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Les diagrammes suivants illustrent la mAthoda. 32X 1 2 3 4 5 6 ■Nt3 < \ ■m TO THE BEITISH PEOPLE 'AT HOME' AND 'BEYOND THE SEAS' This Volume, which is intended to bring to the earnest considera- tion of the wise and thoughtful among them the means by which, under the blessing of Almighty God, the permanent Unity of the Empire may be preserved, to the benefit and advantage of all who acknowledge the British sway, and for the advancement of progress and civilisation throughout the world, is, with feelings of the warmest sympathy, dedicated by their fellow-countryman FREDERICK YOUNG. l.oi V V INTEODUCTION. Exactly one hundred years ago a memorable historical event took place. On the 4th of July 1776 the Congress of the United States adopted their famous * Declaration of Independence,' and the bond between Great Britain and her American colonies was broken for ever. Had wiser counsels prevailed in the mother- country, this step might never have been taken by the most important and flourishing part of her Colonial Empire, and she might have been spared years of internecine strife and bloodshed, and of humiliating and hopeless warfare, in her vain attempt to reduce her rebellious Transatlantic citizens to an allegiance, they then solemnly, and emphatically repudiated. VIU INTItODlcnoX. It was a period of great sorrow in England, and of great joy in America. The crushing defeat inflicted upon her, caused the deepest disappointment and chagrin to the former; while, to the latter, the complete victory gained by her successfiil colonists, was the source of enthusiastic jubilation and just pride. From this struggle, and Irom its disastrous result, England has learnt a lesson she never will forget. Deprived, as she was, of the best and most prosperous of her colonies, it might have been thought she never could recover from the effects of such a blow. But destined to become, some day, greater and more illustrious as a Colonial Power than ever, although shaken to her very foundations by the tremendous loss to her prestige she had sustained, she speedily rallied under it. Her great colony of Canada, developed, in our own day, into a splendid and powerful Dominion, continued true to her, and resisted l * ^ IXTnoDUCTIO.V. IX every ovei*tiirc to ubuiulon the old uiul honoured flag. The Cape, and the other colonies of the Crown also, still remained to her, to become in the present century the germs of a Colonial Empire, unparalleled in ancient, or modern history. ' ^'' It seems the mission of Great Britain to be, by the Providence of God, the principal colonising country of the world. With sublime courage and most devoted zeal, her noble army of missionaries are ever going forth, with the Bible in thxiir hands, penetrating into new regions at the peril of their lives, to preach the gospel of their Divine Master to the heathen, and spread the knowledge of Christian civilisation among the savage tribes of every clime. Quickly fol- lowing their footsteps, multitudes of adven- turous Englishmen, with indomitab^? energy and enterprise, are bent on developing the natural resources of each new country, as it becomes \ } INTRODUCTION. known, and opening up to the undeniable, and incalculable benefits of trade, and commerce, the primeval wilderness of many a lovely land. In this wav Great Britain, since she lost America, has added to her territories the vast and magnificent continent of Australia, and the rich and beautiful islands of New Zealand ; and she is rapidly pouring into them, as well as into her older colonies of Canada and the Cape, an intelligent and energetic population. But, while all these great communities of Canada, the Cape, Australia, and New Zealand — each the nascent nation of a not very far off future — are thus becoming so marvellously de- veloped, the pressing question is fast ripening for solution, as to what are to be the conditions of their fiiture political relationship to Great Britain. Originally sprung from her, speaking her language, owning allegiance to the same monarch, governed by the same constitutional laws, they // INTRODUCTION. # are bound to her by the closest ties of sentiment, and of interest. ' The time, hov/ever, will soon come, when the days of their apprenticeship will be over, and when all the control, still exercised by the mother- country, must cease, and then the crucial question, involving issues of the most momentous character, must be solved. If entire independence of her was ever desired, or demanded by any of her colonies, this country would not repeat the fatal mistake she committed in the case of America. Of that we may be sure. It is not in this direction that there is any chance of her policy being as erroneous as before. There is another danger, however, arising from the frame of mind of many of those who direct the national policy, to which England is peculiarly prone. It is this : there is a fear lest, from a careless disregard of their priceless value to her as supports and bulwarks to her Empire, and the inestimable benefits they confer upon her in \\ xn IXTRODUCTIOX. adding to her strength and power, from the enormous amount of material wealth they pour into her lap ; and frequently from a supine and selfish indifference to the sentimental feelings of their fellow-countrymen in the colonies — their co-equals in every respect — the people of England may be inattentive to their just expectations and natural sensibilities, and unconsciously let them slide. Thus it may come to pass, that they might be led to regard absolute independence of her, as being a necessary, and the only ultimate result, simply because the mother-country had never encouraged them to believe there was any other way of their participating in the privileges and power of a complete autonomatic nationality. Let me put the question fi'ankly. At a certain stage of their growth, one of two alternatives must happen with all the great self-governing colonies of Great Britain — ' Fede- .% /A n LVTRODUCTIOy. xm ration ' or ' Disintegration.' And why not the former ? I ask ; or why should we be com- pelled to contemplate the latter, as inevitable ? To solve a question of such delicacy, dif- ficulty, and grandeur, demands, no doubt, the exercise of the highest political sagacity and pro- found statesmanship, the purest patriotism, and the most unprejudiced and unselfish disposition to act only for the common weal. Are these qualities not to be found among a people, owning the same origin, spealcing the same language, professing the same sentiments of civil and religious liberty, and with a history, possessing such great and glorious associations as our own ? A few years ago, the symptoms of the grow- ing prevalence, among a certain class of leading politicians in this country, of opinions in favour of disintegration, at length roused to energetic action a number of influential men, animated by a loftier and more generous spirit, who were closely ,/. XIV INTRODUCTION. connected with, and deeply interested in, the wel- fare of the colonies. Among them the names of Edward Wilson, and James Youl stand conspi- cuous. Assembling together, they sounded the tocsin of alarm at the spread of these pernicious ideas and narrow views, and boldly appealed to all, who felt as they did, to make an emphatic protest against them. It was thus, that the memorable meetings, which were held in the heart of the City of London, at the Cannon Street Hotel, in the year 1869, became the signal for the 'turning of the tide.' The success of these meetings was most remarkable. They seemed at once to touch the springs of national feeling, and elicited in an unmistakable manner from a most influential and powerful section of English society a thoroughly sympa- thetic colonial sentiment. From that time the attitude of the Government of this country began to change. A wiser and more patriotic /A INTRODUCTION. XV policy prevailed. No longer was heard, as before — excepting an occasional suppressed murmur, like the rumblings of distant thunder, from a few of those who moot reluctantly resigned their favourite dogmas — anything in favour of disinte- gration. , , Public attention was still further kept alive to the sentiments promoted by the Cannon Street meetings, by the * Conferences on Colonial Questions,' which were held at the Westminster Palace Hotel in the month of July 1871. A full account of these interesting, and important gatherings, forming a valuable contribution to the history of a movement, fraught with such great results, was afterwards published.^ At this period many staunch Federationists did good service in the heroic cause. During the Social Science Meeting at Bristol in 1869, papers, touching on the general subject of Federation, were read by Messrs. Gorst, Hare, Noble, Macfie, ' See ' Discussions on Colonial Questions.' Strahan & Co. '\ ^ XVI INTKODUCTION. and Labilliere. In January 1871 the keynote of ' Imperial ' Federation was first sounded by Mr. Edward Jenkins, M.R, in an article of great ability, under this title, in the * Contemporary Review.' This was followed by equally able, ! I and argumentative papers from himself, and from Mr. Labilliere on the same subject, at the West- minster Conferences in July 1871, and at the Social Science Congress at Devonport in October 1872. ^ '-'".••-- Imperial Federation was again brought before public notice by the late estimable and talented Mr. Eddy, at the Social Science Meeting held at Glasgow in October 1874, in a paper, which was also subsequently read, after his death, at the Royal Colonial Institute ; and by Mr. Labilliere in his admirable and successful paper, read before the same Society in January 1875, ' On the Permanent LTnity of the Empire.' , Tlie Colonies, a newspaper advocating very powerfully the best and most important in- ' I / / INTRODiCTION. XVII terests of the Colonial Empire, ha8 more than once lent its columns to the ventilation of the great, and vital question of Imperial Federation. An able coiTcspondence appeared in it on the subject, in the months of January, February, and March 1873, by ' Philo Colonus' and 'H. de B. H.,' in which the possibilities of the formation of a great British Union are very vigorously and elaborately discussed.^ Imperial Federationists continued, however, to be challenged by their opponents with not having any exact or definite plan for canying out their ideas. In consequence of this, it was determined in the month of November last by the con- ductors of that journal, that the columns of The Colonies should be again thrown open to a further discussion of the subject ; and I was honoured by being invited to commence the con-espondence, which has since been so spiritedly ' See Appendix. a t \ ' VU) INTnODUCTION. carried on for several months, by letters from the Duke of Manchester, the Hon. Wm. Fox, Mr. Labilliere, * Colonus,' * Imperialist,' and * A Constant Reader,' and which was recently termi- nated, as it had been begun, by myself. These letters are now published in a complete form in the present volume. They may not unreasonably be considered to comprise a valuable addition to what has previously been brought forward on this subject. They contain a tolerably clear a ad correct outline of the prevailing ideas, which are entertained by the various writers on a question, than which there is none more serious and profound in connection with the future des- tinies of the whole British Empire. To my intelligent and thoughtful fellow- countrymen, in this country, and Transatlantic and Antipodean alike — to Englishmen at home, as well as * beyond the seas ' — I make an earnest appeal, that these letters may be carefully and attentively read ; that the arguments put forward if .',/ INTRODUCTION. XIX on behalf of Imperial Federation may be fairly and temperately weighed ; that they may be judged without passion or prejudice ; and that they may be patiently, imselfisiily, and patrioti- cally thought out. The question here presented to every unprejudiced British mind is this, that the only real way of obtaining the inestimable national blessing of * Imperial Federation,' will be, by the national possession, some day, of an * Imperial Parliament ' or ' Senate.' The urgent necessity for such a Parliament for the whole nation is being forcibly shown at the very moment this volume is passing through the press. Two most important colo- nial questions are now under discussion in the ' British ' Parliament — often most inaptly and inaccurately called, both by legislators and public writers, ' Imperial.' One is the * Colo- nial Marriage,' and the other the * Merchant Shipping Bill' Here are two questions of supreme social and commercial importance to a2 XX INTRODUCTION. ' / the great self-governing colonies of Australasia and Canada, being dealt with, and legislated upon by a British Parliament, in which there is no direct colonial representative element at all. Is it likely that a state of things, so seriously unsatisfactory and so utterly anomalous, can much longer continue ? Let us, then, neither be daunted by any apparent difficulties, nor allow superficial obstacles, springing from jealousy, or inability to embrace at once all the details of a grand and comprehensive idea of the highest good to the whole nation, to be sufficient to con- demn it, as chimerical, or to put it aside, as Utopian and impossible. In the simple but forcible language of one of the writers of the letters now published, — the Hon. Mr. Fox, the late Premier of New Zealand — ^I would say, ' If it is the right thing to be done, there must be some conceivable way of doing it.' F. Y. 5 QUEENSBERRT PLACE, S.W. July 1876. J / / CONTENTS. LETTER 1. From FREDERICK YOUNG. I Question opened— Mr. W. E. Forsler at Edinburgh— Colonies regnrded as parts of England— Influence of Sentiment in the Govemnient of Nations — Power of Sj^mpathy and Self-interest — Danger of DlstnncH in weakening sympathetic ties — How this is to be arreHted — English History appealed to— Origin of English Parliaments cited— Colonies and Counties — An Imperial Parliament or Senate should be formed to deal with Imperial Questions — Local Parliaments to manage Local Affairs — Bold Proposal — The people of the Colonies and Mother- Country compared — How alone England's future greatness can be preserved LETTER II. From the Hon. WILLIAM FOX {late Premier of New Zealand), National Character coloured by Sentiment — Colonies entitled to feel themselves integral portions of a great Nation, and to share in the historic greatness of the Empire — Neglect of the Imperial Govern- ment to promote Colonisation on true principles — For two centuries past allowed to drift — Objection to the Colonies being regai-ded as ' extensions of the Empire in the same way as English Counties — Change proposed by Mr. Young discussed — Not merely revolutionary, but a Revolution — Task a ' big ' one — Hope expressed that it is not insuperable — Support to it promised xxu CONTEXTS. LETTKIl III. From FRANCIS P. LABI LLI ERE. Permnnent Union of the Colonies with the Mother-Country a question eminently practical — Idea of Federal Qovernmont not a new one — ObstacleH to it8 creation arisinir from distance and Piirliamontary pride — Proposal that the Enjiflish Parliament should give up Imperial Questions to Federal Parliament— Representatives for the Lower House — Plan for an Upper House — Colonial Senators and Imperial Senate— Cabinet Ministers requiring to be changed— DifHculties of British Federation less than those of the Germans and Americans — Time for it not yet arrived — Necessity of being prepared for it . LETTER IV. From FREDERICK YOUNG. Importance of Imperial Federation— Value i Mr. Fox's adhesion to the principle — Defence of suggestion that the Colonies should be regarded as extensions of the Old Country — Parallel derived from English History — Central Parliament not to administer the Local AiTairs of the Subdivisions of the Empire— Does the idea propound on Old or New principle P — There are ' Revolutions ' and ' Revolu- tions ' — Mission of Great Britain to be the great Civiliser of Man- kind — Irresistible power created by a permanent Union of the Empire 16 LETTER V. F,om the Hon. WILLIAM FOX. Proposal involves a substantial change in the Constitution of Parlia- ment — Colonial Representation not feasible at present — Mass of work undertaken by the English Parliament for every local emergency — Local matters ought to be handed over to Local Parliaments — A great Imperial Parliament not a new idea — Mr. Cobden — Mr. Trevelyan's County Household Suffrage — Professor Newman — Prac- tical impediments to the introduction of Colonial Representatives into the British Parliament — New Zealand Constitution criticised . 21 fONTKNTS. xxiii LKTTKR VI. Front the DUKE OF MAN'CHESTEU. I Coloniuii entitlud to a iihnro in directing the Policy of the Empiro whon tht'ir intercHtfl nru nfterted ; to be acconipliihed by inaugurating a Now C'hiuiiber in whicli the United Kingdom and Colonies should be represented in due proportions — Privy Council Scheme — Colonial Kepresentatives in the Mouse of Conimons— lloth equally objection- able—Power to tax fur Imperial, nut IjocaI purposed no LETTER VII. From FIIEDEUICK YOUNG. Duke of Manchester — Colonial Representatives in English Pnrliament — New Imperial Parliament— Comprehensive Scheme of Federation — Lord Derby at Edinburgh — Change of Colonial Policy extraordinary — Dreamers and Doctrinaires — Inexpediency of giving details of nny plan of Imperial Federation — Necessary to look forward — Federation already thought of in the Colonies — Ultimate grand ideal suggested . 20 LETTER VIII. Fiom the How. WILLIAM FOX. Agreement with Mr. Yonng — Views identical — Both believe that Federation would be a good thing — Duke of Manchester's Council of Advice — Colonists would not agree to it — Fundamental Change in the character of ParlL-xment necessary to prepare the way for Federa- tion 34 LETTER IX. From 'COLONUS.' Idea of Federation admirable, but not practicable — No Colony has asked for it — Imperial subjects limited — Cut Bono — ' Twice in a Century ' — Merita of a Council of Advice — Aids and Checks to Colonial Office — ' Something might grow out of this ' -Elective element desirable — Danger of Local jealousies 30 XXIV CONTENTS. LETTER X. From FREDERICK YOUN(J. Colonies as Counties again defonded — Equality of Imperial Partnersiiip — Anonymous Correspondent — Pence and War and Postal Com- munication — Contracted views of ' Colonus ' — Interest of England and her Colonies identical — Council of advice a complete failure — Details of any plan of Imperial Federation declined — Statesmanship and Patriotism — The framing of Constitutions fitted to endure, a question of the future PAnit 39 LETTER XI. Frovi ' COLONUS.' Federation of adjacent Colonies— Competition — Rival Schemes — Rail- ways and Telegraph Lines — Immigration — Protection and Free Trade — Difficulties of Colonial Legislation — Sir W. F. Stawell on Federa- tion 43 LETTER XII. From ' COLCNUS ' Voltaire — No difTerence between Mr. Fox and 'Colonus' — Imperial Federation admirable if practicable — Sir Tliomas More's L'topia — British Parliament and Federal ' Council ' — Foreign War and Postal Communication — Two Ministries— Homo Rule — la India to bo repre- sented ? 48 LETTER XIII. From 'AN I M'^^^ I A LIST.' National Feeling aroused — A great Empire — Suez Canal — The history of England a noble one — Real relation of the Colonies and the Mother- Country — Revolution of feeling — !Moral force — Federation movement advancing in the Colonies — A grander Federation still — Time not come for dev'sing exact plan — Influence of a great war — Size a promoter of unity — I'ow the supreme problem is to be solved . 62 M' CONTENTrf. XXV LETTER XIV. From the DUKE OF MANCHESTER. PAOB India and representation for British race only — What work the Federal Council is to do — Relations of Ministers — Distinct Departments — Some responsible to Parliament of the United Kingdom, others to Federal Council fl8 LETTER XV. Frmn FREDERICK YOUNG. Momentous issues ci Imperial Federation — A nom de plume — Lord Anson — Agreement between * Colonus,' Mr. Fox, and Mr. Young — Imperial Parliament and not a ' Federal Council ' — Questions it is to deal with — Letter of ' Imperialist ' — Statesmanlike Sentiments — Complete reply to < Colonus ' 61 LETTER XVI. From ' A CONSTANT READER.' 'Colonus' and the Discussion — Its rise and progress — Professor Goldwin Smith — Troubles in New Zealand — EiToneous use of the word 'Council,' instead of ' Federal Parliament' — Edward Wilson — Cannon Street Meetings, and Westminster Conference — E, Jenkins, M.P. — F. P. Labilliere— ' Empire ' or ' No Empire ' — Letters of ' Philo- Colonus' and' H. de B. II.' — Mr. Young and Mr. Fox — Misconception of ' Colonus ' — Irish Home Rule not necessary — Imperium in Imperio versus the history of Federal Government m LETTER XVII. From 'COLONUS.' Mr. Young and banter — Principle or Details, which first P — Powers of Imperial Parliament, or Federal Council — Volunteer Forces — Sydney Harbour — 'Cerberus' at Melbourne — Taxes and Tariff's XXVI CONTENTS. PAOB — Australia removed from all chance of Iiivauion — Colonial Parlia- ments and fresh taxation — What kind of Representatives would the Colonies seud P — Candour and courtesy of the Duke of Manchester . 73 LETTER XVIII. From FREDERICK YOUNG. Common basis with ' Colonus ' impossible — Reason for primary recogni- tion of principle — Wide diff'erence between Federal Council and Imperial Parliament— No Surrender proposed of Colonial Powers — Perfect equality between Colonies and Empire at home contended for — Australia and her risk of Invasion — ' Colonus ' on Colonial Re- presentatives answered 78 LETTER XIX. From ' COLONUS.' The Duke of Manchester and subjects for the Federal Council — Definition of • A Constant Reader '— E. G. Wakefield's ' Art of Colonisation ' — Peace and War, and Foreign Treaties— Motives of men to enter public life — Imperial Government ought to be superior to English Government — Unnatural arrangement — Foreign Secretary — Taxing powers — Complication of divided responsibility — Suez Canal — Royal Titles Bill — Two Budgets — No analogy in history for such a system of Federal Government 84 LETTER XX. From ' A CONSTANT READER.' Unsubstantial apprehensions of ' Colonus ' — Subject of Federation treated at length — Confusion of ideas — Wrong names — Great inaccuracy — Royal Colonial Institute — History of Confederation not studied by 'Colonus' — Possible and impossible Systems — Repudiation of Federal Council — Hope Mr. Young will rest satisfied . 04 :l ! CONTENTS. XXVU LETTER XXI. From ' COLONUS.' Difference with Mr. Young — Vital Principles — Power of Public Opinion — Fxamplea of the United States cited — Old Countries and new Colonies — Efficient Agents — Mr. Childtjrs and Mr. Jenkins — How are Members to be elected to the Federal Council F — ' Stone- wall ' at Melbourne — Mr. Berry and Sir Jas. McCulloch — Disgraceful Scenes in the House — With a legal, the Federal Council would have no real power — Marriage with a Deceased Wife's Sister — North American Fisheries — Nice Embroglio 100 LETTER XXIi. Frotn the DUKE OF MANCHESTER. Hope to see an Imperial Parliament established — Federal Council similar to the Indian Council — The way to it — The Authority acquired by power of voting Money — Special Taxes to be levied from the whole Empire — Required amount to be raised by each State, as is found most convenient 10.1 LETTER XXIir JFrotn ' COLONUS.' Apology for irregular mode of treating the question — Several Cor- respondents to answer — ' Eight ' positions proved — Confederation of groups of Colonies a step towards a Confederation of the Empire — Might be a step towards disruption — Consultative Council of Advice recommended — Conclusion 100 LETTER XXIV. Frotn FREDERICK YOUNG. Expedient that the present Discussion should end — ' Six ' arguments in favour of Imperial Federation summarised — Discursive style of ' Colonua ' — Able replies from the Duke of Manchester, Mr. Fox, Mr. H XXVlll CONTENTS. Labilliere — ' Imperialist ' and ' A Constant Reader ' — Diplomatic Appointments of the United States — Federation, or Disintegration, the alternative of the future — Emphatic protest a)j;ainst the use of the term Federa? Council — Question should be discussed calmly, dispassionately, and without prejudice — The old, old Flag an Emblem for all time of the United British Empire . . . .Ill APPENDIX. No. I. Letter from ' Philo-Colonus,' published in ' The Colonies ' of January IG, 1873 119 No. II. Letter from • H. de B. H.,' in ' The Colonies ' of January 24, 1873 . 124 No III. Letter from ' Philo-Colonus,' in ' The Colonies ' of February 15, 1873 . 127 No. IV. Letter from ' H. de B. H.' in ' The Colonies,' February 21, 1873 . . 132 No. V. Letter from ' F. R. O. S.' in ' The Colonics,' March 15, 1873 No. VI. Leader in 'The Colonies,' April 1, 1873 .... 138 144 No. VII. < A Colony and Parliament.' Leader in ' The Colonies,' June 2G, 1874. 151 No. VIII. Sir Julius Vogel. From the ' Standard,' October 10, 1874 . 157 CONTKNTS. XXIX No. IX. TAOR Knipire or no Empire ? A review in ' The Colonies,' January 10, 1873. 157 No. X. The British Empire. Lender in ' The Colonies,' November 27, 1875. 103 No. XI. Imperial Confederation. Leader in * The Colonies/ November 27, 1876. 108 No XII. Colonists as fellow-countrymen. Letter signed ' A Pariah ' in ' The Colonies,' November 27, 1875 173 No. XIII. Colonial Governors and Colonial Federation. Leader in 'Tlie Times,' May 1, 1875 177 No. XIV. The Colonies in time of War. Letter from Mr. II. B. T. Strangways, to the Right Hon. B. Disraeli, M.P. From the ' Edinburgh Courant '181 IMPERIAL FEDERATION. LETTER I. From FREDERICK YOUNG. Question opened — Mk. W. E. Forster at Edinburgh — Colonies reoakded as parts of england— influence of sentiment in THE Government of Nations — Power of Sympathy and Self- INTEREST — Danger of Distance in weakening sympathetic ties — How this is to be arrested — English History appealed to ■ — Origin of English Parliaments cited — Colonies and Coun- ties — An Imperial Parliament or Senate should be formed to deal with imperial questions — local parliaments to MANAGE Local Affairs — Bold Proposal — The People of the Colonies and Mother-Country compared — How alone Eno- land's future GREATNESS CAN BE PRESERVED. THE question of what arc the best means for promoting and ensuring the permanent union of the British Empire has received a new impulse in the recent address of Mr. W. E. Forster at Edinburgh. In that masterly essay, the right honourable gentleman gave his unqualified adhesion to this noble and patriotic sentiment, wliich ought to find equal favour with every Briton, whether he happens to be born and bred in England itself, or is an iuhabitiuit of the Empire at the Antipodes. i If' ' if r 2 IMPERIAL FEDERATION, The Colonies of Englaiul — those miglity ofTshoots of an illustrious parentage ; the chief sources of her increas- ing wealth, as they are the powerful representatives of her greatness and glory — should be regarded merely as extensions of the area of the old country, and not as the foundations of new ones, which are destined to flourish under another flag. Spreading, as the Empire now does, over every part of the habitable globe, it is a matter of the deepest and most vital concern to enquire by what means its per- manent union may be most effectually guaranteed. Sympathy is a bond which will no doubt have its effect in tending to keep alive a spirit of union between the widely-scattered portions of the British Empire. But although it would be impossible to ignore sentimental feelings, or to forget the real and ruling power of senti- ment as a universal attribute of humanity, perceptibly influencing the government of nations, there is also another quality which operates almost perhaps as powerfully, and that is ' self-interest.' The danger is that, in the more distant parts from the centre of a great Empire, sympathy may wax colder, and crude notions of apparent self-interest may prevail which are opposed to continued union, and which may lead ultimately to a desire for separation. How can this dis- integrating feeling be arrested ? It is the contention of those who wish the continuance of the union that no ne- cessity whatever exists for its termination, either immedi- ate or remote. Let us refer to the history of England to support this view. If we glance for a moment at its earliest FREDERICK YOUXO, 3 times, and boar in mind the origin of the union of the diflerent parts of this country under Alfred the Great, — wiiicli were in fiict in point of communication with one another far more remote than the Australias from Enghmd in the present day — we shall see the source from which our early Parliaments were afterwavds constituted, by sending rei)resentatives from all these remote places to London as a centre. In this j)rocess, followed without interruption for more than six hundred years, we have at once the model and example to be followed now, in order to bind the whole Empire into an homogeneous and indis- soluble union. Why should the Australasian group, the Cape, and the Dominion of Canada not be regarded as an extension of the counties of England, sending their proper proportion of rei)r'}sentativcs, just as Middlesex and York- shire, Cornwall or Northumberland, to the British Parlia- ment ? Undoubtedly, the Parliament of the future would have to be constructed on an entirely new basis. The Imperial Assembly would be formed to deal alone with Imperial questions — namely, those affecting the interests of the whole Empire, such as treaties with foreign coun- tries, or defence, or peace and war, &c. The Foreign and Colonial Ministers, and the Chancellor of the Ex- chequer would be chosen from the Imperial Assembly, while probably Ministers like the Home Secretary and the President of the Board of Trade would be selected, as a separate Cabinet for domestic affairs, from such a Parliament as we now have, and which would, hke the Parliaments of the various Colonies, only deal with local laws and home administrations, English, Irish, and Scotch. B 'J IMPKRFAI, FEDKRATION. i) ! No doubt all this involves a radical reconstruction of the Imperial representative body ; but it is only the exten- sion to every part of tlie Etnj)ire of the system already cited, which was inaugurated in the early })eriod of our history, when England had no Colonies, and when it was more difficult to hold communication with the distant parts of our island than it is now with the most remote regions of her Colonial Empire. Such a proj)Osal will be deemed a very bold, not to say chimerical, one by those who have been accustomed to regard these matters from the old-ftishioned insular point of view only, and looked at English influence and supremacy as emanating alone from within the boundaries of the old country. They fail to recognise the noble and true, and far more thoroughly English idea, that every part of the Empire, however widely it extends, is liiied with her sons, as brave, as intel- ligent, as patriotic, and as loyal as those at home, who are capable of adding fresh strength and vigour and sup- port to the mother-country, as they increase in wealth and population, and who ought theretore to be regarded as part and parcel of herself, with all the rights and repre- sentative privileges she can give them, wherever, within the borders of her vast realm, they may be. If we think the greatness and glory of England are worth preserving, we must extend our vision beyond the narrow limits of its affairs merely of to-day, and keep stedfastly in mind what are likely to be its destinies in the future, and frame a policy in consonance with its in- terests accordingly. November 24, 1875. HON'. WII.MAM VOX. LETTER II. From tfui Hon. WIIiLIAM FOX {Itite Premier of Nein Zealaml). Nationai, Character coloured hy SK^riMKNT — CotoNiRs entitled TO I'EEt, themselves INTEliKAL PORTIONS OK A OUEAT NaTIOM, AND TO SHARE IN THE HISrOKIC GREATNESS OF THE KmI'IRE — NeOLEOT OF THE Imperial Government to promote Colonisation un true I'RiNciPiES — For two centuries past allowed to drift — Ob- jection to the Colonies uEiNd regarded as extensions ok THE P^MPIRE IN THE SAME WAV AS EnOLISH CoUNTIES — ClIANOB PROPOSED HY Mr. Younq discussed— Not merkly revolutionary, HUT A Revolution — Task a ' itio ' one — Hope expressed that it IS not iNsuPERAiiLE— Support to it promised. NATIONAL character, in my humble opinion, is coloured quite as mucli by sentiment as by laws and constitutions. But sentiment may be created or maintained by these, and it is on that account more than on account of any material advantages the Colonies are likely to derive from Federalisation, that the subject is of importance to them. It is of the highest importance to colonial character that our Colonies should feel themselves to be integral portions of a great nation, not mere depend- encies and offshoots; that they should feel themselves entitled to share in the historic greatness of the Empire, past and contem})orary, and not limit their sentiment to the comparatively petty parochial scope of their own narrow IMI'HKIAL t'KDKKATION. cxistt'tice. It seotns to mo equally iinportftiit that the sentiment of the parent State should be expanded to the idea that the Colonies are li.nhs of her l)oen to Imperial Federalists hke Mr. Young ' to disclaim all idea of inventing any new form of government.' Practically, the change would be an entirely new invention : it would amount to a com- plete reversal of thiiigs ParUamentary, as they are, and the adoption of an entirely different system of local self- government for the domestic portion of the Empire. It would be not merely revolutionarj% but a revolution, more complete, extensive, and deep penetrating than that of 1688, or perhaps any other in British history. To such a revolution there may be no objection; it may be the solution of a vast accumidation of hitherto insolvable problems, and a practical discovery as great as Galileo's. But I woidd observe that it differs most materially from all propositions for Federalisation, which have hitherto emanated from the Colonies, and the friends of the Colonies. These have, as far as I have observed, gone no further than attempts to make colonial rei)resentation fit in with things as they are. Mr. Young and youi'self, if I understand you rightly, i)ropose so to alter existing things, as to make them fit in with colonial representation. Well, you have set yourself a ' big ' task — I will hope not ar ii>-'Ui)jrable one. I should be glad if any hinnble aid of niino; could hel[) you in it ; and if I do not unduly intrude upon your space, will in a future number con- tinue my remarks. December 7, FRANX'IS P. LABILLIERE. 9 LETTER III. From FRANCIS P. LABILLIERE. Permanent Union of tue Colonies with the Mother-Country A QUESTION EMINENTLY I'UACTICAL — IdEA OP FeOKUAL GoVEIJN- MENT NOT A NEW ONE — OBSTACLES TO ITS CREATION AUISINd KKOM DISTANCE AND PARLIAMENTARY PRIDE — PROPOSAL THAT THE EN(I. LisH Parliament should give up Imperial Questions to Federal Parliament — Representatives for the Lower House — Plan for an Upper House— Colonial Senators and Im- perial Senate — Cabinet Ministers requiring to de changed — Difficulties of British Federation less than those of the Germans and Americans — Time for it not yet arrived— Neces- sity OF being prepared for it. I BELIEVE you can do no bettor service to the Im- perial cause than by occasionally aflTordin}^ facilities for the discussion of the future constitution which will be required to maintain the permanent unity of the Empire. From passing events, which afford such abundant materials for the purpose, you constantly illustrate the value of the union and the importance of rendering it indissoluble ; but many long-sighted people naturally ask, what is ultimately to come of all this? How are the Colonies to be kept in union with the mother-country, when ihey attain greater maturity of growth, and possess largely in- creased i)opulations ? The question is eminently practical ; and to charge those who attempt to answer, by giving a 10 IMPERIAL FKDERATIOX. skctcli of any forms of Federal union, with being imprac- ticable dreamers, and theorists, is to display an utter tlioughtlessness or incapacity *o comprehend the nature of such a great question. I know that the materials for the formation of such a Confederate system, as I propose to sketch, do not yet exist, though they are fast growing; but I believe it is desirable, that Imperial Federalists should meet the challenges of foes and tlie fears of friends by occasionally producing their plans, and by endeavouring to familiarise our people with something of the shape which any efTective organisation of our Empire must eventually assume. We are not, as you point out in your last issue, dealing with a speculation, but with an existing and well-defined form of government, and the only question is as to its cai)acity for expansion to supply our future Imperial requirements. Some people assert that no plan of political luiion has been propounded, just as if Federal government existed neither in tiieory nor in practice. We, who believe in its adaptability, make no pretensions to originality ; we only say — Apply an existing model of government, which already meets the requirements of vast territories, which are too extensive to have all their affairs, both external and internal, provincial and of general concern, regulated by a simple Executive Government and Parliament. Had Imperial Federalists professed to propose anything original, they would have been guilty of an absurd attempt to pirate a very ancient idea — to establish a claim to have invented a form of government, " FRANTIS P. LAn[M-IKRK. 11 wliie^h has existed from before tlie Clirisliuii era down to the present tirue. Why slionld this old form of government not bo apphcd on a larger scale than any, npon wliich it has hitherto been tried ? Should it prove a success in our Empire it will amply repay the greatest thought and eflbrt that can be applied to it. If the Imperial idea be so cultivated as to thoroughly possess the people of all portions of the Empire, what obstacles will stand in the ■way of the establishment of the Federal bond? Two might deter some people from the attem])t to create it — one, the severance by oceans of the different portions of the Empire, and the other, tlie pride of the old English Parliament, preventing it from giving over Imperial questions to a Parliament of the Empire. I shall at present say nothing upon the first objection, wliich every year's improved facilities for communication will tend to eradicate, but merely call attention to one recent instance, showing how easily questions of general interest can be discussed simultaneously at opposite ends of the globe. On April 29, a deputation waited on Lord Carnarvon to advocate the annexaticjn of New Guinea ; ten days afterwards a public meeting in favour of the same object was held in Sydney, which was subsequently supported by leading articles in Colonial papers, resolutions of Colonial legislatures, and minutes of Colonial Ministers Why should not other Imperial questions be in like manner dealt with, had we a Federal union ? Were the present English Parliament to give up tu a Federal Parliament the few Imperial questions with which 12 IMPRRFAL FKDKRATrOX. it now deals, it would really have to sacrifi(.'e nothing but a little sentimental pride, for immense substantial advantages, which this country would derive i'rom Federal union with the Colonies. England would be greater and grander by merging herself in a confederation oi her Empire, like Prussia since she has merged herself ni Germany. Iler Parliament would have full control, and be aule to devote exclusive attention to all important afljiirs of these king- doms, such as Parliamentary reform, Irish church and land questions, education, &c. Full ninety per cent, of the questions which now annually come before the present English Parliament would remain under its jurisdiction, and it would only have to give u]) such Imperial business, for instance, as the purchase of the shares of the Suez Canal. But if her Parliament lost anything in fame b)' not having such a question to deal with, England would be a very substantial gainer, for she would not have to provide all the purchase-money, wliich the Federal Par- liament would have to supply from its revciuies, drawn from all the dominions of the Empire. But, considering the immense benefits which Confe- deration would confer, these two preUminary objections should not be permitted to prevent the attem[)t being made to frame a Federal constitution. How then would it be necessary to p-^ceed ? I shoidd think that the terms of iniion, when che time arrives for drawing them up— and Mr. Forster has clearly shown that it is not so very remote — shoidd be arranged by delegates rejnvsent- ing the Colonics and the mother-country, and ratified by the re.s[)ective Governments. Objectors will here inter- FUAN'CIS P. LABILLIEKK. 13 posG with a miiltitiule of questions as to details which really sii^rgest only imaeen settled, all the details of the distribution of seats and election of members might be left to the Provincial Parliaments. With Australia, where there is no inter-colonial Con- federation, there woidd be more difficulty than with Canada, for the Imperial Federal Constitution, instead of having only to fix the total number of representatives, leavin.f their distribution to an inter-colonial Federal Parliament, would have to allot the nmnber separately to each Colony. As to the creation of the Imperial House of Lords, several plans occur to me, but I can only ask you to allow me to describe one. A certain proportion of its present hereditary peers should represent the United Kingdom in this great Imperial senate, as life members — say half by nomination of the Crown, and half by the House of Lords. For distinguished services, however, the Crown might have power to conferthe supreme distinction of a hereditary peerage of the Empire on any of its subjects. The Colonial members of this Senate should be created for life by the Crown on the nomination of the Colonial Executives — by that of the Dominion of Canada, and by those of the separate Colonies of Austmlia, should they not form a Colonial federation. These Colonial senators. 14 IMPERIAL FEDERATION. though only life legislators, should liiive titles taken from places in their Colonies. It may be objected that the hereditary poors of England, sitting in the Imperial Senate, Mould ill assort Avith the Ufe peers ; but it must be re- membered that only the most intellectually distinguished and large-minded of the English poors woidd bo nomi- nated to the Senate ; that they would bo gentlemen of the greatest attainments and cidture ; and wo know how harmoniously the highest {iristocra'.s sit as legislators with men of difTeront grade in the House of Commons. An Imperial Senate, constituted as suggested, would certainly bo the most brilliant legislative assembly that could well be formed. It woidd consist of picked men from the peerage of England and from the aristocracy of intellect and statesmanship of the whole British Empire. The hereditary jieerago of the Empire woidd open up to that of the United Kingdom a still further avenue of distinction ; and to bo a life peer of this gi'oat Senate woidd be a grand prize open to the tesmen of all our Colonies. A Parliament with its two houses thus rocruitod from the wide iield of talent, which our Empire would afford, ought to command the largest proportion of legislative and administrative ability which it would be possible to collect. It would be fully equal to the task of conduct- ing Imperial • affairs. Mr. Young has mentioned the Ministers, who would require to be transfeiTcd from the Cabinet of the United Kingdom to that of the United Empire, and he has thereby indicated the questions which are Lnperial. i FRANCIS r. LABILLIKRE. l'> We should not have in our Confodenition tlio difllcul- tics the Germans and Americans have ^vith llieirs — the one Avith the petty kings and ])rin('es wlio pri'sicU' over the States in the Union, and tlie otlier in liaving a pe- riodical election for the Cliief of the Confederation. It may be said that some Colonies, though ■wishing to continue in the Emjnre, woidd not come into the Union. Verj^ probably all would not consent to come in at once. Neither did all the provinces now in the Dominion of Canada ; Newfoundland still stands aloof Let any one or more of the important sections of the Colonial Empire confederate with England, and the others would soon gravitate to the Union, when they ])erceived the gi'cat- ness, importance, and security it would give them. I woidd repeat that the time for Federation has not arrived, but in order that the desire for permanent iniity should 'realise itself,' we should, as practical men, think well beforehand of the organisation which will be required, so that, when the Empire is ripe for its adoption, it may the more easily be applied. December 6. 16 IMPERIAL FEDERATION. LETTER IV. From FKEDBRICK YOUNG. Impoktance of Imperial J'edkisation — Value of Mr. Fox's adde- sioN to the principle — Defence ok Suogestion tuat the Colonies should de regarded as extensions of the Old Country — Parallel derived from English History— Central Parliament not to administer the Local Affairs of tub SUIIDIVISIONS OF THE EmPIBE — DOES THE IDEA PROPOUND AN OlD OB New Principle? — There abe 'Revolutions' and 'Re- VOLUTIONS ' — Mission of Great Britain to be the great CiviLisER OF Mankind— Irresistible power created by a per- manent Union of the Empire. THE question you have permitted mc to discuss in your columns of Imperial Federation, as being the best means of securing the permanent union of the Em})ire, is so vast, so interesting, and of such vital importance, as affecting the future destinies of Great Britain, that its proper ventilation may well embrace the scope of many letters, not only from myself, but also from your other correspondents, in the reverent treatment of a subject so profound. By your favour I will make a few comments on a letter which appeared in your last number from one whose distinguished career as a Colonial politician entitles his opinion to great weight — Mr. William Fox, the late Premier of New Zealand. With the general tenour of Mr, Fox's remarks, and with his criticisms on my proposals, \ r:{El)KRItK YOLNO. 17 I tliink I have no reai!«on to be dissatisfied. I hail with satisfaction the evident adhesion to the principle I advocate, on the part of one so experienced in the political life of one of the most successful and progressive of our Colonies. Mr. Fox's views on such a subject can- not fail to be most valuable. I am content that he should say, we have set ourselves u' big task.' I am much more content, he should add, ' I will hope not an ii.superable one,' and, ' I should be glad if any humble aid of mine could help you to it.' Passing by Mr. Fox's thoroughly true and philoso- phic reflections as to the extent, to which national character is coloured by sentiment ; and the noble and patriotic views he expresses, that ' the Colonies should feel themselves to be integral portions of a great nation, entitled to share in the historic greatness of the Empire ; ' and that ' the parent state should be expanded to the idea, that the Colonies are limbs of her body, and not mere seedling plants, the offspring of casual winds and waves carrying the germs of new nations to distant soils where they have taken accidental root,' I proceed to defend briefly the suggestion I have made, that ' the Colonies should be regarded as merely extensions of the old Country,' and support the parallel I diew from English history to show the practicability of uniting the dif- ferent portions of the Empire by the constitution of an Imperial and Central Parliament, in one grand scheme of Federation. Mr. Fox demurs to my ' postulate,' that the Colonies should be regarded as extensions of the Empire in the same sense as the States of the Heptarchy were, c IM \A: It 18 IMPERIAL FEDERATION. avA the counties of Kngliiiul are, jis ' a cliuigorous one to rest the case of tlic Colonies upon' But he will forgive me for remarking that my illustra- tion was given merely for the purpose of showing how what liad before been scattered portions of the kingdom, under separate and independent jurisdictions, were welded into a union of states, and a subsequent homogeneity of national representation. I pointed out that, if this purpose could be successfully attained in the earlier periods of our history, when the practical difficulties were so enormous of intercommunication between the different parts of England, the discoveries which modern science has placed at the disposal of mankind — and which have practically annihilated distance, as an obstacle to the most ready and constant intercommunication between the various parts of the British Empire — would render a thoroughly Imperial representative Parliament at least as easy now as an English Parliament was then, in the old days to which I alluded. Mr. Fox appears alarmed lest the admission of my illustration should involve the right of the Central Parlia- ment to tax and administer the local affairs of the subdi- visions of the Empire, but this would be quite an unfair assumption as to the result of the admission of the prin- ciple of representation I have advocated. I have expressly said that ' such a Parliament as we now have would, like the parliaments of the various Colonies, only deal with local laws and administrations, — including taxation, of course, — English, Irish, and Scotch.' Here I exclude all right of the Parliament of England as at present consti- iH 'sA FREDERICK YOl'NO. 19 tuU'd, to (leal with tlie local alTairs of any sulxlivision of the Empire excepting its own, which I have ex|)ressly particularisal. The instance, for example, which Mr. Fox brings forward — a crucial (Mie, no doubt — of the subjects of Church Establishment or Disestablishment, as well as ' the hundred analogous cases ' which, he says, might be suggested, would not be treated by an ' Imperial Tarlia- ment,' such as I propose. They would be relegated to the English Parliament, as justly and properly appertaining to the category of questions to be settled — in consequence of their exclusive application to those interests, from which the Colonies claim to be free, — by a representative body chosen to deal with questions ' English, Irish, aud Scotch.' And this brings mo to the consideration of the con- cluding part of Mr. Fox's letter, in which he says that, seeing the difficulty of an Imperial Pariiameut taking up questions of this description, while I only avow that I am proceeding on a mere extension of its principle, I am really proposing a fundamental aud entire change in the British Constitution in order to meet it. I should be sorry that on a question of such grave importance, which deserves to be thought out in a tho- roughly reverent spirit by all true patriots and wise and sound-judging men, a point of difference should be raised as to whether the idea proposed is the extension of an old, or the invention of a new, principle. Perfectly satisfied in my own mind of being justified in proclaiming it, as belonging to the former, and therefore no novelty, I have not hesitated to bring forward in its support the 20 IMPKRIAL FKDKRATIO.V. ntmlofjy of the origin of the first constitution of the English ParUamont, and recoinmL'ndcd the i)arallel lH'in<» followed by an extension of the principle then ad()|)ted, HO as to include in one grand Imperial Federal Parliament every portion of the Hritish Home and Colonial Empire. There seemed an especial reason for taking this ground. The words 'revolutioiuiry* and ' revolution' have a per- haps, not unnaturally, ugly ring to English ears. But in listening to the soinid of these somewhat alarming words it would be well for reflective minds to recollect that there are such things as ' revolutions ' and ' revolutions.' The one may uproot, in violent, lawless, sanguinary over- throw, tlic most venerable, valuable and time-honoured institutions, and may imperil the existence of civilisation by the mad ferocity of a brutal barbarism. To this the saviours of society are im})]acably liostile, being reason- ably alarmed at its mournful and deplorable results. But the other, instead of overturning and destroying, may regenerate and revivify. It may be the means of forming on a wider basis, and thus adding a new buttress, to the rock on which is built an old and admirable Constitution, requiring to be expanded and developed with the advance of time and the constant progress of the world. If, however, in this latter aspect, my plan for Imperial Fede- ration is, in the language of Mr. Fox, to be called a 'revolution,' I do not shrink from accepting the starthng designation without hesitation, and free from the least alarm. I believe it will contribute — if worked out in a thoroughly statesmanlike and unselfish spirit, and without prejudice on the part equally of England and the Colonies IIO\. WILLIAM FOX. 21 — to tlit'ir mutual ImppinosH nud prospority, to tlic<;rnn(l('ur and glory of Groat Mritaiii, and fo tlic ultimate realisa- tion of lier mission aj the ^reat civiliser of mankind, by the irresistible power created by a perman;Mit union of the Empire, enabling her to develop all the noblest objects which seem destined by Providence to be the result of the wonderful expansion of her national lifo. December 23. LETTEE V. From the Hon. WILLIAM FOX. PROPOSAIi INVOLVES A SUBSTANTIAt CHANOR IN THE CONSTITUTION OF Parliament — Colonial Representation not FEAsinLE at present — Mass of work undertaken by the PjNglish Parliament for every Local Emergency — Local Matters ought to he handed OVER to Local Parliaments — A great Imperial Parliament not a new idea — Mr. Cohden— Mr. Trevelyan's County Household Suffrage — Professor Newman — Practital Impedi- ments to the introduction of Colonial Representatives into the British Parliament — New Zealand Constitution criticised. IN my previous remarks on the subject of Colonial representation in the Imperial Parliament, I ex- pressed my concurrence in Mr. Young's, and your belief. 22 IMPERIAL FEDERATION. that such a proposal involves a substantial change in the constitution of Parliament, by the restriction ofits functions to purely Federal, or rather Imperial objects. A further reason may be given for the belief that Colonial repre- sentation is not- feasible at present, when Parliament legislates for every local emergency, however remote in its bearings on the common interests of the nation as a whole. The result is a mass of w(>: k, overwhelming in its amount, and inextricable in its confusion. On my retiu'n to England last July I was amazed to find the Imperial Parliament engaged, for ' all a summer's day,' in discussing, with the utmost earnestness, the question whether the publicans of Ireland should or sliorld not keep open their shops on Sunday. And I was still more amazed when I saw that this matter, purely local to Ireland, was disposed of by the open action of a Yorksliire representative and the tacit acquiescence of the Imperial Government, against what was understood to be the almost unanimous wish of the Iiish people and the probably compact vote of the Irish niembers. The discussion of this municipal matter created more interest, received more attention, and consumed more of the tim.e of the Imperial Parliament than the annexatica of a new Province like Fiji or New Guinea. While such con- tinues to be the order of Parliamentary business, it is evident that the additions of Colonial questions, backed by a Colonial brigade, with all the accompanying party complications, would be an impossibility. The Parlia- mentary back, already bent double by overwork, would break with the weight of this additional liair. 1 HON. WILLIAM POX. 23 However, get rid of all tliis crusliing accumulation of work by limiting the Imperial Parliament to matters of a purely Imperial character, and handing over all merely local matters to local Parliaments, as is already done in respect of the Colonies, and you make way for the possibility of Colonial representation in this great Imperial Parliament. It is not for me to suggest how this great problem is to be worked out. If it is the right thing to be done, there must be some conceivable way of doing it. It is happily not a new idea to either English statesmen or English philosophers. Mr. Cobden, it is well known, had ideas on the subject. Mr. Trevelyan's county household suffrage would be a step in the direction of such a change, and make it possible. And let mo refer you to a lecture delivered in the Manchester Athcnieum on Octouer 17 last, by Professor Newman,' in which he pro- poses the reorganisation of English institutions on this very basis. You will find the whole question of local Parliaments and Imperial limitation to Imperial interests exhaustively treated by this very able and distinguished lecturer. Curiously enough, the Professor has not ad- verted to the bearings of the proposed reform on Colo- nial communities, but they are clearly included in the principles of his suggested system, and would easily fit in with the details, so far as he enters into them. The conclusion I have arrived at is, that at present there is a practical impediment to the introduction of * Publislu'd by J. Ilcywood, Manchester, and I. Pitman, Paternoster Row, price Id. 24 IMPERIAL FEDERATION. '1 Colonial representatives into the British Parliament ; and that even if they were there, they could, in the present condition of Parliamentary business, do no good what- ever for the Colonies they might represent. To use a common phrase, they would be mere ' chips in porridge,' and their presence unproductive of any good. Some features of Parliamentary party action might suggest that they would be worse than useless, and in many cases I believe they would prove so. Speaking as a Colonist, I would rather not be represented in the British Parliament as it is ; and I think this is a very general feeling among Colonists, who look at the question, not from a philosophical, but from the ' cui bono ' point of view. I may be asked how far my approval of the consti- tutional change suggested by Professor Newman is con- sistent with the action of the New Zealand community at this moment. We in that colony received upwards of twenty years ago a constitution which provided botli a general and provincial Parliament, and we are at this moment abolishing the latter, apparently reverting to the position of Great Britain and her single Parliament, on the ground that experience has decided that the pro- vincial Parhaments are a failure. I could give you many reasons to show that the analogy between the two cases is not complete ; but there is no necessity for me to argue it now. I may observe, however, that what has led up to the change has been chiefly a fundamental defect in the machinery of our r-)nsti- tution. Special jurisdiction was given to the general Legislature over thirteen subjects of a federal char- IIOX. WILLIAM FOX. 25 acter, aud the provincial Parliaments were debarred from touching these. But the general Legislature was luifortunately not debaned from meddling with pro- vincial interests ; on the contrary, a concurrent and over- riding jurisdiction was given to it over all provincial questions. This fatal blot was ' spotted * by Mr. Glad- stone in his very able speech on the second reading of our Constitution Act of 1 852, and he declared that this feature of it would be productive of ' uncertainty, con- flict, and confusion.' It has proved so, and has led to the gradual usurpation of provincial functions by the general Legislature, and finally to the abolition of the former on the ground that there was nothing left for them to do. At present I think that, under the circum- stances, the course pursued is the right one ; though I do not feel at all sure that the day may not come when, if our Parliament is as over-burdened with local work as that of Great Britain is, we may not find it necessary to decentralise again. In the meantime it must be borne in mind that a very large amount of local machinery is being substituted for the provincial Parliaments in the shape of local Eoad Boards, Education Boards, and other bodies of a municipal character. December 26. 26 IMPERIAL FEDERATION. LETTER VI. From the DUKE OF MANCHESTER. Colonies entitled to a share in directing the Policy of the Em- pire WHEN THEIR INTERESTS ARE AFFECTED ; TO BK ACCOMI'LISHED BY INAUGURATINQ A NeW CHAMBER IN WHICH THE UNITED KINGDOM AND Colonies should be repre.^knted in due troportions — Privy Council Scheme — Colonial Representatives in the House of CoMMors — Both equally objectionable — Power to tax for Imperial, not Local purposes. ALLOW me to make some remarks on Mr. Fox's letter in your issue of the 24th. It seems to me that he misunderstands Mr. Young. I Lave no further right to speak on Mr. Young's behalf than from my belief that his opinion and mine on the subject of Imperial Federation are, if not identical, pretty nearly so. But I will not .take the liberty of speaking for him. I prefer to state my own views. Before I joined the Eoyal Colonial Institute I had long held the opinion that the Colonies were entitled to a share in directing the policy of the Empire in any questions which affected their interests. I think all the members of the Institute admitted the right. But there was great diversity of opinion as to how the right was to be exercised. Our lute most respected Secretary advo- cated the appointment of representatives of the Colonies to the Privy Council. My objection to that was, that it waS DUKE OF MANCHESTER. 27 perfectly optional to the Minister of tlie day whether he should or should not ask tlie advice of members of tlic Privy Council. Others advocated that whii'h Mr. Fox deprecates — namely, representatives of the Colonics in the Commons House of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. But I think Mr. Fox is in error in supposing that Mr. Young is in favour of such an arrangement. For my part, I have for years thought it as objectionable as the Privy Council scheme. It is not likely that the United Kingdom v^ould sacrifice constituencies in its own area to admit representatives from beyond the seas. Its assembly is already too large for the chamber in which it sits. And if representatives of the Colonies were ad- mitted, it could be only in such small numbers that their influence would be absolutely a negative quantity unless they organised themselves into a band of obstructives. We may easily imagine what sympathy there would be for the Colonies if their renresentatives adopted that course. I hold that the only practicable scheme is to inaugu- rate a new Chamber in which the United Kingdom and the Colonies should be represented in due proportions. It is not at present necessary to decide how those propor- tions are to be calculated. I also think it unnecessary to go to the Parliament of the United Kingdom asking them to sanction a scheme for a Legislature superseding it. I should say that the best policy would be to suggest a body of representatives from the Colonies to advise the Secre- tary for the Colonies. You will ask, ' What security is there that the Colonial Secretary would ever consult such 28 IMPERIAL FEDERATION. a council ? or tliat, if he did consult it, he would act on their advice ? ' I ask, in return, how the House of Com- mons obtained its power. It was at first summoned to advise. It acquired its supremacy by voting money. I say, therefore, let us first get a Council to advise the Colonial Secretary. There is such a Council in the India Office, but it is not representative, and cannot vote money, therefore it has no power. Then let the Colonies vote subsidies for naval and military purposes, and their voice in the government of the Empire would be in proportion to the subsidies they vote. The number of their repre- sentatives might be in proportion to the amount of their subsidies, but that would be of little importance ; for I think you will admit that £ s. d. would carry the day. Perhaps the Colonies are not at present prepared to vote money. But the day may arrive when they will be willing to do so. In the meantime, if we have organised a Coun- cil such as I describe, the Colonies would have the means of regulating the expenditure «^f any supplies they might vote. Decentber 27. i FREDERICK YOLiVO. 29 LETTER VII. Frovi FREDERICK YOUNG. DoKE OF Manchester — Colonial Repbesentaiives in English Parliament — New Imperial Parliament — Comprehensive Scheme of Federation — Lord Derby at Euinburoh — Change OF Colonial Policy extraordinary— Dreamers and Doctkinaires — Inexpediency of givino details of any plan of Impeuia.. Federation — Necessary to look forward — Federation already thought of in the Colonies — Ultimate grand ideal suggested. IN his letter of the 27tli ult., the Duke of Manchester has added an interesting and vahiable contribution to the discussion of the question of Imperial Federation. I am glad to be able to confirm his Grace's belief that his opinion and my own on this subject are * pretty nearly identical.' I certainly do not think t.iat any arrangement for the introduction of representatives from the Colonies into our Parliament, as at present constituted, would answer at all. The Duke himself supplies the best possi- ble reasons, to my mind, why such a plan would never be likely to succeed. Colonial representatives could only be admitted into the existing English Parliament in propor- tions so limited that they would never have the influence in it, to which they would expect to be entitled ; and besides, they would have to deal with a multitude of sub- jects, with which they would have no direct concern, and 30 IMPERIAL FEDERATIOX. in wliicli tliey would feel no interest. Colonial represen- tation can never, I am satisfied, be successful in this direc- tion. Federation, on the thoroughly broad basis of the construction of a new Imperial Parliament, containing representatives in equitable proportion from every part of our Home and C( inial Empire to manage and settle Im- perial questions, is the only one which would satisfy the just requirements of the Colonies, and meet the erqiecta- tions of the English people, scattered over the wide expanse of oJ many regions of the globe. This would be a representative system in which they all fairly par- ticipated. Such a Federation would bind the British Empire into a union which might be indissoluble. That such a Federation is not at all impracticable, I and others have already endeavoured to show. The conception of a scheme so comprehensive and so grand, is one which, to shallow and timid thinkers, appears chimerical ; while to those who, in watching the progress of mundane afiairs, are content to accept the dogma of the development of ' drift,' it seems Utopian to endeavour to anticipate and to suggest plans of far-reaching policy. They prefer the narrower line of living fiom ' hand to mouth,' and trusting to events, into the causes of which they have not troubled themselves to enquire, to bring about what results they may. But if they took the pains to look deeper, and examine more closely, they would find that many of the greatest successes which have been brought about in our own political history have been the result of the lucubrations of those whom practical men afterwards, doing only what was before them to do, with- FREDERICK YOUXO. 31 out perceiving the results they themselves were hel[)ing to bring nbout, would call rlaionaries and dreamers. Lord Derby, in a recent speech at Edinburgh, made some remarks in reference to the relations of England and her Colonies. In them wo have the characteristic utterances of our present frigid, philosophic Foreign Sec- retary. His Lordship evidently is one of those who think there is no practical use in trying to look far into futurity, when we are dealing with the relations which ought to subsist between this country and such communities as Australia and Canada. He has no faith in any political machinery, however ingenious, for the maintenance of the cordial relations which we wish to preserve. But he does not appear to consider, that confidence in the practical attainment of all those things, which in his estimation — as in ours — would go far to prevent a wish for separation growing up in any of our Colonies, is only hkely to be found in*lheir sentiments, wishes, and interests being thoroughly known — and above all, their reciprocal power with the mother-country recognised — by means of direct participation in Imperial representation. One of the most curious remarks in Lord Derby's address in connection with this subject, is his allusion to the change in regard to Colonial policy, which, within the last twenty-five years has been, as he says, ' extraordinary,* For years after he entered Parliament in 1849, he admits, that the doctrine which found most favour was, ' that a Colonial Empire added nothing to real strength, involved needless expense, and increased liability to war.' But, continues his lordship, * now everybody is for holding the 32 IMl'KKIAI. FEDERATIOX. ^-'olonies wc liavo got, iind " many people are in favour of finding new ones." * Is it possible he Ims fiiiled to recognise tlit; cause which has produced this change of public opinion ? There can be no doubt that it is tlie resuH of the earnest and persistent dissemination of the views of those 'dreamers,' who, in direct antagonism to the doctrinaires of a quasi-economic school — previously spreading the ideas of a plausible but ni^se ])hilosophy among the leaders of public opinion in this country — combated iheir imsoimd theories, and eflectually turned the current of national sentiment into the more true and patriotic channel in which it now happily flows. If the^ had neglected to look forwnrd, and had been content to let things slide, the pernicious doctrines previously promul- gated would perhaps have taken deep and abiding root ; and instead of the loyal love we all, in the mother- countx'y and Colonies, feel for one anotlier, the det»istable doctrine of disintegration would have grown and ilourished, till at last It might have end'.'d :n producing the separation, we will now hope, may perhaps for ever be averted. Let me add a few words as to the inexpediency of at present propounding many details of any plan of Im- perial Federation. It seems to me to be unwise to do so. In bringing before the public any scheme so vast, it is necessary to give some outline of what is sought to be accomphshed ; but the great thing, after all, is to familia- rise the public mind with the idea, and to induce its being thoroughly thought out, so ay to obtain the conviciioa of the desirability of its being effected. When once the I'KKDKRICK VoUNO. 33 correctncsH()t'tlK'|)riiu'i|)li' is ailiiiittod, the iiK'iuisofcany- ijig it out will 1)1' sure to follow. Unlil Lord Derby, who is content iMissively to watcl* and wait whatever develo|)in('nt liini; may bring, I do think it necessary to look forward, so that progress may be made in the direction, ami on the lines, which many of us think are necessary, in order that the greatness of our common country may continue to increase, and be preserved. I appeal, therefore, to my fellow-countryuio:!, — equally to those at home, .is in the Colonies, — calndy, and fairly, and especially without jealousy or prejudice, to aid in the solution of one of the grandest problems which can be submitted to them, by earnestly and temperately directing their attention to the attainment of an object which must conduce to their own security and prosperity, by strengthening the power of the great Empire to which they have the honour to belong. Federation is a thought which has already taken possession of men's minds, and is moulding itself into practical shape. It is being adopted by other nations. In our own dominions Canada has already federated. South Africa is actually engaged in seriously C()ntem[)lat- ing it, with every prospect of ultimate success. The same question is also becoming one of current politics, ripening for solution, in our Australian Colonics. We would, however, remind our Transatlantic and Antipodean fellow-countrymen that, advantageous, as we admit, is the idea of their grouping themselves together in the bonds of these various Federations, there is, among some of us, a yet far more advantageous and a better and D 34 IMPKRIAL FEDERATIO??. nol)l('r conception still. It ih this — that the Federal Unions which are being gradually founded may culminate in the grand ideal of a national political column being raised, the crowning of whose ' capital,* in the fulness of time may be the establishment of Imperial Federation. January 20, 1870. .. LETTER VIII. Frovi the Hon. WILLIAM FOX. Agreement with Mr. Young — Views identical — Both relieve THAT FeDKRATION WOULD HE A GOOD THING — DUKE OP MANCHESTER'S Council op Advice — Colonists would not agree to it — Fundamental Change in the character of Parliament necessary to prepare the way for Federation. ABSENCE from my temporary home prevented my seeing the letter of his Grace the Duke of Man- chester in your paper of the 8th ult. His Grace thinks that I have misunderstood Mr. Young, In this I think he is in error. Mr. Young and myself are quite agreed. We both believe that Federation would be a good thing, but not in the form of representation in the British Parlia- ment, constituted as it 7iow is. We both consider Federa- tion as only possible when the Parliament shall have been HO.V. WILUAM FOX. 85 relieved of imieh of its purely l lent jurisdictions were welded into a Union of States, and a subsequent homogeneity of national repre- sentation.' Because I happen to have been born in Middlesex, I am not necessarily proud of my county, but I am proud of my country, and I glory in the thought of being able to call myself a Briton. This is the sentiment I desire all my countrymen to feel, whether they are Transatlantic, or Antipodean born, equally with myself, and this alone was the idea which prompted the sugges- tion I made. I have from the first endeavou^-ed to proclaim most em[)hatically to my countrymen in the Colonies that my views induce me to recognise in the widest sense their perfect indc^:endence and freedom from tutelage to the mother-country. The Imperial partnership I so ardently desire to see effected, must, in my opinion, be promoted on terms of perfect equality. This is the only ground on which I base my case. That so distinguished an authority as Mr. Fox should admit that he concurs in my conclusion, although he demurs to what he considers — erroneously as I have shown — my premise, is as important in the discussion of this great question, as it is satisfactory to me that he should say, with the Duke of Manchester, ' Our views, I believe, are identical.' I now proceed to notice the letter of the ' anonymous ' correspondent who appears in your columns under the weighty and authoritative signature of ' Colouus.' I could certainly have wished he had added to the confi- I 4 FREDERICK YOUNG. 41 dence he claims to be given to his opinions, from the unnouncement of the fact of his ' having pai^wl the best part of his hfe in Austraha,' by hfting the veil of his anonyme, and allowing us to know his real name. We should be better able to judge the worth of his views and of his colonial experience, more especially when they are opposed to those of an eminent representative colonist like Mr. Fox. However, taking him as he is, albeit with his vizor down, I am not afraid to enter into the lists, and endeavour to break a friendly lance with him. Your correspondent, T am glad to see, commences his letter by saying ' No doubt the idea is admirable.' This I consider to be a most satisfactory admission. If we can only get the British people, at home and in the Colonies, to admit this much, a really important step will be gained in the solution of the question of Imperial Federation. But I am soon at issue with my opponent. He asks if the ' admirable idea ' is practicable, and then curtly answers his own question by the short and dogmatic answer, ' I fear not.' To this, on the contrary, backed in my opinion by Mr. Fox, I reply, if the problem is so ' admirable ' — if it is, in fact, the right thing to be done — there must be some conceivable way of doing it. ' Colonus ' considers he has put forward an unanswer- able challenge when he goes on to say, ' No Colony has asked for it ' ; and then in his favourite style of answering his own question, before others have had an opportunity of replying to him, he at once adds, ' if offered, I believe none would accept it.' Here I would remark that it would be perfectly preposterous to expect, that such a 42 IMPERIAL FEDERATION. proposal as Imperial Federation should emanate from the Colonies. The conception of such a bold enlargement and complete change in the British Constitution must originate with the mother-country, and be laid before the Colonies as a plan of inestimable benefit and blessing to the outlying portions of the Empire. It could never be expected, in the nature of things, to be started by the Colonies themselves. The opinion of ' Colonus ' is merely an individual one, as to whether, or not, if offered, they would accept it, which he gives no evidence whatever to justify. Again, we are tersely asked to affirm, that only two matters of Imperial legislation exist — namely ' peace and war,' and ' postal cx)mmunication.' I am surprised that the fertile brain of ' Colonus,' who appears to be very fond of the use of the favourite question ' Cui bono,' by which the cynic and the supine endeavour to extinguisn the consideration of every plan of hiunan progress and improvement, should fancy that those who differ from him axe likely to limit the functions of Imperial legislation only to those two matters, vitally important as they are — and most especially ihe former — to the destinies of every civilised nation. However, let me remind him seriously that he is utterly and inconceivably in error in suggesting, as he does, that such a question as that of peace or war * may not arise twice in a centiu-y.' Why, have we not proofs out of number, even without being able to penetrate into the archives, or to be cognisant of the State secrets of our Ministry for Foreign Affairs, that such questions, far from being those which might only arise ' twice in a PREDK.RICK YOUNG. 43 century,' more probably are in perilous proximity to the nation at least ' twice in a year ' ? Moreover, I assert, in entire opposition to the con- tracted, insular, and provincial viewsof 'Colonus,' who asks, with apparently triumphant cynicism, ' Would England endure that Colonial votes should drag her into a war, or would she allow her hands to be tied, if her honour were outraged?' that under the new Imperial Constitution I desire to see established for the whole British Empire, no such distinction could possibly aiise between England and her Colonies. Their interests would be identically the same. What touched the honour of one woidd equally affect the honour of the other. The sympathies, the iutere&.,s, the feelings of all would be bound up to- gether. Their sentiments would be clearly expressed by a system of direct and just Parliamentary representation. The Empire would be, in fact, one, equal, and indivisible. The same argument would apply therefore to the question of postal communication. It woidd be the same also with other Imperial questions, although all others are eliminated from the category, which ' Colonus ' has laid down, but which might probably find a place in my own programme, as properly and legitimately belonging to them. With regard to the proposition of a Council of Advice, which appears to find such favoiu* with ' Colonus,' and with which he seems to be so much fascinated as to devote to it no inconsiderable portion of his letter, I am fortimately spared the necessity of replying to him, as Mr. Fox has already by anticipation, so fully and ad- mirably shown that such a plan woidd completely fail. I 44 IMPERIAL FKDERATIOX. as it would never be acce[)te(l by Colonists, who would not attach the slightest value to it. Having already expressed my views as to the inexpediency of lisc.issing the details of pry plan of Imperial Fi_ . 'a' , until the principle of so vast a scheme has bt. t: his. ^ed and thoroughly recognised by the British peo^. I ut'^l'ie to be drawn into answering the questions put forwiua by ' Colonus/ — shrouded, as he is, in the security of his anony- mous irresponsibility, — on the subject of the Constitution, of the proposed Imperial Parliament. When the proper time arrives, plans of detail, more or less worthy of merit, and likely to prove acceptable, will be put forward, for the purpose of making a Constitution of such grandeur and importance to the whole Empire fitly workable. But these are matters requiring the highest exercise of statesmanship, as well as the most devoted patriotism. Some of us may dready have formed the outline of embryo plans, and have some crude ideas on this noble and lofty subject ; but in my judgment such things should be relegated to the future, imtil they have found a favourable place in the brains of other men, more apt at framing Constitutions, fitted to endure, than either ' Colonus ' or myself. February 16. '^^JWh ' COLON us.' 45 LETTER XI From ' COLONUS; Federation of adjacent Colonies — Competition — Rival scremes^ Railways and TELEaBAPiiic Lines — Immigration — Protection, AND Free Trade — Difficulties of Colonial Legislation — Sir W. F. Stawell on Federation. IN a recent letter I pointed out some of the practical difficulties attending an Imperial Federation, em- bracing the United Kingdom and the several British Colonies. The question of the Federation of a group of adjacent Colonies is not open to the same objections. In North America the urgency for such an arrangement was greater than elsewhere. In South Africa such a step seems to be most desirable, and no one can be acquainted with the legislation of the Australian group without seeing the advantage of following so good an example. Local jealousies are bad enough, and may excite the mirth of travellers like Mr. Anthony Trollope, but a systematic rivalry in legislation is of serious and lasting injury. We have seen a competition between New South Wales, Victoria, and South Australia, each trying to frame a land system to attract population from its neighbours. The result, so far, has been a triumph to New South 46 IMPERIAL FEDERATION. WhIc'h, who with her free sdocfion has outbid her sisters, and tempted considerai)le numbers to leave Victoria and transfer themselves and their property to the former. Victoria had tried a similar game with mucli success in attracting settlers from South Australia. These rival schemes, which involve the squandering of the National Domains, the Crown Lands, alienated at half their saleable value, on vicious principles, have all proved faihu-es. A Federation would at least have secured an uniform system, and prevented this species of Dutch auction between competing rivals. When railways were laid out by each separate Colony no regard was paid to any system, or to general utility. Each seaport looked to its own immediate trade. Even then, lines were too often laid out to i)romote local politi- cal interests, and otherwise were jobbed. A similar want of system has been displayed in the plans for telegraphic lines. Most people are agreed that a healthy stream of immigration is essential to the rapid development of a new country. The cheap and constant communication by sea and land renders it difficult, if not impossible, for any one Colony to take action to relieve its own need, however pressing it may be. If Victoria imported labour, the greater part of it would find its way to Eiverina, where it is in greater demand. South Australia and New Zealand are now trying the experiment, and will spend their money for the benefit of the other Colonies. As soon as the rate of wages is affected in any one Colony, that moment these unsettled immigrants wander elsewhere. / COLONUa. 47 This objection to the WakcfioKl system was owned by the kite Mr. E. Gibbon Wakefield, to the writer of tliia letter, but was never answered. Experience has j)roved what Mr. Wakefield acknowledged, that thero must be simultaneous action on the part of all the group. Can anything be more suicidal than that a system of protection should prevail at Melbourne, whilst Sydney, by establishing free-trade, diverts commerce to her own wharves ? Whichever system is right, clearly it ought to be uniform throughout Australia. The questions of border customs duties, and of an organised and co-operative defence against foreign aggres- sion, and co-operation between the police of the various districts, are at present neglected, but could easily be dealt with by a central Federal Council. Much of the difficulty in conducting Colonial legisla- tion arises from the reluctance of the best men to mix in politics. It may fairly be hoped that, by afibrding a wider sphere for talent and for fame, some might be induced to enter into the arena, and to act on the stirring advice of Sir William Foster Stawell, Chief-Justice of Victoria, who, on a recent occasion, in urging the necessity of Federation, entreated his hearers to drop their local municipal instincts, and ' to become citizens of the world, their own world, at all events.' February 11. 4H IMFKRIAIi FRDKRATIOX. LKTTKH Xir. From • COLONUS.' Voltaire — No differrnce retween Mr. Fox and 'Coi-onus' — Tm- PERIAF. FEDERAnON ADMIRARLE, IF PKArTICABLE — Sill TlIOMAS More's Utopia — British Parliament and Feoeral 'Council' — Foreign War and Postal Communication— Two Ministries — Home Hule — Is India to be represented ? VOLTAIRE considered a sneer to be the best argu- ment. Mr. Young appears to agree with him ; I do not. Being a modest man, and not ambitious of notoriety either by writing in your columns or by speaking at the Royal Colonial Institute, I choose to write under my nam de plume ' Colonus,' with which I am taunted by Mr. Young. I will only reply that I have been an Australian colc^nist of considerable experience, and am not afraid of the friendly joust with him, which he proffers, or even with Mr. Fox, with whose opinion he thinks that he can crush me, but between whom and me I suspect that there will be little real difference. I pre- fer to maintain my position, by reasoning on the merits of the case, and not by the use or the abuse of names, however influential. I freely repeat the admission that the idea of Impe- rial Federation is admirable if practicable, and that its rOLONUS.' 40 (lisrussion at tlio present time nuty l>e useful, wou if for no otiier reason fliaii that it allords a proof to our fellow- eoiuitrj-nu'ii in the Colonies of the sympathy ami interest which is felt for them in Enj/Iand. I denuu' to Mr. Young's conclusion that, ' if an idea is i;oo the Mothkii-Countuy — Rkvolution of feklino — MuraL fokce — Fedkkation movement advancing in the Colonies — A oijandki! Fedehation still— Time not come for devising EXACT I'LAV — jNFi,UL.N(i; OF A (iRKAT WAI£ — SlZE A FKOMOTEK OF UiMTY — How THE SUPREME I'UOIiLE.M IS TO BE SOLVED. I WE are liviiij^ in the iiiid^t of u noble arousing of national feeling. Tlie i)eo[)le of England have wakened up to a vivid conseiousness that they possess or rather that they constitute a great Ein})ire. The response made to the act of the CTovernnient in purchasing the shares in the Suez Canal has been rai almost unanimous response of delighted enthusiasm. For many a long year the high s[)irit of the English people has been persistently dulled down by its Government into i^rgetting that it had any interest, beyond those of commerce and making j)rofits beyond the coasts of the United Kingdom. The sentiment that we were a great people, bound by duty, (pialihed by sli'cngth, and inn)elled by the sense that Provi- dence had given us a field of action which it conceiiied our self-respect and our hap])iness to})lay a great part in, lay dormant in the breasts of most Englishmen. Almost, '* IMPERIALIST. r)3 we had readied tlie depfcli of supposing that after all wo were only, as the first Napoleon called us, a nation of shopkeepers. The boldness and decision of the (Tovern- inent in purehasiiiiLr an interest in the Su(v Canal, in the face of all Europe, without asking anyone's leave, or en- quiring what he might think of it, has spread the uni- versal feeling that we are awaking out of a bad dream. The delighted pco[)le have seen the glorious truth shining in the blaze of the recognition bv the whole world that England after all is as strong, and above all, as high- spirited as ever, and their heart-' have been stirred within them that they are, what the noble history of their fathers revealed at every time. Englishmen. But though great was the merit of the Government, and wonderful its effects, we must not leave the public feeling wholly out of account, or deprive it of its due of the general praise. It would be a mistake to suppose that the thought of India alone was present to the public irind when it heard that the great highway had been secured tor perpetual intercommunication. The ])roces3 of shaking off the general drowsiness had already com- menced for some time prcAiously, and had made the most marked advance. The revolution of feeling as to the real relation which the Colonies bore to the mother- country was something yet stronger and more memorable than the decisive act of the foreign policy of the Government. The transition, from the artificial and conceited notion that the Colonies were children who had obtained their majority, and being good only for trade, had better relieve the old mother's household of m m m '•1 M 54 IMPKivIAL FEDERATION. tb'^ expense of their keep, to the natural and real conviction tliat they were members of the same family, limbs i>f the same coimtr}', had establislietl itself in public opinion before the conspicuous action of Mr. Disraeli. That act, I am firmly persuaded, was itself in a Jegree an emanation from the movements which were surging in the national feeling of Englishmen. The moral force which had scattered to the winds the lazy and low-toned ideas which presented colonists as buyers and sellers of goods onlj', made the thoughts of the country look abroad, and from that moment the perception of the Empire steadily advanced in the public mind. And as the speeches in the House of Commons have shown, the country forced into the discussion of the Canal, associations other than piu'ely Indian, and which were entitled to equal weight. The same wave of feeling passed over the ColorJes ; all the members of the one body politic sympathised Viit-i each other ; what surer sign could there be that they a»' * one and the same people ? This movement of soul fintis its expression at this hour in the idea of Federation. The actual luiity of fact does not satisfy the sentiment of brotherhood, so vividly acting in tlie mind. The con- necting links of the several parts are seen to be too weak, too inadequately constructed, and the unity of the whole State is not realised in sufficientlj'^ visible form. Stronger and better devised organisms are now known to be needed, anfl the thoughts of n.^any able and statesmaulilce men are directed to i]:c developing of })olitical machinery capable of performing the wori: which the soul-stirring 1 IMPKRIALIST. 55 conception of a British Empire summons tiiem to execute. FeLleration divides itself into two distinct parts — firstly, organic connection of the several colonial connnuiiitii"i into large provinces or dominions, and secondly, a closer cohesion and unification of the provinces with the centre. I cannot doubt that the first class of Federation must have a general precedence in time — and for this decisive reason. The several branches or limbs of the colonial group, in size and developed importance, are on a level more or less with each other ; they thus have acquired a very natural tendency, arising, not out of sentiment only, but also out of the realities of their position, to run into fusion. Still more — and this is a force of great power and importance — they have generated common wants which union with their immediate neighbours is be^^t adapted to satisfy. Their general cpndition is more uniform than that of England with respect to the Colonies. Their Legislatures are occupied with the same general character of business ; they are not encumbered with those endless questions and difficulties which an old coimtry, resting so strongly on habit and tradition as England does, perpetu- ates in ancient institutions. So the Federation movement is advancing in the Colonies. Canada achieved a great Dominion not long since, whilst the conflicts of interest and feeling which the solution of the arduous problem created, furnished a grand political education to all its members. They learned the neces^sity and excellence of the most characteristic of English virtues — comjn'omise. South Africa is engaged in the same Iiealthful and M m m I I m 50 IMPimrAL FEDERATION. beneficial struggle. The foreign element renders the foniplicatioiis more emburrassing ; yet it cannot be doubted, if the position of the Dutch Republics is studied, that their fusion with their English neighbours is a work of time only. We are thus led up to the gi'ander Federation — that with the mother-country — a theme opened as far back as November the 24th, and handled with great ability and earnestness by M\'. Young, the energetic Honorary Secre- tary of the Hoy".] Colonial Institute. I own to a feeling that the accomplishment, or even the taking up of this problem as a matter of business is still premature. To keep it before the mind always — lo cherish a passionate desire for its achievement ; to watch every oppoitunity of moving it a step forward ; to look -ibout for every link wliicli may be worked into the final chain ; to study it with especial reference to historical teaching and the peculiarities of the respective positions on both sides — are duties as full of pleasure as they are of importance. But I cannot get rid of the conviction that to devise beforehand, by the help of theory and general ideas, the exact organisation which will serve the great purpose, is a course wl jch 'vill not bring success. Connections and cohesions which grow out of real and specific wants are the true stones wherewith to construct the building. As the Duke of Manchester has so admirably pointed out, the power of the mightiest element in the British Constitution, the House of Commons, had its origin in the want of money felt by the Crown. This was a practical fact ; and nothing, all the world over, is more practical and impi:ri.\li3t. at 1 more real than tlienou>;o of Commons. As the dominions nniUiply and '.v:>.x stroii;i;er, they will have qne^'ions to debate with Eniiland, which will call for jj;ri'at skill to overcome dilficulties. Each victory won, paves the way for greater triumphs. I entertain no donbt that the strnggle which n'e have hitely witnessed in South Africa will nltimately end in drawing that great Colony nuich more closely to the mother-country. So it lias been with such fights in England ; so it will be in the broad acres of the whole Empire. No plan, as it seems to me, Inis yet been shaped which it is ad\isable to put forward at once, as sure t(3 bring us to t!ie desired goal. A gre;. war would advance the cause mightily ; for then common wants would instantly arise, to be met only by joint organisation. The Mutiny — de})lorablo as it was — greatly consohdated the British Em})ire in ludia. Si;ce is obvi- ously a most efficient promoter of unity , fm' the sense of a great Colony will awaken many a thoughtful English- man to the value of solid fusion. I am far from desiring to cool the ardour of the patriotic and gifted men who are labouring on tliis su- preme problem ; all I deprecate is the expectation that it can be solved otherwise than l,»y the innumerable wants, the manifold situati(3ns, the growth of powerful feelings, which distinguish man's social and moral nature in this world. March 2. 53 iMri:RiAL Fi:nr.nATiox. J^/rTER XIV. From the DUKE OF MANCHESTER. India and rkprksentation for Bnnisii race only — What work tub federaii councii, is to ho — relations op ministerh — dlstinct Dki'Artments— Some hkki-onsiiile to Pahi.iament of the United KlNCiDOM, OTHERS TO FeDEUAL COUNCIL. ALLOW me to ofTcr a few remarks in reply to tlie letter of ' Colonus.' One of his objections to a ' Federal Council ' is that the cliiim of India to representation in it would make its numbers unwieldy. I do not see that India must neces- sarily be represented in a gran. I coimcil of the British race. I think it is only British communities that have a po.sitive claim to such representation. Wlien we are satisfied that the Indian races are sufficiently identified in feeling and national sentiment with us, it may be wise to give them a share in the government of the Empire. But at present the system of government in that country is more that of a dependency, and consequently a posses- sion of every man who is British-born, wherever he may reside, so long as he is a British subject. When he throws off his allegiance he, of course, resigns his claims. ' Colonus ' sees very little that a Federal Council could do. I certainly do not supi)ose that its advocates DUKE OF MA.\cin:.sTi:n. 60 consider tliat it oiiglit to deal witli local taxation, railway and gas Bills, waterworks, smoke consuni[>t''>ii, and sueli like ; or even compulsory education, Parliamentary repre- sentation, and matters of that higher class. But every Englishman, wherever he lives, is interested, not only in questions of peace and war, as ' Colonus ' admits, but also in all treaties with foreign Powers, whether as regards customs' duties, guarantees of neutrality, or of the cession or retention of Imperial territory. But if they arc all equally interested in these questions, whether they reside in the British Islands, in the Dominion of Canada, in Australasia, or in South Africa, they ought to be consulted before decisions are come to on those points ; and the best way of consulting them is to assemble their repre- sentatives at some convenient point. Their numbers need not be very great, for the factors, or constituencies, would, no doubt, be the groups into which the Colonies are geographically divided. ' Colonus ' is sorely exercised about the relations between the Ministers and such a Federal Council. To what Ministry does he allude ? The Ministers of the United Kingdom would, of course, be dependent on the support of the Parliament of West- minster. The Federal Council would have no relations with the Home Secretary, the Chancellor of the Exche- quer, or the Secretary for War. There would be no need of a Foreign Secretary for the United Kingdom, for ' Colonus ' admits that foreign policy would be dealt with by the Federal Council, and its Committee or Secretary would administer it. The Chancellor of the Exchequer i Ml it : i GO lAIPKRIAL FEDKRATION. would still liiive to deal with the inconu; and cxpciidifiire of the United Kingdom, paying over such sums as might be required for the Im])erial expenditure. There nnist Hi ill be a War Minister for the United Kingdom to look after the local forces and tlie contingent to be furnished to the Imperial arnjy. A somewhat similar arrangement would j)robably be found ad\is:d)lefor the navy. And so on with respect to other department?. These Ministers of the United Kinudom would be responsible to the rarliament of the United Kingdom ; Avhile Ministers who had to deal with ]nij)erial questions, or had charge of Imixrial funds, would be responsil)le to the Federal Council. And I think they would find enough to occui)y their time and their ability. March 11. FllEUEUleK YOLXU. Gl LETTER XV. From KKEDKUICK YUUNG. Momentous issues op iMrKiUAi. ruDEKATiOM — A nom dk pi.umk — Loud Ansun— Ai2.5 |22 1.4 ^, '/ Photographic Sciences Corporation 23 WEST MAIN STREET WEBSTER, N.Y. MS80 (716) 872-4503 ^ ^.^i^ V* F.ly entails on him the disadvantage, always attaching to the unknown, of having the weight of his opinions challenged and doubted, for they may be only those of one, of whom, with all his boasted Colonial ex[)ericnce, it might be said, as it was of Lord Anson, that he had ' sailed round the world three times, but never was in it.' ' Colonus ' says he suspects that between Mr. Fox and himself ' there will be httlc real diflerence.' Can there be a more highly satisfactory admission than this to me ? In his letter which appears in your columns of the 5th of February last, Mr. Fox says, ' Mr. Young and myself arc quite agreed ; ' ' Our views are, I believe, identical.' If, therefore, there is little ' real difference ' between Mr. Fox and ' Colonus,' and if Mr. Fox's views and mine ' are identiail,' it logically follows, then, after all, that ' Colonus ' and I are also agreed, in spite of our apparent diver- gencies. I think I have here made a perfectly fair and legiti- mate use of the admissions so naively avoAved by ' Colonus ' in the passage I have quoted. I am bound, however, to add that many of the remarks which he subsequently makes do not at all coincide with the apparently har- monious agreement between us, and are, in fact, entirely contradictory to it. But it is for ' Colonus,' not me, to FREDERICK YOUNG. G3 exi)ljiiii the dilemma in which he hiia uniluubtedly j)lacc'd himself. And now I must once more repeat that the idea of Imperial Federation, such as I have contemplated, is not lit all embraced in the term which ' Colonus ' makes use of, viz., a ' Federal Council.' The thiity years' Colonial experience so highly vaunted by ' Colonus ' may possil)ly have been gained under the shade of the blighting in- tluencc and dull atmosphere of a Crown colony, limiting his ideas to the narrow notions engendered by the neces- sity of regarding all theories of government as primarily proceeding from the traditions of the Ct)lonial Office in Downing Street. Or probably he may have witnessed the beginnings only of one of our great Colonies — those nas- cent nations of the future, before the Constitutions were granted to them, which have given them such free and plenary powers of legislation. My own experience hav- ing been acquired in a freer atmosphere and on a broader platform, I say distinctly I do not desire any of them to abdicate one jot or one tittle of the poAvers already con- ferred u|.on them, by any scheme of Imperial fedenition. The Assembly which ' Colonus ' speaks of, as ' sitting in London,' would not be, as he says, a ' Federal Council,' but, as I assert, an Imperial Parliament. And new let me assure him, he is quite mistaken in thhiking that I have not thought out my subject. It is, however, abundantly clear that ' Colonus ' is incapable of embracing a political idea so vast and grand as the one I have ventured to propound. With pertinacious volubility he asks a variety of questions, which, }7iovi' mo^ he answers 64 IMPERIAL FKDRRATIOy. i in llic same bicntli, supromi'ly, I doubt not, lo his own satisfaction. Tie will, hoAvcver, find, that I have alnady put forward the outlines of a ])lan for an Imperial Parlia- ment — not a ' Federal Council ' — in a distinct and delinife shape. No abdication is there contemplated of any of the ])owers belonjrina to the Colonial Legislatures, any more than the least interference is sue view taken by Mr. (iililxm Wakefield in his ' Art of Coloiiisaliuii.' All I CDnteiid for is, that the .sweets of )K)wer haviti^' been once tasted by the Colonies, they will not consent to surrender them. If .so, there must be iiii end to tlie proposal to eonfederate. Treaties as to the cession of territory no doubt would be legitimate topies ; but, after all, when did Enj^dand ever cede territory except in the instance of the Oran;,'e lliver in South Africa ? No doubt a great mistake was then made, which probably might not have been obviated by a Fedend Council. It is true that a similar step was lately jn'opo.sed by the present Ministry, and was frus- trated by the Im|)erial Parliament as eflectually as it could have been by a Federal Council. I allude, of course, to the pro[)oscd cession of th^ Gambia. Is it essential to guard against a danger which has only occurred once in history, and which is every year less ju'o- bable to occur ? If such a proposal were made, it would interest the j)eoj)le of England much more than the Colo- nists. The trade of the Gambia is more necessary to Manchester than to Canada or Australia. The Imperial Parliament is more interested, less likely to consent, and is a better judg(.' in such a case than a Federal Council would be. Questions of peace and war and foreign treaties are no doubt most imj)ortant ; but surely his Grace need not be reminded that these are not matters for le<]ishition at all ; that they are acts of ])rerogative of the Crown, directed by responsible Ministers ; and that it is only by placing a Foreign Secretary in power who has the confi- 'tULONfS. 87 (U'iR'o t)f tlu' |H'opK' that public opinion iiidiri'ctly <'oiitrols the foivi},Mi |H)licy of the Kmpiri'. Ix't us theirforc coiwitler whether, under the pro|)OM'oN'rs.' 03 read its Iiistory. I coiifoss that I have not read the his- tory of any confederation which presents any aiudogy to what he proposes. The nearest is that of tlio United States ; but tliere tlie federation was tlie result of u war in wliich all were mutually engaged, it took place in the infiincy of the States, and grew with their growth. In its result it has had to be welded t(jgether with an amount of ' blood and iron ' which is not encouragiuf'. Eellecting men think that it cannot last, its over-bidk will break it into at least three divisions, although it is all on one continent, bound together by its noble rivers and gigantic railways. We, on the other hand, are scatteretl over every region of the globe, divided by ' melancholy oceans,' with a sparser population but larger territory. Canada is too recent in its formation to be cited as a proved success, and I entirely decline to accept such a case as that of Austria and Hungary, which has never stood the strain of any disaster. I have already so far trespassed upon your space that I must reserve some observations for another letter. April 13. ;■( 94 IMI'KUIAIi FEDERATION. LETTER XX. From 'A COx\STANT READER.' Unsubstantial APPREHENSIONS of 'Colonus ' — Suujectop Federation TREATED AT I-ENGTU — CONFUSION OE IDEAS — WuONO NAMES — Great inaccuracy — RoYAii Colonial Institute — History of CoNFEDEIiATION NOT STUDIED liY ' CoLONt'S ' — POSSIBLE AND IMPOS- SIBLE Systems — Repudiation of Federal Council — Hope Mb. Young will rest satisfied. HOW the unsiibstantiiil apprehensions of ' Colonus ' must dissolve on the slightest investigation is re- markably exhibited in the following instance. In his last letter he says : — 'All I ever meant by the assertion' — made by him in your colunms on March 4 — about 'the Peerage and Commons of the United Kingdom abdicating their functions,' and ' the Colonial Legislatures doing the same,' is that ' the management of common defences, and necessarily of foreign policy, certainly does involve an ab- dication of some of the rights of the Eiifrlish Parliament.' Instead of the sweeping assertion about abdicating ' their functions,' his mild expression now is ' some of the rights.' Does ' Colonus,' in his innocence on the subject of Feder- ation, consider such a system possible without the provin- cial Governments consenting to leave the direction of common defences and foreign policy to the Federal Gov- A CONSTANT RKADKR. 05 eniment ; or dou.s ho think thiit iho prt'stiiio of which the provincial ParHameiits would thus bo doprivod would not be more than adequately compensated lor by the j^roatly increased security and diminished cost which would bo ensured to all the communities which should have the wisdom to enter into such a system of coo})erative de- fence ? We are told that ' the sweets of power having been once tasted by the Colonies, they will not consent to sur- render them.' Now, how would this be adbctod by the chief questions with which a Confederate govermnent would have to deal ? — foreign relations and common do- fence. As to the former, the Coloiues have never yet tasted ' the sweets of power,' and can never do so until admitted to participate in the management of Imperial afiliirs by means of Confederation or, by becoming com- pletely independent, being obliged at a great cost to establish diplomatic relations with foreign states. Neither liave the Colonies yet tasted the sweets of power in res- pect to defence, and it will be long before they can do so if they assume positions of isolation as independent nations beside such great rising powers as the United States and Russia. Their customs duties need be no more affected by treaties made by a Federal Government than they now are by the existing treaties of the Imperial Government, and their rights to manage their own provin- cial fiscal arrangements as they i)lease might easily be reserved by the Federal Constitution ; which even if it only gave very limited powers of taxation to the Federal Parliament, would still enable it to raise, from such vast 'ill 96 impkhfal fkdkratiox. nnd weallliy dominions as tlmso of our Empire, amj)lc revenues for all Imperial purposes. 'Colonus' has not only a])proanlie(l this question with a confusion of ideas, but insists on diseussinj; it with a confusion of terms. lie will call things by their wroti (U'clinin;^ nil discnssion of vital prin- ciples on tlio (ground that tJK'y arc 'details.' Surely the (piestions wiiether a dual government can last, whether an {rnpt'riinn in iniperio can be tolerated in a w»'ll ordered state, are vital |)rinciples. Whether it W(»uld be possible to persuade the I'jiglish and Colonial I'ailianients t(» cede certain })orti()ns of their present functions, and whether the best Colonists would be sent to the Federal Council arc points of iin[K>rtance on which the whoh; argunu>nt rests. What powers the Federal Council should possess is a question of detail I admit, but only i'l tlie sense in ■which wheels are details of a (;oach — if anything goes wrong with them the whole upsets. Public opinion at home and abroad now-a-days always asserts its pov/er. Much, therefore, would depend on the composition of the Federal Council and on the weight which therefore would be attached to its deliberation. Mr. Yoimg says nothing as to what men in England would prefer its arena to that of their own Parliament, but be- lieves that the best Colonists would ofTer themselves as candidates (I doubt it), but he gives no reason whatever for supposing that they would be elected, to which subject I shall return. lie supports his view by the example of the United States selecting good men as their Ministers at the Court of St. James. The telegrams of the last few days as to Mr. Dana's appointment show that the best man ia not always sent, and that this is made a party question at i ^1 I. i. Il^i 102 IMPERIAL FEDERATION. <.!■ 1 f V: Wsishington. I cheerfully admit, however, that as a rule they have been, but how he draws the inference that be- cause a comparatively old country, with 30,000,000 in- habitants, can And one man to go for a fixed period at a good salary to one of the most dignified positions in the world — ergo, that a new colony, with less than a million inhabitants (and no colony except Canada has so large a population), can find a number of eligible men to go round the world annually, at their own expense, to a post of (I fear) little dignity, I do not see. Nor do I see how the other example he cites is more to the purpose — namely, that various Colonies have sent home efficient agents. Sometimes it has not been found easy to find even one man fit for the enviable and w^ell- paid post, and Englishmen have been appointed, as in the instances of Mr. Jenkins and Mr. Childers, and others. The facts that patriotic volunteers have not offered them- selves to spend and be spent for their country, that no agent has, I believe, ever yet filled the office for more than a very few years, all seem to me to point to the very reverse as the conclusion which logically follows from this experience. But granting, for the sake of argument, that numbers of the best men would aspire to political distinc- tion, I must add, even at the risk of being called to ac- count for discussing a detail, how are these members to be f'locted, as on this everything would depend. Are they to be elected by the existing constituencies ? If so, what possible ground is there for hope that they would elect a different class from that which now disgraces some of our local Parliaments ? Or are they to be elected by ' COLON us.' 103 1 these Ptirliiinients ? If so, tliey would certainly select from their own body or from some similar set. Mr. Young merely says that he ' has no anxiety about it ; ' I have. In your last paper, sir, you gave the gratifying assurance that the ' stonewall ' at Melbourne had finally fallen. Never was there a greater mistake. Friend and foe alike predict the speedy return of Mr. Beny to power, armed with the tremendous gagging power which Sir James Mc Culloch has so rashly given him. I ask in sober sadn».'ss what sort of men would be seLjcted by him and his friends, or by the constituencies which had elected them. It will matter little whether we call the proposed assembly a Federal Council or an Imperial Parliament if men come to it from a House where ' the words tliief, coward, liar, were freely bandied about for several hours, and where two honourable members were only restrained by the violent interposition of their friends from coming to fisticuflfs in the House.' This is only an extract from columns to a similar effect which an'ived by the last mail. It may be replietl that no argument can be derived from these disgraceful scenes at Melbourne that other colonies will be better conducted. Let us charitably hope so, but not be too certain. Of all our colonies, Victoria is the most British in its population, with f'jwest native-born inhabitants ; the richest ; the most concen- trated ; with the largest landed proprietary ; with an excei)tionally h'rgc amount of professional and other edu- cation imported direct from the mother-country. Yet let m itimSSa 104 IMI'KRIAL FEDERATION'. US look at the result, and not forget that human nature is the same all over the globe. Let us remember that every year there is a larger colonial native-born popula- tion growing up, with less British feeling and more con- tracted views. Let us reflect every year, heretofore at least, there has been a deterioration in our legislative assemblies, that already, as in the United States, the best men eschew politics. Am I then unreasonable in doubt- ing whether the best men, unknown to and entrusted by the local constituenci(;s, would be selected by them for the Federal Council ? But, if they are not so elected, what is the inevitable consequence? The Federal Council, although with a legal, will have no real j)ower. Weighed against the Parliament of England, it would kick the beam. I gave two instances in my last letter of measures in the present session in which it was more than probable that collisions would have occurred between the House of Commons and the Federal Council, tl <> latter with superior legal powers in each case, but with no moral support. Since then, a third has cropped up, in which a collision would be all but certain. Marriage with a deceased wife's sister is legalised in several of our Colonies. This is, I should think, an Imperial question, although not included in the proposed pcwei's by anyone, and would pretty certainly be made general by the Federal Council. Thus a system of what is by the majority of Englishmen considered to be grossly immoral, would be forced upon them, against the expressed will of the English Parliament, by the Federal Council, composed of such elements as are, f DUKE OP NfAN'CHKSTKR. 105 r to .my the least, possible, and therefore carrying no moral influence whatever. This letter is already too long, or I could point out another nice enibroglio relative to the North American fisheries and canals mentioned in the 'Times' and ' Standard ' of this week. Apnl 25. i: LETTER XXII. From the DUKE OF MANCHESTER. Hope to see an Imperial Parliament established — Federal Council similar to the Indian Cocncil — The way to it — The Authority acquired by power of voting Money — Special Taxes to be levied fkom the whole Empire — Required AMOUNT TO BE RAISED BY EACH StATE, AS IS FOUND MOST CON- VENIENT. ALLOW me to state, in answer to ' Constant Header' and ' Colonus,' that I do hope to see the establish- ment of an Imperial Parliament. But I am of opinion that the most likely way to obtain it is to ask, in the first instance, only for a Federal Council similar to the Indian Council. I hold that, if such a Council lias the power of I ] ' I *! 106 IMI'KRIAL FEDKRATIOX. voting money, it lias the means of acquiring all the authority of the House of Commons. The fumls of which it might have the disposal could be raised by special taxes, levied in all portions of the Empire ; but I think it would be found more convenient that each State should pay over to the Federal Government its rateable share of the amount voted by the Federal Parliament. The indi- vidual States would then have it in their power to raise the required amount in the manner found most conve- nient. May 1. LETTER XXIII. ' Frmvi 'COLONUS; Apology fob .rfREGCLAR mode of treating the question — Several Correspondents to answer — 'Eight' positions proved — Con- federation OF groups op Colonies a step towards a Con- FEDERATION OP TH'' EjPlRE — MiGHT BE A STEP TOWARDS DIS- RUPTION — CONSI'l ATIVE COUNCIL OF AdVICE RECOMMENDED — Conclusion. IN concluding my letters on this question I should wish to apologise for the discursive, irregular manner in which the matter had to be treated. This necessarily COLONUS. 107 arose from the fact that I had to answer several rorre- gpondents in one letter. It has been my aim to show, and I think that I have shown conclusively : — 1st. That the establishment of this mode of government must involve an abdication of the powers both of the English and Colonial Parliaments to so large an extent, that it was not reasonable to expect that any of these bodies would consent thereto. 2nd, That the only questions which anybody had proposed to give to the Federal Council — namely those of foreign policy and national defence, were those in which the Colonies feel little or no interest — ergo, that their best men would not offer themselves for election. This was fully corroborated at the last meeting of the Royal Colonial Institute by the Duke of Manchester and the Bishop of Melbourne, who both attributed the pohtical difficulties of colonial government to the want of any class with leisure to attend to politics. If that is true of their local Parliaments, d fortiori it would be more impossible to find a similar class to attend to Imperial or Federal affairs. 3rd. That even if good men were found willing to leave their occupations and devote themselves to publict at home or abroad, and would therefore have no moral weight. 6th. That nevertheless the Federal Council would in some respects override the English Parliament, although the latter would be supportcnl by public opinion. 7th. That occasions for collision wouVl not only be probable but certain, and that this dual Government would be intolei'able. Indeed it was scarcely necessary to prove that which is admitted by all — namely that an itiiperium in iniperio is one of the worst of ills. 8th. That this Federal Council must j)ossess taxing powers, but without a particle of power to enforce them, thus rendering a dissolution of the Em[)ire probable, inasmuch as the relations of taxgatheror and taxpayer are Dotahvays amicable, and that t'; Colonies would be im- patient of taxation for objects for whi''h as yet they had not been taxed. It must not be forgotten that the central Government, whether Imperial or Federal or English, has now no mode whatever of enforcing (short of a war) any of her behests in any large Colony. If the local Government of the day does not wish to comply with any demand, it need not even refuse — all that need be done is to do nothing, the Imperial Government has not a soldier or policeman or revenue officer to receive a command. The Governor is the only Imperial officer, and he is co);stitut:onally bound to his responsible ministers. ' COI.OM'S.' 100 How then could any tux or contribuiioii in iiny shapo bo reckoned on lioni ti de[)cndeiicy except as ' a bencNo- lencc * ? Mr. Berry need only omit to act on a despatch, and the whole niachinery for Ini])eri;d taxation would be thrown out of gear. Not any attempt has been made to disprove any one of these positi(jns ; tliey have been met merely by the reply that they were details. liut until these and several more are answenM.!, I fear that the pnictical English mind will not be led to ado[)t 'an idea,' however grand, laudable, or attractive it may at first a[)pear. I give lull credit to its supporters for sincerity and patriotism, and would advise tliem, if they conceive their plans feasible, to continue the agitation at once. Each year the task will become more difficult. Every year adds largely to the colonial-born youth, which naturally have less rever- ence and afll'(;tion for the mother-country than their fathei's who had left its shores. This would of coiu'se continue, whether Federation were established or not, and reflecting minds may perhaps doubt whether it would be wise to try such an ex[)eriment with a constantly increasing disturbing force such as I have alluded to. Confederation of groups of Colonies is a step, and a necessary step, towards a confederation of the Empire. It must not, however, be forgotten that it may prove a step towards disruption. A Canadian, South African, or Australian group could, if so disposed, declare their secession and nobody could attempt to coerce them. Such a proceeding by an isolated colony^ Nova Scotia, : t ■t it no IMFKIUAL FKDKRATIO.V. Natal, (fcc, would now be ludicrous. In tho nioainvhile, a consultative council of advice, somewimt similar to the Indian Council, might avert difTiculties and misunder- standings between the mother-country and her odspring. This is what I advocated in my first letter, and I have seen no reason to alter that view. Before concluding, I must express my regret for any remarks of mine wl.:c^> may liave appeared discourteous or severe towards others. They need not have been irate because I pointed out some of the dangers and pit- falls which surround their proposed path. Instead of regarding me as a fellow-labourer in the cause of the unity of the Empire, some of them seemed inclined to regjird ine as a personal antagonist. To none do I owe any grudge. Towards my most constant assailant, Mr. Young, I entertain, in common with many other colonists, every feeling of goodwill for the indefatigable labour he has undergone in supporting the most valuable Eoyal Colonial Institute. If we are to meet in print again, I trust that it may be on some subject which we both understand, for in that case we shall probably both agree. Maif 6. ', i rnKDRRifK vorxn. in LETT]':U XXIV. From FItKDKUICK VOUNG. EXPEDIKNT THAT THF, I'RESENT DiSCUSHION HIIOL'I.D END— ' SiX ' ARQU- MKNTS IN KAVOUB OF TmI'I'.RIAI. FeDKRATIOS SUMMAKISKI) — DlSCCHSIVE STYLE OP ' COUINI'S ' — Allt.E REI'I.IES FKOM THE Duke of Manchkster, Mh. Fox, Mr. LAniiiMEBE — ' Impekiamst' AND 'A Constant Reader' — Dii'I.omatic Appointments of the United States — Federation, or Disinteuration the ai.thr. native of the future — PiMPHATIC PROTEST AGAINST THE USE OF THE TERM FEDERAL COUNCIL — QUESTION SHOULD HE DISCUSSED CALMLY, DISPASSIONATELY, AND WITHOUT PREJUDICE — TlIE OLD, OLD B^LAG AN KmULEM FOR ALL TIME OF TUE UNITED BbITISU Empire. IT seems to me the time lias come when it is expe- dient that the present discussion on Imperial Federation should end. When I commenced it in your columns in the month of November last, I remarked tliat the proper ventilation of such a subject would embrace the scope of many letters, both from myself and from your other cor- respondents. Well, we have now had them, and both sides of the question, on which its judgment is appealed to, have been fully and frankly placed before the British public. Its further discussion at present, in this preliminary stage of the attempt to solve a great and in- teresting problem, would, in my opinion, be not only tedious, but quite superfluous. ii[ 112 IMI'Kni.M, FKDKRATIOX. If, from what lias been said on behalf of ' Tinpcrial Fedoration,' our coinitryipcn at homo mid in the Colonies can have been iiidiieed to perecivc and admit the inesti- mable value of its attainment to their social, cotnmercial, economical, and political interests, as well as to the j)ro- servation of their feelings of loyal sentiment and true patriotism, a great ])oint will have been gained. I shall not then have the least fear of its completion, in du(! time, being sure to follow. All diHiculties and obstacles will vanish befoie the determination of a free people to have what they are convinced it is for their true interests to possess, and the comprehensive j)ower of thorough statesmanship will .suggest to wise and j)atriotic men the means and the political machinery by which it is to be successfully and satisfactorily accomplished. Let mc very briefly remind your readers of what lias been contended for on behalf of Imperial Federa- tion. Firstly, that considering the present rapid (as well as the certainty of the enormous future) development of our colonies, it is desirable that, as integral parts of the Em- pire, they should participate in the Imperial Government, and have an equitable share in the direction and control of the Imperial policy, as far as all foreign nations are concerned. Secondly, that the best and only way in which this object can be properly effected, is in the establishment of a system of Imperial Federation, by which a Parliament would be constituted, containing representatives in due proportion from the mother-country and from the I'K|-.l>i:ill(K YOl'Xd. Il;{ CViloiiics, wild should nu't't in Eii^'liiud, ns tin- cominou reiifrc, mid wliicli, in its rapacity of tlu' siiprciiu' As- Hcuihly <»f tlic ^vllol(' I''in|)ir(', should hiivc the |nt>vcr to treat and settle all suhji'cts bearing' on Imperial ititerest.s. Thirdly, that both tlu' niothei-eountry and liie colo- nies should continue to have their separate I'arlianients, as heretofore; the former of which would, however, coti- fine its letjislative |)owers to dealinj^ with all rpiestions nfTectin"^ home afTair.s otdy — I'^nj^lish, Irisli, and Scotch ; and the latter to mana^in^ the internal aflairs of its own particular colony, without any more interference with its independence and perfect freedom of action than exists at present. In fact, the idea is to make the Imj)erial part- nership one containing a perfect principle of equitable equality between En<^land and the Colonies. Fourthly, that the constitution under which this Im- perial Parliament would act W(juld give to the aggregate representatives of wliich it would be composed the power of taxation for Imperial, but not for local |)uri)()ses. The levying of taxation for these latter objects (in which would of course be included all questions relating to pro- vincial fiscal policy) would be confined alone to the various local Parliaments, Fifthly, that the material interests of the outlying parts of the Empire, whether as regards their protection from foreign enemies; the comparative cOi:;t of guaranteeing them such protection as they might need in future ages, when they became greater and more powerful than at present, and the promotion of their commercial and socrial success would all be immeasurably less onerous to them by I ii m ■iV: I U4 IMTKRIAh FKDKUATIOV. tliL'ir continuing .o remain integral portions of the Brifisli Empire, than by eijiitemphiting the possibilityof becoming independent nationalities. Sixthly, that the wonderful inventions of modern H(;iencc, the constantly increjiaing facilities of steam navi- gation, and the magical powers of electric telegraphy, liavc really annihilated the practical difficulties connected with the question of the distance of one part of the world from another ; so that, in fact, it is easier to interchange literal and verbal communications between England and our most distant Colonies, now, than in the days of our first English Parliaments, six hundred years ago, it was to do bo between the north and the south of England itself. Hence, there is no more difficulty in the present day for the Colonies to hold constant intercourse with the repre- sentatives they might del gate to an Imperial Parliament in England, than for our forefathers in Northumberland or Yorkshire formerly, to communicate with the knights of the shires they sent to rein'csent them in a Parliament sitting at Oxford or at Westminster. These are some of the priticipal points, which have been advanced by me, and confirmed by those of your correspondents who, in this discussion, have avowed themselves in favour of Imperial Federation. In bidding farewell to ' Colonus,' to whom, however widely I am at issue with him, as to the mode in which he has treated this great question, and however little I sympathise with him in his timid reasonings in the en- deavour to show that the Imperial Federation idea is « impossible ' — (that adjective of fools , according to the KUKDKUK K VOlNO. llf) (lictimi of the ^r**',{\ uiilitnry iinpcriiiliMt, tliou^'li he was not cxiutly 'Hie of our typo), I \W\ much iiKh'hlcd for having; l)c'c'U tl»o means of (h*a\vin;i out sueh ahU* replies in your columns, from the Duke of Manchester, from ' Imperialist,' from ' A Constant Iteader,' and by anticipation, fn tm the Honourable William Fox and Mr. liabillicre. Tlie last letter of ' Colonus ' — I trust it will be liis last, for there s-ems to bo no end to the variety of objections, his fertile brain sugj^ests, in order to stamp out the possi- bility of Imperial Federation — bin extremely discursive pen starting new ones, ns fast ns each previous one is eflectually dejnolished and ers in common council. I recognise, therefore, not only tlie necessity, but also the extreme desirableness and expediency of some form of Federation. But there is a wide gap, indeed, betsveen such a modified joint action and the splendid itlea of one State, one Kiupire, one mind, and one action, which is the vision of Federalists. With extreme reluctatice I feel myself compelled to ([uestion the reality of such an idea ; I much doubt whether it can ever Ije brought into the region of the practicable. There is an indivi- duality, a distinct and r"parate personality in Colonial existences, which seems to be incapable of being solved into true national unity. Such a unity essentially turns on the enforcement of a single national Will ; and the probability of the supremacy of such a centre of life fades away, for my eyes at least, into the dimmest haze. We must not think of small societies ; much may go on with youthful associations, which, by the law of hu- man nature, would become impossible when they attained man- hood. A single legislative assembly for such a multitude of societies is not conceivable as a working instrument of govern- ment. These great bodies would be animated with too strong a feeling, I will not say of independence, for that would be to beg the question at issue, but a feeling of what their interests required, of what was due to their respective positions, of un- willingness to accept measiu'es wliose evil consecjuences would fall with special suifering on their particular localities, to be ^1^ m 122 AITKNDIX. stable and permanent meml)er9 of a true single nation. A war compelled by events happening in one part of the Empire, and involving its salvation in that tjnarter, might bring the severest distress and even ruin on regions situated at the opposite side of tlie globe. I have no faitli in the durability of a public life necessarily implying such a condition. A friendly but earnest desire for separation would inevitably be uttered, and I do not see how it could be resisted. I pass over the interests of small but separate portions of the Empire, whose fate under such a federation would be not to become joint States but only pro- vinces. Let us think of larger elements. Suppose England and Canada voted war with the United States in defence of the latter, and that the interests of Australia and New Zealand were thereby gravely compromised, is it believable that they would continue to sustain the injury and provide their share of the vast expense, whilst it was open to them to say that they thought the time had now arrived for national separation ? Or, again, one single State, if governed by a Parliament composed of all its members, would, beyond doubt, abolish protection as a scientific and mischievous folly — would Canada and Australia submit to the general decision ? I cannot think it. We have the example of the United States ; they have many elements for peculiar success in creating Federation ; in truth, they started in the cai-eer of union as the confederated assemblaofe of States. Yet they were compelled to fall back on a central will, asserting itself by force. It is impossible to call the United States a Federal institution. The South asserted its own ideas against the National Congress ; it was reduced to submission by war — a wai which partook far more of the character of international than of civil war. Equally did the Mormons repudiate the ideas and mode of life of the mass of the States ; but force imposed upon them the renunciation of their favourite social principle. In truth, a single State is ever compelled to apply force to its several members. There is not a nation in Em-ope in which a portion of its inhabitants is not kept in harmony with the ' PFIILO-COLOXl'S.' ri.i j4t'iu'ral political and social movements hy force. IJut the am- plication of force is vastly (litTereut, when resorted to aj^ainst ffroups, so to speak, of individuals, or when directed ajjainst social structtires, posse ssinjjf all the elements of independence. A great communist party may be repressed in France : an Australia or Canada resolved to l»e independent could not be prevented. The fact that the Colonies are separated from the mother-country and each other by vast spaces of sea is decisive as to the possibility of the application of force. The Americans could gather the military strength of vast regions, and march against the dissolving separatists ; neither Knf^land nor the rest of the Empire could reduce Canada and Australia to dependence, when they had become great peoples. But I shall be told Federation is demanded solely on the voluntary principle. The several parts of the Empire would submit of themselves to have their wishes overrtded, their local interests injured, out of regard for the immense benefit which a united Empire would confer ; I wish that I could believe in the permanence of such a feeling. That it exists to-day, and would do for some moderate space of time to come, I fully be- lieve. The strength of England is at the present hour great enough to shelter all the colonies, Canada perhaps excepted, from harm, whilst the practical independence of local legislation, which they enjoy, satislies their present desires. Federation might, nay, certainly would, cost them Protection ; but they would easily reconcile themselves to the loss of a system which enriched individual colonists with wealth extracted from the pockets of the whole colonial community. But a great United Empire — when the Colonies were large States — would infallibly engender a collision of powerful particular interests ; and in the absence of a possible and permanent application of force, I can- not but conclude that Federation, however brilliant and humane in conception, however dazzling to the imagination and to many of the noblest aspirations of hinnan nature, would, nevertheless, in its true essence, be absolutely nothing better than a rope of sand. 124 AI'I'KNDIX. No. II. From 'H. do R. H.,' in 'THE COLONIES' of January 24, 1873. iTY attention has been drawn to an al>le and forcible letter IfX which has just appeared in your Journal with the signa- ture ' Philo-Colonus.' While I strongly sympailiise with his ample recognition ot'the extreme desirableness and expediency of some form of Federation,' I cannot agree with him in Ijelieviiig Colonial Federation to be a purely Utopian scheme — a scheme presupposing imiversal enliglitenment and a cheerful acquies- cence in moral and benevolent forms of suasion. As I inter- pret the arguments of your correspondent — and these argu- ments are stated with such luminous precision that I only regret their pessimism — ' Philo-Colonus ' relies on the discouraging analogy of the Koman Empire, and on the more serious element of doubt suggested by the violent rupture of Federal princi- ples in the United States, and the consequent triumph v/f a centralised democracy. To the remaining argument as to the weakness of bare political ideas imless stamped into reluctant societies by physical force, I shall have something to say presently. A vast Federation, such as we ardently desire, would be Imperial in its scale and in its noble unity of purpose ; it would be at the same time a series of self-governed and self-respecting societies. It would bear no real analogy to the Koman Empire. That magnificent fabric was a centralised despotism, a potent me- chanical instrument for diffusing the science and culture of the essentially un-political Greeks. Its moral side was Will, and that Will was imposed upon the world by the sword. This was the old conception of government. An Imperial Federation would embody a new conception, born of ampler ideas and pro- II. I)K II. II. 125 IS 111 founder kuowli'djjfi' of human nature and the myHterious jMiwcrj* of race. The aji;e of benofioont doHpotiHms luut fjone for ever. To it has succot'ded, and is succeodinj((hiily, as a new and terrible force, the force of whole nations and races expressed through their executive governments. If ever the ehaos still known as our Colonial Empire he organised into a Ixxly politie, witli harmo- nised and vigorous meuiViers, it will he by the operation of this new force of ideas energising whole masses of men. This is the secret spring of German strength. A feiidal aristocracy, a warm attachment to the past, a severe moral and military discipline — these are only the instruments of German greatness. The German Empire was the outcome of a potent force, it was the victory of race and blood over dynastic traditions, diplomatic checks, and bitter provincialism. The statesmen of Prussia were well advised. They obeyed and taught others to obey a sovereign and life-giving tendency of this century, and tlie result was a imited (iermany, a military power, or rather an armed nation of the highest type and firmest cohesion. May we not also hope, in spite of the severest checks and the most obstinate resistance, for a kindred victory of race over local and geographical difficulties? ' But,' replies your correspondent, if I may expand his terse suggestions, ' granted the grandeur of the Federal idea, are not the United States a monumental instance of its failure in the field of actual politics ? ' The objection is serious, but not, I imagine, fatal. The United States, it is true, were furnished, imder the care of Washington, with an elaborate paper consti- tution, reproducing with speculative rigour the more marked characteristics of the British Constitution. So studiously de- vised were its constitutional checks that, as was proved in the case of Mr. Andrew Johnson, an open breach between the Senate and the President creates as absolute a dead-lock as that ancient and clumsy device the Tribunate of the Plebs in Rome. Every State in the Union was to have complete internal self-govera- \$ 120 AIM'KNDFX. imMit. Kvcrv StaLo was to po8HC8fl a douhlu olt'ctornto — nn elootoraU) for tlio State, and another for Coti^rcsH. At the hegiiininf^ of t)'t; livil war, the Soiitliern Stat«'n assorted their tiovereijj^n rijj^htH, ))ut only t.> !«• uriished, and in tlieir fall to brinj^down >vifli them the principle of Federal liberties. It was the hcnr of trininph for a centralised democracy. Yet i assert withont liesitation that the failnre of Federalism in America can be traced to local circinnstances, and is in no sense irdierent in the system ithJ^lu The or}j;anic defect in the Federal system of the United States was and ib the co-existence of a qnasi-sovereifjfn representative body with an autocratic President chosen by an indepenJent vote. It was this defect that was exposed so vividly in the American civil war, but no fair parallel can bo m-.ide between the rival powers in the constitution of the United States an. 1 the relations which would subsist between an Imperial Parliament and the hereditary Crown of the Jiiitish Empire. Add to this that colonists and Knglishmen are for the most part of the same blood, of the same communion, and with common domestic and social traditions, and contrast with this deep- seated sameness the diverse elements of every nationality undei heaven, from Chinamen at San Francisco to Germans or Italians in New York, to be found in the United States. This will justify the opinion I boldly express, that Federal principles may be admitted to fail in the United States without damaging our argument in favour of a British Confederation ; and, more, l)efore dismissing the United States, I should mention that the existence of a negro population, lately slaves, and now abusing their liberty, and the marked climatic dilTerences betwoeu the North and Soiith, are causes which have contributed to an unnatmal division among American citizens, but which opetatu far less in our own colonies. Finally, I understand ' Philo-Colonus ' to despair of any peaceful union between the mother-country, our colonies, find each of them. Force, he says, would have to create such an Empire, and force alone could hold it together. That force * IMIIhO-COLONl'S.' 127 nnd nothinpf olmi will hiiild up Iinporiiil unity I );rikvrly doubt, rolying, as I do, ujKm tlio opi'mtiou of gn'iit U'tidfurii'H in •H'Dplort and raci'H, nnd Iwiiovinjj that iu!w cirtMunHt.inccrt will grae for tlwrnHclvcii uvw and vigorous tyfKJK — liighor and inon^ complex tyjx'H — of political fcllowHJiip. Tho vivid porsonality of th«f in('tnlM;r8 of tlie Kmpirc! would not 1x5 loHt by Kederal union, but would remain as a valu- able element. Ah to tlie aHHert ion that force alone w«»uld bold 8ucb an Kinpire tofj;ether, I freely admit it. TIuh objt!ction in nothing more than a definition of government. An Im|MTial Government, like all authoritieH. would uhu compulsion in the last resort, but that compulsion would not be the oppression of Canada or Australia by England, or of one colony by another : it woidd be an act of the whole Kmpire coercing a part for its own Inmefit and that of ihe entire body politic. And is this not precisely the end of good government ? ir No. III. From ' PHILO-COLONUS,' in 'THE COLONIES' of February 15, 1873. I HAVE read with great pleasure the reply of ' H. de B. H.' to my letter on Federation. It is most agreealjle to me to discuss a question of avowedly great difficulty with a writer distinguished by such remarkable power and range of thought, as well as fairness and moderation, and it is all the more pleasant because the same bright visions kindle the warm aspirations of each of us, the same common desire stirs both our hearts, the same conviction is implanted in both our minds that England 128 Al'rKNDIX. nntl licr Cdlonio^ posHcH>< tlm indivifltml clt'montH, \ho Hcpiirate inoinlK!rrt for const nictii)jif a hIiij^Ic nation, for wliicli the history of tlio human race offers no paralK-l. Tho one (|ucstion whicli (lividus UH is thu practicaliility of Hiich a construction. Can the diverse' eleinents, the several faciiltieH and capabilities which actually exist, hut ail suliject to limits which all ackn(»wledjjo to 1k) hut temporary, Ik; coinl)inc'd into a true, compact, ahidinjjf, national unity? The formation of a real nation ia indisputably a mij^hty operation. Usually, it is the g'\. .vth of ajifes, of the fi;radual evolution of many forces, which ni>tural ■jualities of men's minds and tlie circumstances of human life nave set in motiem ; the (piestion here is wliethor tin; political pliilosophy of our day, actinjj on materials possessed of {freat power of expansion, is able by the; sheer natural force of reason to frame an ory tlic vinli-nt riiptmo of Fi'di'ial i)rinoi|il»'s iti tliv I'niti'd Statfs, iiixl the otiust'i|Hfnt triumph of ii oeiitraliscd (Ifmooracy.' Htit wlioti he proci'fils to fxpr.nd my llioii^ht as poiiitiii^j^ to ' tlu' I'liiti'd Stato.s as a iiiommu'iital iiistaiico of the failure of tln' Kt'dcral idea in tho field of actual pt>lities,' lie has Homewhat diverted the exact direction of my meaninj^. It was not precisely the miscarriaj^o of PY'deration, nor the esfahlishment of centralised democracy to which I wished to draw attention ; tlu; kvsuii of experience which I sought to impress had a somewiiat diU'erent character. It was this rather. The United States are a grand group of provinces, of societies, I uhouhl rather have said, constituting a single nation, governed by a central Assembly, with a perfect unity of a v. :il il ' I AI'I'KMUX. What is meant by Federation ? Wliat is its precise form ? I perfectly agree with liim tliat it is not represented by such a weak and loose organisation as the old German IJund. Wo certainly would recpiire — in the exact language of ' Philo- Colonus' — ' a centre of Government, a determining will, binding on all ; an organ, be it King, Parliament, or Grand Council, which lays down peremptory laws for one nation.' ' And,' he adds, ' you have got such an institution at this moment: you have a Parliament of Imperial powers, though not of Irnperiiil elements, and yet these magnificent pretensions are practically dormant.' Unhappily it is so ; but tliis I attribute partly to the not unnatural indifference which a gentleman from Cornwall or Yorkshire is likely to feel about some local question in tlie West Indies or the Mauritius, partly to the lamentable ignorance and confusion of most educated Englishmen on Colonial matters. ♦ Philo-Colonus ' has shown us a most excellent reason for think- ing that the present so-called Imperial Pa'iiament is not quali- fied for Imperial administration. The same might be said of the profound apathy displayed in St. Stephen's during an Indian debate — duiing a debate about a splendid Empire acquired and retained by Englishmen with romantic courage, or of the care- lessness with which most of us regard an Indian appeal to the Privy Council — an appeal affecting enormous interests and in- volving the most subtle of legal problems. Yet the co-.^aision I should draw in these cases is the imperfection of the existing body, which claims to deal with Imperial questions, and the crudity of public opinion, both in and out of the House of Com- mons, on Indian affairs. This is not the place to discuss details ; but I may be al- lowed to say in passing that I do not believe that the creation of a dozen Colonial Privy Coimcillors would much mend matters, or the appointment of a Committee of Advice in London. An organic change is necessary, and an Imperial Assembly would have to co-exist with the two Houses of the United Kingdom. Tliey woidd lie to eacli otlier as the German Reichstag is to the II. I)K II. II. 1'*T Prussian Cliiiinheiv, rnch with tlu'ir flriuly-dcMucd proviiioo. 8uch ciisfs as ' I'liilo-(!iilon;is 'c(tiit«'mi»lat('s woulil bo iinpossiblt*. The CaiKulians or Australians would not ho called upon to oxpross un opinion or givo a vote upon the ap^ointniont of a liritish Prime Minister, any more than the Colonial Office now in<<'r- feres with a Victorian Ministry or roads lectures a;;ainst I'ro- t^ction to Colonies vested witii internal self-government. In the same way with the Church, no one wouhl ask Col<»nial opinion as to the establishment of the Anglican Church in this country, neither am I aware that the Canadians were gui(h'd by our judgment at homo when they achieved practical ind(!- pendence for the Church in Canada. The Church in Jamaica was silently disestablished a few years ago, while in India, al- though we give the Anglican Communion a legal superiority, we also subsidise the Roman Catholics and the; Presbyterians. I merely give these instances as specimens of the ease with which municipal independence can exist side by side with Imperial unity, wliich will always be the strongtn- for leaving local ques- tions alone. Special systems ot land tenure, even variations in the law of marriage and succession, together with dittbrenccs in the status of religious communions, would be perfectly consis- tent with the idem velle and idetn nolle in matters of Imperial interest, which the ancients believed to be of the essence of politic.il agreement. Questions of peace and war, of interna- tional treaties, and national defence, would be fitting subjects for an Imperial Assembly. If the Colonists had a voice in our diplomacy, and in the declaration of war, I know that they would wear the Imperial uniform, and that we would have gallant friends willing to share with us the burdens and the honours of victory in every quarter of the glol)e. I;i \ p. ' ' ■II m i;j8 Al'l'li.NDIX. •F. R. G. S; in 'THE COLONIK.S,' March 1.5, 1873. IN these (lays of insensate lio\vlin;;s on various subjects, tlio independence of our Colonies among tlie number, we think tliouglitful men, whether Colonists or Englishmen, will owe you a debt of gratitude for opening your pages to a discussion of the grand idea of Colonial Federation. No one will deny that Federation, in some form or other, is possible. The new German Empire is a Federation, with an Imperial Legislature legislating for the whole, and Prussian, Saxon, Bavarian, and other Legislatures regulating lord matters. A Senate has other duties besides those of a vestry meeting, as has recently been said. It is not necessary for a senate to ' rejourn the controversy of threepence to a second day of audien<5e.' The Austrian Empire is a Federation — Francis Joseph, Kaiser in Vienna, is King in Buda-Pesth. The Swiss Republic is a Federation. The United States area Federation. Finally, the Dominion of Canada is a Federation, and a grand one. The Roman Empire was not a Federation. So long as the clvis Romanus sum held a mysterious shield over a man, the Empire was mistress of the world, and no longer. Federa- tion is, then, possible, and not chimerical. It implies these things among others : — 1. Free consent of the Federated provinces, or States. 2. A central Government to legislate on matters Imperial. 3. The submission of a minority to the will of the majority — forced submission if necessary. Law has no meanin >; without force. Government without force is enthroned anai -liy, a no-thing needing to le fortliwith I'. K. (i loW i swept into the limlio of vaiiiti«'S. One rm-iiilior would join the Ffderation foi its own fjood, and safety, and jirotoi'tion. Tho wliolo Federation woiihl prevent u nieniher leaving; In'oansc that niij;ht injnre the good and safety of the whcde. Hut we think tliat the conr.se of I^ilisli Colonial legiy' .(..; has fi;iad\ially led np to the idea of a Federated Hritish Fu'iirt.. In the early days of (reorn;e Ilf. 'a centralised despoti i o\' ercised from Ijondon ' unliniited control with such r • U; "s may be rememl)ered. From 17()H to 17!).5 Colonial j. "!' ;rs (with some slight exceptions) were administered liy S'-cretanes of State, who managed also the atl'airs of Ireland and 'f ino Department. From 1795 to 1K;j2 the Colonial Secretary was also Secretary for War. From 1854 we have had Secretaries of State for the Colonies only, and permanent Under-Secretaries since 1833. India has now its separate Secretary. Then, again, it has been our policy to confer represtnitat.ive institutions on our Colonies, so soon as their position or their population, or even their desire warranted such a gift or burden. Our Colonies have their Governor and Executive Council, tlieir Legislative Coimcils and Legislative Assemblies in exact counter- part of King and Cabinet, Jjords and Commons. Each has thus had an individuality conferred upon it ; has administered without let or hindrance, except such as resulted from the 'forms of its House,' its own local affairs; and lias looked to the mothei--country only for the appointed Governor, for Royal sanction to certain matters, and for (juestions involving peace and war. It is clear that these Governments may form a Federation which shall be a vast improvement upon the present loose way in which tlry are held together — supposin;, them to be held together in a loose way, which we very much doulit. The idea is not new. It has, if we mistake not, been mooted ere now by some of our Australian Colonies. It has (we speak under correction) been the subject of deputations from the Colonial Legislatures to the Colonial Office, and through it to the British House of Commons, That it should be [)ooh-p<^)ohcd ■v-si ..till I 1 no AITKXnfX. by \h<'. I'lTHs, and laii^'licd at or tiilkccl down hv nomo M.P.'s ns the pot idea or annual sclieme of a better-in '.'ormcd niomltor, docH not prove that it (h'scrvos such treatment. All really j^reat Bchemes have been similarly wcouted. T])at the affairs of vast Colonies should bo legislated on l)y iM.P.'s who know no more about them than a cow does (as a dweller in Australia for twenty years said once in our hearinjf, with more pith than politeness), is, of course, abs)n(l. If, then, the notion of a Federated Jiritish Kmpire be possible, as wo distinctly believe it to be, the vastness of the question and the interests at stake should not deter us from attempting to bring it aboiit. Rut, further, even if the notion bo chimerical, as it is mani*eptly intended for the safety and increased prosperity of the whole ; as it is urged ir the interests of advancing civilisa- tion and the progress of tlie species, which we are all bound to further, though we see not with Comtists our immortality therein; as it is a voluntary imion for a noble purpose, we shall still be doing good by advocating it. Meanwhile, something of the following kind is possible at once without putting more machinery in motion than we have. Ijet each Colony elect one or more members, in proportion to its size, to form a Colonial Council under the presidency of Earl Kimberley. Let questions of purely Colonial policy be dis- cussed. The establishment of the English Church, which has been referred to as showing the impracticability of Federation, is not a question for the Federal Parliament at all, but for the English people, and therefore cannot come into the question. Rut since the Colonies are ours, and, like Shylock's pound of flesh, some of them have been dearly bought, they are ours by ♦ cannon law,' and we mean to keep them. ' Colonies are not to be picked up in the street every day,' and we venture with your permission to let Carlyle speak a little more at length : — ' As for the Colonies, we purpose through Heaven's blessing to retain them a while yet ! Shame on us for unworthy sons of bravo fathers if we do not. Rra\e fathers, by valiant blood and F. R. (». S. in sweat, purclmscd for us, from the bounty of heaven, rich pos- Be8«ioiiH in all zones ; and we, wretched imhecileH, cannot do the function of adniinisteriiifi; tlieinl A»id heeause the accoiintu do not stand well in tlie ledjjer, our remedy is, not to take shame to ourselves, and repent in sackcloth and ashes, and atiD'nd our h(*g.t hastily ho cuiu-hidcd chitiuu'ii'al, ^till U>.ss iiii|>()ssihh>. A Fodcrated I'arliaiiKMit ot'two lloiisos, not to) nuiin'roin, sitting in f^oiuhui ami It-^'islatiii^ for thf wholf Hriti>h Kinpiio, oil piufly Irn|H>rial inatttMS, h'aviii^ local niattiTs to the Kiij^- lish and other lIoiistM of Cointnoiis, would go fur to roalinu Tennysoii's notion in ' Locksley Hall ' ; — Till tho wftrHlruiu throbb'J no lini^'or niul tlio Imttlo flag's woru furl'J, In TIIK I'AULIAMKNT OK MAN, TIIK KKIIKUAIION i)V Till; WOKl.K. Tliuru thu eoiuinoii suii.hu of most .shiiU hold a iVtUl'iil realm in uwc, And tlio kindly earth shivll (dumber, hipt in i'Ni\ KiwAt. law. The poet, the maker, lias before now been in advance of the politician, anil may be again. P.S. — Small causes are many times productive of huge effects. Napoleon was accustomed to say the word ' Pretender ' lost the Stuaits the throne. It would thus appear that the English warred once at any rate for an ' idea,' or against one. Still as a rule, the English pay small respect to mere feeling as such. A friend of ours, with much experience in colonial life, urges the following as a reason for Federation: — 'It would give able and ambitious men in the (Jolonies a better and wider position than they nriw hold. Thus if an American come to England he goes here and there ; has his ambassador to intro- duce him, and so forth. But if a leading man fnjm the Colonies come — a man occupying a position similar, or, perhaps, su- perior to that of our American cousin — he is just nobody, and his field of po. fical or other action is so much narrower than that of a citizen of the U.S.A.' We hardly agree with the 'just nobody,' but there is much and weighty truth in tlie statement. ^1 144 API'KNDIX. No. VI. ; i LEAP'CR /;wn 'THE COLONIES,' April 1, 1873. ] FEDERATION 1 What an impracticable idea, the bright, romantic dream of enthusiasts, not to l)e thought of by statesmen 1 England does not want it, the Colonieri don't ask for it. Tliere is no Colonial or Imperial question. The rela- tions of mother-country and Colonies are admirable. Time enough to tliink of the future ; to make any plans, to discuss any policy for the Empire, is not for sensible, practical men, but only for theorists, speculators, and grievance-mongers. Some such impetuous torrent of thoughtlessness is sure to be directed upon thfi devoted head of any far-sighted man who ventures to suggest that in a few years, when the Colonies are more full grown, their relations with p]ngland will require con- siderable alteration, and are even now susceptible of some im- provement, and that it is prudent to consider in time upon wliat permanent footing the Empire must exist. It is astonishing that men of foiethought, who speak sensibly upon other political problems, should be found re-echoing feeMe, unintelligent ob- jections to the timely consideration of a grc^at Imperial policy for the future. Those who tliink little upon this great question imderstand less the process through which it, in common with other great policies, is passing, or they would not condemn or despise the early stages of its discussion. To such short-sighted superficial observers, the wise words of our correspondent ' H. de B. H.' convey rebuke a? well as instruction — 'The law of political as of all progress seems to us to be tliis : first, we hear a few whispers in the cabinet of the student ; then tlie question passes into the area of scientific enquiry ; finally, after long FEDERATION. 145 Tnatiuiujf, ctiuf:f Federation, it is a positive rclirf to fmii to clear views atid lanjj;uaj);e. ' Pliilo-Colonus' and ' H. de li. H.' liav<' put the two sides of the question so well l)efore our readers, that we feel we need not say much upon the subject. We think tiiat a fair judgment of this controversy must decide that ' Phih)-Colonus' has said the very worst that can be said of Federation ; and the friends of tiiat poliey will, with ' H. de B. II.,' feel relief that so little can be luged against it. Hoth gentlemen about equally admire the grand id»a, and differ only as to its being practi- cable. The former evidently rcards it as too good to be true ; he abandons the object of his adnuration with the regret of a lover, the warmth of whose attachment has filled him with such a dread of refusal that he cannot bring liims If to press his suit. This is the explanation of the despair of Federation by one who speaks of it as 'a splendid vision to the delighted e\e of the imagination ;' who 'with extreme reluctance ' feels 'compelled to question the reality of such an idea;' who says 'the satne bright vision kindles the warm aspirations of each of us, the same common desire stirs both our hearts, the same conviction is implanted in both our minds, that England and the Colonies possess the individual elements, the separate members for con- structing a single nation, for which the history of the human race otiers no parallel.' ' Philo-Colonus ' has evidently thought so anxiously over the question that he lias conjured up frars which have no real existence ; his imagination has conceived such an appalling theory about Force, as to dispel all his hopes of securing that Federation which he so much aihuires; and his misconception of the scope of the Federal authority leads him to regard Force as an important eletnent in the considera- tion of the question. ' H. de B. H.' more accurately weighs the importance of Force. He shows that with many powerful ties which woidd 1 'I' I' II ,1: 'A 'ii'il I 'h i 148 AIM'KNDIX. connect the Fedcnited Empire, it would mean notliinf]^ more nor less than 'good government.' Wliat ' Philo-Colonus' say« of Force is as true of smaller States as it would be of our Empire ; it is .as true of Spain, France, or even England. Will Force be sufficient to keep Spain united mder a single Govern- ment, should the provinces declare for a Federal Republic ? Would it avail in France if the nation were favourable to the covmtry being split into several governments ? Would it in the United Kingdom if the people willed to be separated from each other ; nay, if those of the divisions of England which formerly composed the Heptarchy were firmly resolved to restore it, would Force avail to preserve the unity of England ? Force, then, would be needed and would be unavailing to preserve the unity of these compact States, as it would that o' our world-wide Empire, were it, and not the free-will of the in- habitants, the bond of unity in t;ie one instance as in the ott jr. But, says ' Philo-Colonus,' ' separation Ijy vast spaces of sea here counts for everything.' Undoubtedly, if all the sections of tb ' Empire wished to break asunder from ea< ..; ft) er. But take foi' example the most distant section of the pM-nos-. i Federation. Australia would not be sepa-ated frf)m the T'A\rpn>\ < e v.'ould be part of it as much as Ireland is pait of tht I'nit ;J isingdom, and the will of the Australian people in accordance with that of the rest of the Empire would be too strong for a disaffected minority, or at tlie worst would, witli the aid of Federal force, be sufficient to restrain it. Our unity being of free-will, not of force, distance would not afTect it. Against this assertion of ' Philo-Colonus ' may be set ofT that of another distinguished Anti-Federalist, Professor Thorold Rogers, who says — 'There is no difficulty in carrying out the project because the Colony is distant from the seat of Government.' Bit, !.r railed forth tlif-o n'tniiik><, and Dr. Hcarii attacks it with vi^juiir and success. He hcj^iiiH. however, with iiti adinisiioii which we liad made oiirselve» ill this journal on a former ix-Ciision. Th»< composition of tilt! two Houses ou^;ht, to he ditl'creut, hut oim erisential principle is cotntnon to lie in hoth : hoth of thein should represent, not a class, hut the whole people. The interest of hoth should he identical with the illt^rc^,l of the whole community. There in reason to helieve that Home well- founded ohjectioiirt may he taken to the prenent constitution of the Council, and if that is so, those who desire the maintenance of a second House ouj;ht to ht; the hrst, to apply a titt"nj{ reform. But the proposal of the (Jovernmeiit, that when a Bill had been rejected twice, the two Housch should meet in a single Assoinhly, and that the majority of the comhined Houses should prevail, would he, not reform, hut destruction ; the special action of tlu; Upper House woiihl disappear, it would simply he Bwamped. Bravely does Dr. Hearn tell the electors that he prefers the Constitution to the existence of the jNIinistry. Nor dots the history (»f the course of le;j;islation in Victoria warrant so revolutionary a measure. In ei jj[''t'iit future, which awaitH them if tlu-ir statesmen have on!} the wisd currency. Whenever the honour of the Kmpire was attacked in any fMirt of the world, I am sure that there would ho no men more anxious to vindicate it, at any risk, than the representatives of tlie (,'olonies. As a rule, colonists (!rr on the side of imduc pup;nacity. They are no admirers of the peacc-at-any-price policy, which nowadays api)ears to be looked on in Kngland a« tliu end of statesmanship.' The writer then goes on to say that even if it were true that the colonies are asonice of military weakness, we should set to ' work without delay to convert tliat weakness into strenfijth,' and then shows that ' it is time the important internal affair^i of Great Britain and Ireland commanded the enlire attenti(»u of a local executive and a local lej;i.'-lature,' and that 'the business of the British Kmpire has j^ot beyond the power of any one body.' 'Against such pusillanimous conduct,' as he charges Mr. (iladstone's (Jovernment with, he believes 'the estab- lishment of an Imperial Legislature with an Imperial Executive depending on it, would be no mean safeguard, lie also declares that colonists 'are as jealous ot the national name and flag as any dweller on the banks of the Thames,' and that ' they have proved their sympathies with the mother-coinitry when she had been in difficulties over and over again; and if they have not done more, may it not arise from the fact that they have n((ver been asked?' On the sidyect of defence, it is observed, that ' there is no reason to doubt, that if the work of consolidating the were S(!t about in an ipii rgeti pru the Colonies would be found willing to contribute their fair share to the maintenance of the Imperial forces.' . . . ' As long II 160 APPENDIX. as Kngland is paramount at sea, tlie Colonies could not do better with any money they may have to spend on external defences (takinjf for a moment the purely utilitarian view), than invest it in the British navy, provided they had the assurance which representation would give, that it would he used when needed with vigour and promptitudt;.' The article then at some length rather severely criticises the treatment of Canada in connection with the Alabama question. It is remarked that ' the present Colonial system of Great Britain has a direct tendency to foster the feeling of separate nationality among the various provinces under her dominion,' and that ' Her Majesty's present advisers' are 'utterly without anything like a definite Colonial policy.' It is also shown that — ' For want of some body, whose delegates from the extremities and centre alike might meet and confer together on what is best adapted to secure the true interests of the whole . . . the public men of the various Colonies are left to follow any course which may seem good in their own eyes or likely to secure them a lengthened term of office, without any consideration as to what may be the effect of their schemes on the welfare of their neighbours, or how far corapatil)le with Imperial unity. There is another strong reason why something should be done towards federation as speedily as possible, and that is that the majority of the adult population of most of the great Australian Colonies were born in tlie old country, and consecjuently iKJtter understand the advantages which attend a union with England.' The writer also condemns mere 'warmth and heartiness of expression ' on tiie part of the Colonial Office without any policy being tadopted to cement the union with the Colonies — ' I am sure,' says he, ' that if we could once arouse the mass of the people of England to a lively sense of what was going on, the Government would Imj speedily forced to do something to avert the threatened disruption instead of standing by in irritating inactivity, distilling honeyed words from mocking lips.' Speaking of the preference which English EMi'lUK OR NO EMIMRK. 101 stateHmcn have for Hie Forei;;n Office nither than the Culoniiil the author remarks — • Hut if a inituHl^'r would only apply himself to the work (tf eonsulidating the Empire on a wise ami ecpiitahle >tasis, he would Hnd a task ready to his hand far more interesting^ in its development, and far more glorious in its results, than that of meddling with Prineelets, or prest^rv- ing his temj)er while l)eing snubl)ed hy those arrogant Powers that cannot he made to see the V)eauties of a peace at-any-price policy, and daily blaspheme the "shoddy " gods that our country- men so eagerly worship.' The author looks to ' the new element introduced into the political life of England' hy the last Reform Bill, 'to force on our rulers that task of consolidation which they have hitherto done their utmost to avoid.' The question — ' Huw is it that you, and those wl-.o think with you on this point, are so anxious for a closer alliance with a Government, of whose recent policy you speak with contempt, and of whose future career you have little hope ? ' is thus answered : ' We look to the revival of national life and energy which would follow the consolidation of the Empire, to renew the face of all things, to bring again the days when statesmen were fearless, and the people honest and true ; and when it would have been a foul libel on the national character to affirm that — Only the ledger lives, and only not ull men lie.' i This powerful article thus concludes : — ' Our venerable mother would renew her youth, and, as an acknowledged head of a Greater Britain, would occupy her legitimate place at the head of the family of nations. ' The Colonies, having passed their apprenticeship, and become partners in the great firm, would find in connection with it an outlet for their restless energies, and the where- withal to satisfy a praiseworthy ambition to achieve a distinc- tion on a larger stage than that at the command of any dependent State. M 162 APPENDIX. * The change wrought in the cliaracter of the Imperial Government by the consummation of this union would, I believe, be as satisfactory as it would be complete. In Council, the experience of age and the vigour of youth would act and re- act on each other, and we might reasonably hope that from the conflict of opinions so influenced, a policy would l)e evolved which any subject of the Queen might regard with satisfaction, and speak of without a blush — a policy which would hit the happy mean between bluster and severity — between Quixotism on the one hand, and sordid self-seeking on the other. ' Although the prospect of achieving this great work of con- federation does not seem very encouraging at present, I never- tholess look forward to the time when this day-dream of so many will resolve itself into a substantial reality. Of our pre- sent rulers I have but little hope, but I cannot bring myself to think that the nation at large will remain much longer indifferent to the glorious future which might be the heritage of our race, if we only had the energy " to take occasion by the hand," instead of wasting our mighty opportunities through ignorance or sloth. A consolidated British Empire is still pos- sible, but will not be possible much longer.' We leave these extracts to speak with their own force ; and shall only remark that we hope the assertion that Confederation is only the dream of a few Colonists and speculators in England will not be again repeated, and that we are proud to find that there are in the Colonies men of large statesmanlike views, who are able to soar above mere provincial questions, from which the fame of Colonial statesmen and of English statesmen as well is almost exclusively derived. TIIK BUITISH KMIMRE. loa No. X. THE BKITISII EMPIRE. Leiuler from 'THE COLONIES,' Xoucinber 27, 1H75. "TITR. FOKSTER'S speech at Ktlinburj^li constitutes un era in IjX the history of the Hritish Empire. If proof were (lesire Iiiipnial feeling. Tlie fact is patent in tlie wlmlo Colonial history of recent yj-ars ; the most casiml olwerver may easily recoffiiise it. Tli • more i'ach Colony has rec'ognis«'e H self-administering province, the more <|uickly has it gathered up the gratifying conscionsin-ss that it iH'longetl to Knghind and also that Kngland iii'longed to it. Kngland has discerned the «'inotions which gluwed in Colonial hearts, and has responded with ;'(|ual warmth. The agitation of tlie * Times' rests on the conviction that this is the truth of th*^ situation. The advance of the Imperial feeling has l>een cliaracteris«'d by a markeeals to force were not absent; yet what Colony now surpasses Canada in loyalty to the Empire ? England took a prominent lead in constructing the Great Dominion across the Ocean ; her counsels were listened to, her negotiations respected, her gentle pressure of moral suasion accepted, and the result is a Colony as Imperial as the mother- country. To have shared common difficulties, to have argued about them in free and even angry debate, to have appealed to a common history, a common literature, reason trained to move ]G6 AIM'KNDIX, in the Hume pntlis, in it inoHt powfiful orcntor of tin; nenst' of forminjjoiie society. Hilt let no one be misled by the notion that we (ire dealinfif here only with the feelin{^ of the day, with the faHhion and con- venience of the hour, resting on no solid hasis, and likely to ]to dispelled by the firHt blaHts of caprice. The Btrength of the Imperial feeling is built on the solid foundation of the real and immense lx;nefit accruing to all from the Empire. Populations knit together by sentiment only do not found great States, for great States are only possible on the basis of great advan- tages. Common forefathers, common traditions, similar ideas on human life, and like habits oi dealing witli the ever-reeurring problems of human existence, liave vast combining power. That they are Englishmen, at least, is a feeling deep in the Colonial heart ; and if to the outward eye it is invisible, its moulding and transforming force shapes the emotions of the spirit, and through them the resulting conduct of daily aflTairs. Kvery year that rolls on quickens and spreads the interest which England takes in Colonial Parliaments, as it brings the Colonists into more vivid sympathy with the debates of our House of Commons. The tone that Colonial affairs concern England little and may be left to those who are departing, is gone, and we believe for over; the struggle now upheaving the Cape Colony is watched with sympathetic interest all over England. Then come the vast l)enefits of so large a space on the terrestrial globe saved from internal war, and ever open to peaceful trade ; commerce following the flag, in obedience to similarity of tastes and the prodigious force of custom ; and if a colony or two hipses into the delusions and selfishnesses of Protection, what is that but a passing cloud, which the growth of intelligence will soon make to pass away ? Thus, each day is surely developing the glorious result, so briglitly depicted in the glowing words of Mr. Forster — ' that oiu* Colonies, when strong enough to be independent, will yet be stronger, more rich, more intelligent, able to be better, if still in union with ourselves ; that their TIIK HHITISII KMIMKK. H57 iiilialiitiints will liuvo j,'r«'nt(T oppoituniti**!!, a wider wo|h>, a }M)Hsil)ility of II hi((licr cari'fT, if roiitiniiiiiff our ffllow-cmititry- iiH'ii ; tliat ill order to fiiltil all tli(> diitirH of fn-c and civilirtcd and sclf-jjovcrninjj men, they nrrd nut ccasr to 1k> Hritish citizens; tliat they may have all the advantaj;e» of a nationality without diHowiiitiff their allej^iaiiee, and that, as tln-y iiureaw! in Htreiijfth and power, so also shall we." True, Mr Korster paints this as an idea: hut it in an idea which is realis«>d in faet, which witnesses steadily its ever-expanding development. And if the future is hard to conceive, if it raises up prohlt'ins which tiisk the iniaj^inations and the leasoniiij; faculties of the ahk'Ht statesmen to descriho in tlu-ir practical importance and to meet with ndeipiate solutions, there is always the grand assurance that sufficient for each day are its dithculties and metlnHlsof escaping them, that in every living political organism there dwells the jiower in each succeetling g«'iieration to main* tain and expand the national life. Constitutions grow if they are to last ; they cannot he sketched lieforehand. 'I'he Coiistitu- tiun of Knghind has ci>mu down triumphantly through the ages because the tasks imposed by each step in civilisation were met by the resources of each revolving peritnl. \\\\o could have foretold a thousand years ago the (^ueen, Lords, and Commons by which the might of England, the order and happiness of the English people, are guicK-d and controlled at the present hour? Was there ever amongst any people a Con- stitution less preconceived by political sagacity, or more markedly the child of the contributions which each age made to its structure ? So will it be with the Hritish Empire of the future. Of that Empire we can say to-day, what we have said repeatedly on previous occasions, that its success in combining the fullest local self-government with strong Imperial cohesion forms a new and most wonderful chapter in political jihilosophy. Yet what is it but practical aptitude and tact, and not scientific deduction and prescription, which has accomplished this great achievement? The great lesson to learn and practise to day it) % m.. m 168 Arp?:xDix. to discern and defend the vast advantages of union ; each danger and difficulty overcome gives a new and powerful instrument for deiding with the exigencies of the morrow. No. XL IMPERIAL CONFEDERATION. Leader from ' THE COLONIES,' November 27, 1875. OUR readers will remember the correspondence wliich appeared in our columns nearly three years ago, witli respect to the practicability of ultimately establishing a system of Federal Government representing the whole Empire and managing all affairs of Imperial importance. The value of occasionally discuss- ing such a subject must be obvious ; it must do much good in the way of familiarising the public mind of the Empire with the idea that our vast dominions will one day be united, not only by the present ties of affection and common interest, but also by some political organisation which will give strength and practical cohesion to these sentimental and material bonds of unity. Mr. Forster's address having so warmly and widely e^ oked the profoimd national feeling in favour of the permanent unity of the Empire, we think the time has again arrived when some further answer should be given to those who ask what practical shape if the future political organisation of our Empire to assume. The most decided believers in the possibility of an ultimate Federal union of the Empire most decidedly object to the question being considered as a mere abstract theory or spe- culation ; their wish is that it should be borne in mind as a great IMPERIAL CONKKDERATIO.V. 1C9 practical object to lx> attained. In considering Imperial Con- federation it must ever he reinembertKl that we are discussing that which is not abstract and ideal, but which has been an existing form of government at most periiKls of the world's history, both ancient and mo hand over Imperial affairs to a Parliament of the Empire, and become itself merely the Pro- vincial Parliament of the United Kingdom, standing in a posi- tion like that held by the Diet of Prussia or Bavaria to the Diet of the German Empire; and the otlier objection is the great distance separating various poitions of the Hritish do- minions. It is not to be supposed thp»t, on the first suggestion of such a thing, the English Parliament would be prepared to hand over to a Parliament of the Empire the control f»f Imperial questions. The idea is one, however, which may well be culti- vated, and linally command assent by being taken into early consideration. That which an English Parliament would now instantly repudiate may well find favour with one of another generation when the Colonies shall liave attained such a growth as to be more on a footing of equality with the mother-country. Thus we can appreciate the benefits which may residt from the timely consideration and occasional discussion of the future organisation of the Empire. In a few woi'ds Mr. Voung meets the objection of distance which has been frequently answered. Professor Thorold Kogcjrs, who on other grounds avows his disbelief in Imperial Confedera- tion, considers that it is of no weight as against that system. INIr. Edward Jenkins, in his able essays sliowing the practica- bility of Confederation, has answered the objection : Mr. Eddy and Mr. Labilliere, in their papers published in the last volume of the ' Proceedings of the Royal Colonial Institute,' also ex})ose its weakness. It is ably disposed of by a.T Australian contem- porary, the 'Border Post,' which, in a review of Mr. Labiliicre's paper, says: — 'The distance shoidd be eliminated from the argument, for it is a well-known fact that, not many years ago. 172 APPENDIX. when Port Philip, now tlie Colony of Victoria, formed Our Nation, that is- the true Federal principle; it is those two words Oti/' Nation, which, when they are understoofl in England, and those other words Fm an Enfjlishman, which, when Colonists learu that they form, in substance and in fact, a part of the birthright of every Anglo-Saxon subject of her Majesty, will bind those subjects in every part of the world together with bonds stronger than bonds of steel, and then, when we have the ' common nationality,' there will be no difficulty in maintaining ' allegiance to one monarch,' and a ' mutual alliance in all rela- tions with foreign Powers.' The prospect is better than it was a few years ago ; the great diffictdty to contend with is the insular prejudice of Englishmen ; and it will take another generation to n^move this, but in the meantime, men who think with Mr. Forster, and desire to give effect to the sentiment contained in his words (which I have quoted ajjove) might do a great deal by opening the public service and the paths to dis- tinction which it, and it alone, affords, to Colonists as well as to Englishmen ; and I do not hesitate to say that the fact that 170 Al'l'EiNDIX. one Colonint had risen to distinction in the English public service would do more to unite England and her ('olonieu as one great whole than any other course that could be adopteil. A few naval cadet^hips have been, uocasionally, placed at the disposal of Colonial Governors, and at first tliese were a great deal sought after; but when Coloiiist« found that their sons could not get on in the service without that interest and in- fluence which they did not possess, they ceased to care much about them. Again, service in the Colonies docs not count as service at home. See the strange position in which the military officer lately selected by tiie Government of Canada has been placed by the Imperial Government. His service in instructing our Canadian counti'yrneii to defend themselves is not to be considered as service to his Imperial mistress, but he is to 1)0 in the position of being lent to a foreign Government ; 80 that not only will his Canadian service be a Iwir to his promo- tion, but he will see his place in the Imperial service taken by some one else, and, when he desires to return to England, will probably find that he has been ' retired ' by some economical Government order. This is a nice, practical example of the way in which the Imperial Government expounds Mr. Forster's doctrine that ' we ought to take every opportunity of showing that we consider the Colonists our countrymen, and every Colony part of the common country.' Even in the matter of honours, when an old Mediterranean order is routed out and furbished up, avowedly solely for the benefit of Colonial countt'ymen, it is crowded at once with Downing Street hangers-on and by men who owe their appointment to English influence, and not to Colonial service. It is a ' partnership,' is it, between English countrymen and Colonial countrymen ? I do not think that it is, or ever will be, a ' partnership ; ' that is not the right rerm to apply. A partnevship involves rights and liabilities that cannot be applied to such a case or to such a position. But it may be more than a mere partnership ; it may be the grandest F'edera- tion of States that the world has ever seen, each State adminis- COLONIAL OOVERNOKS AND COLONIAL FKDKUATION. 177 teriiig its uwn ufTairs aud making iU own luws, but Imviiig, in all otlier matters, rights and privih'gcs co-extenxivc and o- e<|ual with tliose of the other States, the whole together forming the great Empire of England, yieUling allegiance to the wnno (Jueen, speaking the si te language, and worsliipping the sanje God. To such an PImpire every Colonist would be proud to belong, and would feel tliat when he came to England he was, in truth, regarded as a fellow-countryman, and not as a ' pariah.' No. XIII. COLONIAL GOVERNOES AND COLONIAL FEDEllATION. From a Leader in the ' TIMES,' May 1, 1875. rPHE vast regions over which Sir George Bowen's constitutional A. sway has extended are, indeed, a possession of which any empire might be proud. We find in Australia Proper the most rapid material advance the world has ever witnessed, and we feel, at the same time, that wliat has been done is but a small instalment of the greater progress which coming years will bring with them in their course. Look, therefore, in what direction we will throughout the ' Australian group of Colonies,' the prospect is everywhere encouraging. We see a growing nation, or, rather, cluster of nations, each of them already in advance of the smaller States of Europe, and making up together a really great aud formidable Power. They are still in their infancy, but it is tlie infancy of a veritable Hercules, aud promises well for the vigour of their appruachiug manhood. N 178 APPENDIX. They ure gruwiiig fiiHt in weulth uiiil population uiul iiit('lli)>;t>uce. They are well guvorned, and are content under a system which allows them u principal share in the control of their own destinies. In fact, they possess or are on the road to attain everythinj^f that is a proof and cause of national prosperity ; and they are not ungrateful to the mother-country, to whoso fostering care they ascribe, with truth, a great portion of their blessings. A love for England, a genuine loyalty to the British Crown, and a sense of mutual interest are the light bonds which at present unite them with ourselves and with one another, and, whatever new form these may take, it is not in the nature of things that such a yoke should be easily broken or cast aside. They are, we believe, not likely to desert us willingly, and we are sure that we ourselves shall be most unwilling to throw them off. We will not quite say that we cannot do without one another, but we may safely assert that both parties to the connection will find their best interest in maintaining it, and as long as that is tlie case we may look with confidence to the future no less than with hearty satis- faction to the present. Other nations than our own may boast of their achievements in war, or of the more than doubtful gain of provinces which they have wrested from their neighbours, and which they must hold still by the same arts by which they acquired them. We have been occupied with the nobler and safer task of the creation of a new world ; we have spread our name and language over regions vaster by far than any which others have appropriated, and we find in all of them willing confederates, proud to maintain their relation with us, and anxious to draw still more closely the ties which unite them with their distant home. We have learnt lessons from one another already, as each has been successful in solving problems in which the other may have failed. Just as India has been our school for War, so also om* Colonies have been our school for Empire. The ranks, too, of our home statesmen have been largely and usefully recruited by those who have gained their COI.OXIAK (JOVKRNORS AND COLOMAI. KKhKKATloN. 170 oxpprionco at n diHtnnrr, or nrr now, in tlic trmporniv wnnt of work fit home, employ iii^j tlH'insclvcs ahroail in Imrninn tin- artH of ((ov«'rnm«'nt, and tin- true way in wliich n frro jMoplf niay he preHerved in prosjMMity and contentment. It wa» natural that Sir (i»-orj;e Howen nhould wiy fomelhinjj of th(^ future destiny of the nations i>ver wliieh he has piesiiled. Their past jj;rowth has been so rapid, and their prosp< ets have l)ecome so splendid, that tlie (juestion suj^f^ests itself whether their relations with us arr likely to he maintained permanently on their present footin^j, and whether States which have ^rown already to Ihj almost th«! rivals of their mother-country will he always satisfied to continue as her men! di-pendencies. T<» let well ahme for the present is the suhstance of Sir (Jeorj^e Howen's very sensible advice. The Australian Colonies are, he assures us, thorou<;hly loyal and attached to their mother- country. The time may come when they will desire to he more closely united with her, and to \h} admitted to a share in the government of an empire of which they will Im; no mean part. The mattt day t<» 'consolidate the Empire ;' but I think, from what 1 see and hear, that there is no part of tlie policy of the Conservative Government that commands such strong and general approval as that of consolidating the empire. I do not see that, in time of peace, any question will arise that is likely to cause any desire on the part of the people of the colonies to shake oflF tlio ties that now bind them tn the mother-country. Circumstances, however, may arise to cause them, and especially the people of those colonies possessing representative institutions and respon- sible government, to consider very carefully the position in which they may be placed by the action of the Imperial Government in respect to matters in vvhich they (the Colonists) have, or think they have, no interest, on which they are not consulted, and as to which they have no voice. Such a iiiatter can, I submit, be most conveniently considered at a time when feelings of irritation at the action of any of the parties interested, or of alarm at the co?isequences of such action, will not interfere with the calm decision of the question on its intrinsic merits. England is now at peace with all tlie world — that is with all those nations commonly ificluded in the term ' all the world ' — and is therefore in a position to consider whether any and what change in her relations with her Colonial possessions would be desirable, or be willingly permitted to take place, if war was to break out between England and any of the other great nations. I must here say that 1 bring this subject forward, not as a mere idle question, but . a question that, I know, has been the suliject of grave and serious consideration, and as a subject that must be discussed and decided, if England and her vast posses- sions are to continue as one great united empire. The three great groups of self-governing colonies — America, Africa and Australia — contain now about 8,000,000 of inhabitants (excluding aborigines) ; and I am sv.re that you, sir, will not •I THE COLONIES IX TIME OK WAR. I8:i consider it unreasonable that those pt-rsons chould feel tliat it is, to tay the least, somewliat unsatisfactory that tliey sliouhl be liable to be plunged into all the iiorrors of war, on account of matters in which they may consider that they liave no concern, or on account of proceedings which they might be more disposed to censure than to support, but in respect to which they are not allowed, having no voice in the conduct of the Imperial Govern- ment, to express any opinion ; for whilst the humblest voter on any electoral roll in England can, through his representative in Parliament, bring bis views before the Government and his in- fluence to bear on their action, these 8,000,000 colonists, subjects of Her Majesty, have no voice whatever on a subject of the most vital importance to tliem, and which may lead to the taking of their lives, and the destruction of their property, not from any action or fault of their own, or of their own Government, but solely because they are subjects of tiie (^ueen of England. This, sir, is a question for a statesman to deal with, and one upon which the maintenance of tlie great Colonial empire of England will ultimately depend. These Colonies have grown inio importance, many of them have come into existence, since the last great maritime war in which England was engaged (for the Crimean war was under circumstances which prevented Russia from injuring the Colonies) ; and the action of ^ Jand towards her Colonies three-quarters of a century ag- ^u . safely be taken as a precedent for the future ; nor will • ntt; . o say in an offhand manner to these Colonists, ' You a ' jts of the Queen of England, and you must take all the < oi. queucea of such connection,' for such a statement would at once suggest the action to be taken to avoid those consequences — action that woidd only be hastened by sucli offhand and unreasonable treatment. Although it would not constitute a full or final settlement of this question, I believe that a great deal of good would result from the formation of a Council, of advice not of cuutntl. 184 APPENDIX. to sit with the Secretary of Stiite for the Colonies, and consider with him all questions of joint Imperial and Colonial interest. Tiie memboFH of such a Council, or a large proportion of them, sliould be appointed or recommended by the respective Colonial Governments, for if selected by the Imperial Government, the Council would not be considered to represent colonial interests, and would consequently have no influence in the Colonies. The simple recognition by the Imperial Government of the principle that those subjects of Her jNIajesty, whose lot it may be to reside in and belong to her Colonial possessions, are not simply because they are Colonists, to be deprived of al; voice iipon matters of general Imperial interest, and by which they may be more materially f»tfected than any of the inhabitants of this islanil, would of itself, in my humble j udgment, do a great deal towards strengthening the ties between England and her Colonies. I am aware, from experience, that in politics, though you may at any time advance, you can seldom retreat, and therefore would not suggest the adoption of a course the failure of which might cause any serious inconvenience ; but whilst the establish- ment of such a Council would, I believe, do great good, yet, if it should fail in its working, no harm would be done ; but it appears to me that out of it would grow a solution of the im- portant question that is the object of this letter. As, in my opinion, the policy that you have declared to be the policy of the political party of which you are the head — namely, to ' consolidate the Empire ' — is a wise and statesman- like policy, and one that should receive the support of every true Englishman, I take the liberty of directing your attention to the only question that, as it appears to me, is likely to cause any very serious difference between England and her great Colonial possessions — a question, however, that has arisen, and may arise again at any moment. Sfolliiicovile i- Co., I'liiileis, Aeic-sliwl Sijiiare, London. %•■■<. S. W. >IhVKH vt CO.'S HANDHOOK t.. Al'STKAF.IA .iiwl NllW /.KAI.AND, iticlii()iiiK tlio Ki.pi Nianhs. Secoinl Edition, lUvisiil aiul Hnliirj;pd, C'rovtii 8vii. limp cli)th, with Colourctl Map. prifo a.i. • Till' ('• nipilpn Imvc cviclriillv liron rarcfiil ( iill clnw-i-s nml liitiTMt* mill to iirrnnife Its iimttormiiM tii iiiitli iimli' nil iMixnililo iiiiiiiirlifi. Tlir |irlu«tiv(> f:u'ts, lumllnjfMl liy iin\ Im'nl pri'ju- ilii'ifi. Till' hisKiriiail and (."''iliit'i<'ii' i>or(ioii< of tho rtiiiptcr devotwl to tlils Colony an cxtrcnicly iiitiri'stinp mill iiHtrurtlvi'.'- SvoNKT MniiviNi, IIkii.m.h. ' Thi' inrorniatiim t'ivpn with ro^'nnl (o riuh ("dloiiy Is TiTy wi'll ili':rst<> ovrry nml ^■nloal ex •loimioii, luul arlfiir nnil ini|iiirtiiil /i.odw of its niinihilitlis uh n tlilil, not only for iini^'nition lint for Invwtnirnt, Tho book is not II inoH' fini>,Ti«nt'9 >.'iiicli', liiit conipriscii it i|niinlity of infonnntloii, oMillrntly oollntiil, which will Ix^ fonnil n^ofiil even ttiizi ttccr of iho Colnnii's with which we arc ar<|iiiiintol. In tho cmUavonr to oxcroisi' ii ilonble Impartiality to lialanco the lulvantai^ra and illsailvantaiicsof cmlvrnition oonipari'd with lift" in the CM Country, and, at die same tini>>, to do (i(tml ju.-ttico as bctwit'ii tho Aiistralian and New Zi'aland Colonios, it apu'iirs to ns Silver A: C i. Iiav" si^'iially 9ne>'ii'l.'— BliIsiiASK Ciiriiinn. 'The Compiler has devoted impartial attention to each Colony, and points out the ndvantiigos they poBsoKS as Holds of emigration.' lliiHAiiT T'lWN MKnciiiv. ' The work (.'ives. in aiomeiiient form, the latest and most a<;enrale infoniiation rrirnnllna the varlons Colonies of Auslraliii, 'riismanla, and New /ealand. All the faets lire (jlven solierly anil drily; without any attempt at enthusiastic description or the ^'rac^s of style. This, we are con\ineed, must Im' to the advantn|;e of the intending einii^rant, who has liccn too often mislisl liy hlKhly-ciiloured niid attractive descriptions.'- -Atkkna:im. Now Ready. S. W. SILVER & CO.'S HANDROOK to SOl'TH AFRICA, inohnlitig (!apk C'oi.ony — Natal — The Diamond Fikids — T «ANn-(hiANi)K EkPI Ill.lCS, &0. With Il.I.l'SI'IlATIoNS. Second Edition, Ucviscd and Eiiiarf^cd, Crown 8vo. price 10.«, 'This pnlilication is one of con^iderahlo value. ItaToriN mmli Keneral and local infornmlion about Fonth Africa, as well as formim.' aliandy bisikof reference, for which latter punxise it is well qualitieil hy the capital method of aiTanirenu lit olwrviil throntthout,'— Tun I'iki.d. 'A bi ok rich in facts, well arranjieil, and diliifently worked iiit.'— MirriilKi.i'NflKM. 'It should lie consulteil liy nil whosiek inforiiiatinii cor riiint,' the Ilritish Colonies and tho Dutch Uoimlilics in that region of the world,'— Ii.i.rsTiiAiKii l.ivpos Nkws. 'The paiieron Ostrich I'armint,' pn^cnts facts of a novel character. The On/etleer is a most vnlualilc nildition. j.'i\ini.' ns it does an account of every town and vlUape, and every natural feature of the country pos.s<'.ssed of a name.'— E.\[F'[UK. ' 'A'e must refer our readers t< liecn known, is, on account of the dryness of tho air, sjieciiilly suited to (icrsoiM affected with chronic pulmonary disorders.' — I.AMirr ' The requirements of intendinft settlers to w horn thcsC Colonies offer a most pronii-ink' field of enterprise— have been specially considered ; and the sportsnuin anxious to try the" liest ~hootini; ground in the world," the merchant caijer to extend his business, ond indicil every one dealrous of gaining some know'Ied^'c of one of the most ra|iidly advancing of liritish Colonies, will And this volume a mine of information.' — ATiiEN.tXM. 'Silver has become the Murray of our Colonies.'- BuoAn AlJiow, QUEENSLAND tlie PROGRESSIVE. Hy a Fouty Vkau.s' CiiioNisT, With Aliip. Price I,|iiite a library of (;oIonial llandliooks, many of which are intercstinK, nte! all useful. "Quei'iisland the I'r.i.'essive " is by a .Mr. White, who seems to have the inei it, at nil i i. nts. of V.nowini.' the country tlioniiiKhly.' Ai'sriiAi.A.siAN. ' We can conmn nd this book hij-'hly for the fulness and triistworthy character of its infonnntion.' — OlL.\l*IIIC. COLOIVI^VL 3IAPH. AFRICA— TiioriCAL and South.— A New Map of tlio Hritisli Colonies iiiid Adj'icent Territories, with Koutes of l{iiilwiij\s in tho South, and including the iJiheoveries of Livisi:sto.ni:. Ca>ii;uon, &i'. (Jdoiired, price 2^. ('>i/. AUSTRALIA and NEW ZEALAND -IiichuliiiK tlic Fiji Llaiids. Showint; Divisions, ( hicf Towns, Kivi rs. Explorers' Jtontes, &c, Si/c 1 Uins. by y.Vins. Coloured, price l.«. ' A iKautifnl ai.il fimpli mail.' Im.i.'sI'i;ati:ii I.oMio.s Ni.ws. SEASONS-CHART of the WORLD, iiidicatiiig also tlio I'liucipal liout OS of Con; 'UTce, Hainlall, &c. Coloured, price l.s. S. W. SILVICR & CO.. i\(\ and (i7 '' ill, London, E.C,