in London, to assist wiUi its advice the Colonial
Office. This suggestion, good only because it recog-
nises the effeteness of that administration and its want
of counsel from some quarter of the heavens, needs
but to be stated to condemn itself. I have shown,
I hope conclusively, that any connection other than
one based on colonial representation at Imperial head-
quarters, is a rope of sand. Every day that increases
colonial independence without the compensating bal-
ance of an enlarged interest in Imperial government
is endangering the poise of empire. A non-representa-
tive council, composed of men however experienced
in colonial affairs, and endued solely with delibera-
^'-
AN IMPERIAL CONFEDERATION.
79
live pownrs, will not supply the missing link. Even
were the council to be selected by the colonies — and to
be so far representative, its limited scope and author-
ity would be so obvious an imbecility, that no colony
would be blind enough to accept it as a boon.
Another proposal I have already dismissed as im-
practicable. One cannot gravely discuss the suggested
admission of a few stray representatives of the far-off
millions into the body which, at one and the same
time, unites parochial legislation with the concerns
of empire. With what success could they urge home
upon the prejudiced majority questions of colonial
right ? This would be as illusory a representation as
that just discarded.
We appear to be driven from all points to one plan
of establishing Imperial unity — that is to say, a Feder-
al Legislative Union under a Supreme Federal Govern-
ment. That this, moreover, must be representative ;
and as to the materials of union, the representatives
must be drawn from the whole of the groups enumer-
ated in the first class. This and no other, though you
box the compass of constitutional possibilities in search
of it ! When we have reached that conclusion, and
have to some extent ascertained the desirability and
necessity — the general principles, elements, and con-
ditions of such an union, we cannot for the present
advisedly go further. Thus far it has been my aim
by this essay, to advance the question — to bring it a
few steps beyond the point at which I left it in
January. This may at least give a clearer view of its
difficulties, of its importance, of its prospects. If we
can establish our case so far, there need be no fear
80
AN IMPERIAL CONFEDERATION.
hut a practical scheme will he framed by iiniled
counsel and compromise. It is not an affair of days,
or months, but of years ; not of immediate demons-
tration, but of the patient, upliill struj^gling of men
animated with vivid faith — a faith built upon the
past, and trustful in the possibilities of the future ;
nay, it is not a dream, but a sober problem, to be
worked out by men of tact and action.
A solitary difficulty, like the pillar of salt, stands
up— a sign of retrospective despair, of dead, inane
deficiency of hope. Distance, enchantress of the far-
off view, is looked upon as the intractable witch of
confederation. It is said to be chimerical to talk of a
government by representatives of provinces stretching
both vvays to the Antipodes. But it should be remem-
bered that the Antipodes, in point of time, are almost
as near to us as for years California was to Washing-
ton ; that Halifax and Montreal are in that respect
closer to London than British Columbia, shortly to
be added to the Confederation, is to Ottawa. It may
safely be said that every year we advance nearer to
our dependencies both in time and facility of inter-
course. At no very distant date steam communication
with Australia will be so frequent, regular, and rapid,
and the telegraph system so enlarged and cheap, that
no practical difficulty would impede the working of
a representative federal government. For we must
not overlook the fact that such a government is exactly
that form of government which is least affected by
this consideration. The possession of so large an
independence as belongs to the separate states, leav-
ing as it does but a limited range of subjects to the
i
vjaW i irjiiib i ftj i iwi—jj i ji i B ^ , » . | i m w . i)! <
AN IMPERIAL CONFEDERATION.
u
central government, and those generally of a char
acter not requiring, as sometimes occurs in provincial
legislation, the rapid declaration of public opinion,
reduces that difficulty to a minimum. The principal
effect, supposing our constitutional system to be
adapted to a federal form, would be to make a general
appeal to the federal constituencies very rare indeed ;
perhaps so rare that, when it occurred, it would be
almost tantamount to a revolution. To counterbalance
this defect, and provide for a thorough undeistand-
ing between the constituencies and the representative
parliament, the duration of the latter would probably
have to be fixed at some more limited time than at
present. The real life and vigour of the empire will
lie not so much in the action of its federal head, as
in the vitality of its members, and the general co-
ordinating policy of the supreme power. That which
is chiefly to be aimed at respecting the subjects of
federal interest is, that throughout the empire there
should be formed upon them an enlightened public
opinion, giving a general drift to a powerful admin-
istrative, legislative, and diplomatic action. When
distance is set up as a barrier to a groat collabf ration
of interests and opinions, it should be recollected
that at this moment there is not a citizen of New
York who, owing to the enterprise of its newspapers,
may not every morning form a tolerably accurate
Opinion upon the events that happened in Europe on
the previous day, or safely make his business calcu-
lations upon commercial information of a few hours
old supplied him from London and Paris.
I offer but one other consideration, at the close of
6
•82
AN IMPERIAL CONFEDERATION.
80 extended an argument. We cannot overvalue the
advantages to the world's peace and progress of large
states or confederations. They reduce the possibilities
of war between the smaller communities which com-
pose them, by creating the bond of common citizen-
ship, and subjecting all to a permanent and supreme
arbitration in cases of dispute. Well therefore may
it be argued that he who lends a hand to break up a
great community of states is incidentally committing
a crime against civilization. Professor Seeley has
conceived the magnificent idea of making war im-
possible by creating an Universal Confederation.
However visionary the suggestion may appear before
the time when the lion and the lamb shall be seen to
lie down together, is it not a practical thing to advo-
cate the converse of his proposition — to urge that
existing combinations of states should be sacredly
maintained ? This is the spirit that seems to hover
now above the chaos of nations. Thus Germany has
reduced the number of chances of war in Europe by
uniting together several possible antagonists. Thus
it is that Austria is striving to confederate hostile
elements in one communion of peace and prosperity.
Thus has the United States purchased peace for the
future by costly sacrifice in the present, to perpetuate
the grand combination of her powerful republics.
Thus also may we, if we have but the wisdom and
the faith to attempt it, bind broad and shining and
enduring bands of peace about the circuit of the
world.
/ >
I
/
IMAGE EVALUATION
TEST TARGET (MT-3)
/.
^ Ms-
.<p
w-
Q.r
«/.
f/i
%
1.0
I.I
1.25
|M
in.
i.4
IIM
2.2
2.0
1.6
v]
<?m
V
r
//
el
'^/^
^^ ^''^^' /^M
^c>> .>^-'-
>^
Photographic
Sciences
Corporation
23 WEST MAIN STREET
WEBSTER, NY 14580
(716)872-4503
m
,\
^V
\\
^<b
V
#
w^
p^7
!
&p
Qr
■ «~r"-=" — rir-r
^^?''wr^«^^'7^''Tv^'^^
)i
i
vr
/"i
)/
r- - r-U-
V
TWO SOLTTTIOFS
(Fraser's Magazine, April, 1871.)
M i
^ 'i H l M 'i M i i »i""f i mmiimmmHfmm
mypmm^m^mm
1"
\if
iP'., !,,,jfi!9i.AmB''^''*^'**^^9!^^^^Wi^l"^WPil^^
fmmm
J J t
M
A>
NjF
November the fifteenth. To-day a young man was
shown into my room at the Temple. I had seen him
several times before ; his name is a common and un-
pleasant one. A long time since he came to me and
asked if I would buy some card-racks. I did not
want them — cards are made for burning, not keeping ;
but there was something in the man's face that touched
me, and I drew from him how that he was a mecha-
nical worker in dentistry ; how that he was married,
his wife * expecting to be confined ; ' how that all his
tools had been one by one pledged until he had not
the instruments to work at his calling, even were a
million false grinders needed for middle-class jaws to-
morrow. What could I do but give him — lend him,
of course, he called it — what he asked ? He came
again months after, with the same story. Again. The
same tale — the same help. And now here he was
once more. I was annoyed at the fellow's importu-
nity — unjust judge that I was of him ; but when I
looked up I saw a change upon the man that drove
down my resentment — down to Hell, whence it came
--5» •
^^m^
■1^
88
TWO SOLUTIONS.
— and made me stand up before a sacred statue of
sorrow. The man, five feet one or so, slight, pallid
as the paper whereon I write, with an odd lustre in
his eyes, which were rimmed with the red of weeping,
and the wild bold black hair twisting over his white
forehead— that horridly intellectual front ! which the
man ought not to have had, since he must needs live
like a brute ; which forced me to sympathy, when,
according to the rigid maxims of modern economy, I
ought to have had none : the man, witha shiveringly
thin yet decent coat, stood there and began to speak —
* Mr. , I hope you'll forgive' — But as his teeth
chattered and his knees knocked together, racking
my sensibilities most abominably, I put him down
into a chair and said —
* Ah ! your wife is dead — is she not ?
* Yes, sir.'
* * When did she die ?
* Last Sunday , sir.'
A pause. I cannot tell you what was told by one
to the other — it was riot in words. At length 1 said
gently—
* Have you any children ? '
* No, sir (crying) ; she'd just been confmed, sir. It
was a terrible hard time, sir, and the child only lived
a fortnight. She took on so to lose it; that's what
made her worse and killed her. You know, sir, she'd
had four of them, and this was the only one born
alive.'
I groaned. you two human idiots 1 Here is this
slim, small man of twenty-four or so, married to
some slim, small woman, companion of his famine-
:.
4*-
TWO SOLUTIONS.
89
1
..
T
stricken life these last few years, now lying dead in
his garret, and here he tells me, while the liquid
sadrtess scorches his eyes, how she took it so bitterly
to heart she could not produce a pledge of their
misery, as to fret herself to death !
you two silly, infatuated lovers 1 Why had you
not read John Stuart Mill ? Ought you not to have
resisted your brutal instincts and restrained your
thriftless ecstasies ? And you, Dead Fool, ought you
not to have been glad when it fell out your overmas-
tering passion brought no new burden to your
misery and that of him you loved ? Poor wretches,
both of you— -faithful, though, and loving in your
wretchedness, how intensely human you are 1 How
much that is beautiful — nay, almost heavenly — if
there in your execrable imbecility I
Thus I thought, the man sitting there, while the
slim, dead woman-that-was lay away in the fog-
shrouded attic, dead of sorrow for a sorrow that was
dead.
1 dared not tell the man it was well, for I saw he
had so loved her he might, upon the hiril, have
sprung at my throat like a tiger. So I said :
* Well, now what do you wish to do ? She is not
buried yet ? '
' No, sir; that's what 1 wanted to see you for. I
wanted some employment to help me to — '
' Stay. If I lend you — will that be of any assist-
ance for the present ?
* Oh, yes : thank you, Mr .'
* Then you must live. How do you mean to live ? '
fAi:ii^'Wft'
90
TWO SOLUTIONS.
' My tools ar3 pawned, or I could get work. I have
copied for a lav/ stationer som^jtimes.'
' Can you write, then ? '
* Very well ; I was educated : my father was a
surgeon.'
I trembled to think of this young man's sorrows.
Intelligent — there was his large white forehead —
educated, born a gentleman, married and lived a
pauper — a dead love lying in the attic there — and he
now here before me, thin and hungry, yet with one
agony overruling that of hunger, how to get Her
decently buried out of the damned world.
I wonder if he w ere better or worse for the fierce
purgatory through which he had come faithful from
first to last to the faithful dead.
The incident set me a-thinking again about the
problem it suggests. I hope no one in England con-
ceals from himself that this problem is one of a
seriousness intensifying from day to day. If he does,
his is the security of a man sitting on the edge of a
cliff, an earthquake rumbling in th«3 distance. The
problem, according to the gospel of some social philo-
sophers, is : How are you to thwari certain strong
human instincts so as to prevent them from turning
to social and political inconvenience ? According to
some plain-thinking people like myself, it is : Admit-
ting certain inherent haman and naturally right and
healthy propensities, Cc n you not devise how to let
them play without danger, nay with advantage, to
the morality and wealth of the community ?
Here were a young mam and a young woman drawn
together by subtle and puissant influences, which it
•— ^- >
mm
mm
m
TWO SOLUTIONS.
9f
— —-- >
is as absurd for a philosopher to overlook as for a
statesman to despise. You may preach ' prudence/
but you cannot wholly stifle these passions : you may
wish the young to be wise, but you must legislate
on the known and incontestable fact that the wisdom
and prudence you admire are those of the Stoic, not
of the ordinary man — are far above their average
characteristics — are clearly contrary to the impulse
of the^r nature. Doubtless these two persons might
have postponed marriage. So far their conduct would
have been satisfactory to Malthus. But unless Mai-
thus were able as well to warrant that they should
postpone indulgence — and in how many cases would
he agree to warrant that ? — I for one strongly protest
that for themselves and for society that which actu-
ally happened was every way better than the alter-
native. Give me for hopeful citizenship this sorrow-
ful poor man who has loved and sacrificed with
purity, rather than the man successful, with withered
virtue and a rou6's heart. Give me the pure dead
body in the garret there, as a belter thing for State
and society than — God save us if the other can ba
limned in words ! Nay, I protest that it is needless
for thos^ terrible alternatives to be put before the
youth and strength of England I Must we legij'.ate
for what men might be when we can legislate for
what they are and ought to be ?
Some time since, in a little book of mine, I printed
a chapter ent'lled 'Malthus and Man.' Therein an
attempt was made to put in a concrete form the very
problem now in discussion. In a satirical sheet pub-
lished every Saturday, which wavers between lively
92
TWO SOLUTIONS.
expeditions into the domains of politics or philosophy
and playful forays into the region of the demi-monde ^
a ' Reviewer ' minted at my expense, the epigram that
instead of ' Malthns and Man,' the chapter should have
been called ' Arithmetic and Sentiment,' and he pro-
ceeded forthwith to take a scrap of my implied argu-
ment and flip it with his whip of ridicule. The remark,
like many more coined in the same mint, was more
brilliant in the lacquer than true in the metal. I had
neither intended nor attempted in that chapter to
solve the terrible problem; but I clearly did try to
present it in a definite shape, and to show that one
solution pressed upon us by philosophers, lady-dis-
quisitionists, and young startling Amberley sophists,
was inhuman, immoral, unpractical — and therefore
one that must be rejected. That issue the ' Reviewer '
carefully avoided to discuss.
What I desired to say in that chapter I may briefly
state in a single proposition ; and I must needs state
it plainly. Men and women will, and we may take it
in looking at human society, practically, must, satisfy
the instinct for consorting together. Abstinence from
marriage generally finds an alternative in illegitimate
intercourse. Marriage without progeny generally
involves, in itself, physical injury and moral debase-
ment ; and in its effects, as a fact, vitiates society. Let
it be understood that I am speaking in the general,
and on a broad view of human experience— more from
the point of view of practical politics than of religious
or philosophic ethics.
Then I say a legislator should legislate in accord-
ance with human instincts in so far as they are
y
mmmfiMt iiiw.»ftWMri'«f.-v'»i*«ia^
RHHiMilHii
TWO SOLUTIONS.
95
healthy and good. This human instinct is admittedly^
in its origin, healthy and good, while its repression
is admittedly hazardous to morals : therefore you
must show an inevitable necessity to warrant your
legislating against it. Does this necessity exist?
The ' arithmeticians ' so called by the ' Reviewer '
have assumed that it does. They point to the unde-
niable over-population, gendering pauperism and
innumerable evils — a cumulative production of non-
producers and dead weights in the community : they
say that there is no legitimate way of disposing of
these ; and therefore the remedy is to go to the fount-
ain-head, and, just as you would regulate the
market for calicos, or linens, or hardware, stop the
production. I suppose lam a * sentimentalist* if I
wedge into the argument here a remark on the
essential difference between the productive instru-
ment in the case of goods and of children ? The
factory machinery has no soul, or will, or moral
nature, to be affected by yOur operations. It stops ''t
your command, and its voice is dead. But the other
is a complicated sensible being, influenced either for
good or evil by the check you put upon him. He has
impulses which resist your rigid law and coercive
power. Therefore the question respecting the latter
is not, like the former, a simple one of supply and
demand, but a highly complex problem of social and
moral and political influences acting on and from
certain intellectual and sensitive beings, when you
try to force them to cease their inconvenient product-
iveness.
Bearing in mind that distinction, as one that cut&
^lA^S''" 'V-'i?."
■ipfW
mimmmmmimmi'iw
94
TWO SOLUTIONS.
away any jot of analogy with supply and demand
theories in trade economy, let every one first ask :
"Whether the arithmetician's premiss is true ? He
counts heads, and says There are too many. Such a
proposition as that is evidently a relative one. To be
conclusively relevant, it must be true irrespective of
circumstan gs. Illustration: A father looks round
upon a doz^ i indolent children and cries ' There are
too many.' He has 3,000^. a year, and spends 5,000/.
If he must spend at the rate of 5,000/. per annum for
twelve children, he clearly has too many ; but on
the other hand the condition is obviously not imper-
ative.
Another father, more economic in his management,
with only 1,500/. a year, of which he saves 300/. might
look complacently on his thirteen children whom he
had educated and brought up in homely fashion to
work and win their way, aild might even regret that
he had no more.
Surely one need not in words extend that illustra-
tion to the body politic ?
Before you are justified in ressorting to the anti-
human policy, you must prove that the real difficulty
does not lie in the non-administration or mal-adminis-
tration of your resources, but in over-production of
children. It is monstrous enough to propound as an
economic principle the solution of a difficulty by a
process demoralising to society — still worse to pro-
pose such a reform until every other possible solution
is exhausted. Now in this case there is another solution.
For consider. You, Paterfamilias, may not only be
unlhriftily handUng your income — so, for instance,
}f^fS k^mnm'i i »^m'if9^
TWO SOLUTIONS.
95
as to starve half your family while you are overfeed-
ing the other half ; you may have failed to ascertain
and utilize all your resources. Was it absolutely ne-
cessary in the present condition of our Imperial
assets, that the love of my poor young grinder-pest
and his angel-widow should vegetate and die in such
sickly darkness as it did? Were the State father
and mother to blame for their indifference to means
which, well used, would have almost made the in-
cident impossible? If the rough coastline with its
fierce water-ward shut us in from external intercourse
— if England were only England— if for our growing
numbers there must needs be found sustentation from
her bosom alone, the * arithmetician's * case would
wear a terribly rigid front. But it is not so. Let us
apply again to our illustration. Suppose Paterfamilias
with his dozen expenses suffered half his estate to lie
in uncultivated wilderness, you would laugh at him
when he cried out upon the hardship of his exorbit-
ant progeny.
* Why, you old fool, six of your children are big
enough and strong enough to work in that wild land,
and you say you haven't enough to keep them I Send
them there ; give it to them ; help them to begin to
cultivate it. Hush your silly outcry against Mrs. John
for her fecundity, and use all your resources before
you complain of numbers. Why, I believe you could
do with half a dozen more, with all that land in your
fist!'
Whereto let us suppose Paterfamilias to reply :
* Mere sentiment, my dear sir, and worse economy :
don't you see it would only increase any expenses ?
^
^^T
98
TWO SOLUTIONS.
It would cost me so much additional per annum to
begin, for cultivation of the land, and the establish-
ment of my children, ^^o, no; we'll live together,
thank you, where one joint of beef does for all.' How
eaoily you could answer that the first expense would
more than repay itself even into the paternal coffers,
let alone the fresh provision for the children ! But
you would be inclined to leave that egregiously
hopeless old dotard to the ruin he deserved. The same
remonstrance demands — in the name and for the sake
of England's greatness — an answer from English
statesmanship. On that answer depends Imperial ruin
or Imperial glory.
1 think the reader will have begun to see that the
true arithmetic is on the side of those who not only
count heads, but count resources. This we urge in
antagonism to a false premiss and a vile conclusion.
It has now to be determined, here and soon, wheth3r
our Ministers shall pursue the policy propounded by
inhuman theorists or that dictated by simple and
humane self-interest. One or other of these two
solutions must be accepted — the third and only other
remedy is Revolution. The numbers may be reduced
by the sword ; but that sword will be wielded, not by
governors and philosophers, not by peers and parlia-
ment, but by the crushed and tortured masses of the
people, waking up to dreadful despair of any other
remedy, and putting forth their omnipotent strength
in a blind, relentless rage. TerriDle to the feasting
Philistines will be the vengeance of burly Samson
whose sorrows have been their sport.
Thank God, we are not yet too many. We have
■^
mm
pp
mmmm.
TWO SOLUTIONS.
97
untold and untouched wealth hoarded for a limitless
offspring. The true problem is not how to stop the
increase of a noble race, but how to distribute its
activ^e forces over our vast estate. Let English gover-
nors throw themselves into the invigorating energies
of colonisation. Stir up the whole Empire. Unite its
members in firmer union, upon more just and inter-
communicative and flexible constitutions ; open its
boundless capacities to the enterprise of a happily
increasing people; get the workman "oack what you
can of the birthright you have mismanaged and are
seeking to fritter away; thus, and thus only, will all
which tends to social health and individual well-being
find a full scope for action.
The alternative I can only view with horror. To
inoculate English society with French vices ; to
destroy our unique home-life and home-ideas; to
bewray the sentiments which have established the
purities of our society and glorified us in the eyes of
nations ; nay, to depreciate at once our manners and
our race, is the remedy, God help us ! offered by the
thinkers, followed by the strange women and chat-
tering disciples of the social philosophy. The two
systems may be seen and compared in America.
Down East, women, by practices there notorious,
thwa^'t the natural effects of marriage ; and you may
ascertain for yourself, or read it admitted by medical
observers among them, that they are degenerate and
degenerating from the grand old stock. In the wide
West or in Canada, ' where children are blessings,'
and no foul principles or practices discourage the
beneficent increase, you may see huge joyous families
■smi^
98
TWO SOLUTIONS.
and a sturdy generation fit to be the sons and daugh-
ters of Freedom.
To me it is an ever saddening experience to live at
the heart of this unrivalled Empire and io watch it
pulsating with lessening vitality and force ; to see its
life-stream turning inward on itself and tending to
congestion, not circulating with healthy flow to and
from the utmost extremities. I know not what to
think of an age so degenerate as to have lost the
impulse of growth — as to be unmoved by the spur of
rivalry — as to be meek amid the scorn of nations.
Samson shorn of his locks in the lap of faithless
luxury were no inapt figure of this majestic State
when clipped of its colonial strength by the feminine
fingers that might at least have warned it. There is
still hope — there is yet time. A hedging Ministry, a
selfish House, trembling peers, and mercenary trades-^
men, may be willing to sell for present peace and
comfort the future glory of a long-ennobled race ;
but there is some generous chivalry at the heart of
the people, a healthy common-sense, an upspringing
life and ambition, a dim but gradually clearing appre-
ciation of good to be won, of rights to be maintained
— a cleaving sympathy of English heart to English
heart all the world over ; that once directed into
channels of noble impulse will sweep away our
droning obstructives into the depths cf eternal ob-
scurity.
I began at the pauper root of England's evil — I
would end at the hopeful blossoming of England's
good. Here is the question for us all. Shall that root
grow up to bitterness, bearing its apples of Sodom, its
I
'ii
' """". * . i-!ii"-.Vt
mm
m
Piiiiiipipiiiii
TWO SOLUTIONS.
99
wild grapes of vice and misery and death ? Or shall
it, tended by pious hands, flourish a comely tree, with
branches great and stately, far-spreading, and yielding
perennial fruit ?
■X'^1'3
■f
END.
■■ i "f^n\f:f'-\,-^-n
-^ . yi
>
L
\ H
V