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 ♦♦♦ 
 
 THE COLONIES, 
 
 AND THEIR CONNECTION WITH THE MOTHER COUNTRY, 
 
 WITH A 
 
 STATISTICAL LIST 
 
 OF THE 
 
 BRITISH EMPIRE IN 1886 
 
 APPENDED. 
 
 AN ADDRESS 
 
 DELIVERED BY 
 
 WALTER CHAMBERLAIN 
 
 PRESIDENT, 
 
 TO THE MEMBERS OF THE ABOVE INSTITUTE, 
 ON TUESDAY, FEBRUARY IsT, 1887. 
 
 BlRMiyOHAM : 
 J. I„ A!.U)AV, WooiWeOR TO T. H. tAKIKfl, PRINTKB, RDlCVKD WR1C«T. 
 
!♦ 
 
 National Library Bibliotheque nationale 
 of Canaaa du Canada 
 
^av6ovne anb gS6g6asfon gnsfifufe. 
 
 ADDRESS A^^:^^^^: ft 
 
 DELIVERED TO THE MEMBERS OF THE INSTITUTE, 
 , ON TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 1st, 1887, .-., , 
 
 WALTER CHAMBERLAIN, 
 
 PRESIDENT. •' '^i: 
 
 ^NE of the fathers of the Church, St. Chrysostom, an excellent 
 man in his day no doubt, but I fear somewhat of a 
 misogynist, has I have read, described woman somewhere 
 in his writings as "A necessary evil, a natural temptation, a desirable 
 calamity, a domestic peril, a deadly fascination, and a painted ill." 
 Substitute the word "colonies" for the word "woman," and 
 you have a very fair statement of the feeling with which very many 
 educated Englishmen still regard the colonies. They would rather 
 be without them, and yet they would not give them up if they 
 could. They may be "necessary evils," but they are also "desirable 
 calamities." 
 
 I hope in the course of the present address to be able to show 
 good reasons why we should consider our colonies generally 
 speaking as very "desirable calamities" indeed, and calamities 
 which we should do our best to retain, and whose connection with 
 the Empire we should endeavour to strengthen and consolidate by 
 all the means in our power. Look for a moment at the state of 
 Europe to-day. The great military nations face one another armed 
 to the teeth, it is with them now as it has even been in history : — 
 " ... The good old rule 
 " Sufficeth them, the simple plan, 
 ",That they should take who have the power, 
 " And they should keep who can." 
 
If we wish to retain our own with certainty, and not subject 
 only to the forbearance or gcodwill of others, we must look to 
 material as well as to moral power,- We may be just and good, 
 we must also be great and strong. 
 
 Now Professor Seeley in his admirable work, "The Expansion 
 of England," which I strongly commend to your notice, points out 
 that England's rank amongst nations is dependant on the retention, 
 in some form or another, of her connection with the colonies, 
 without them she may manage to hold a place in Europe, barely 
 equal to Germany or France, but in any dispute, where might is 
 right, she must some day succumb to the United States, to Russia, 
 and probably in the more distant future to China, and to her own 
 late Australian possessions. 
 
 With them, firmly bound up with her by ties of interest and 
 affection, she must rank, certainly not last among the four (admitting 
 China) Great States of the future, here in another form we have 
 St. Chrysostom's " natural temptation." 
 
 Bigness, as Professor Seeley says, may not be greatness, and we 
 may hold the first rank morally and intellectually, though materially 
 but a second or third rate Power, but as neither greatness nor moral 
 and intellectual excellence are incompatible with bigness, and as 
 that alone can enable us to protect our own with certainty, I do not 
 see why we should not endeavour to retain the colonies as a whole, 
 alike by the continued assertion of our authority over the Crown 
 Colonies and India, and by a closer combination with the self- 
 governing ones. 
 
 Nor must »ve forget that our colonial Empire once lost can 
 never be repk;ced. 
 
 Through the folly and obstinacy of our rulers and the political 
 ignorance of the people we lost our first colonies and the United 
 States, though still bound closer to us by ties of blood and language 
 than any other country, is nevertheless a separate and sometimes a 
 hostile nation. 
 
 I know that there are many who believe that this separation 
 must have happened in any event, but even if it was so, it would 
 have been much better that it should have happened by mutual 
 consent and in a friendly spirit, as well might have been, had the 
 wishes and feelings of the Americans been better understood by 
 the English people or their rulers, and it is for more consideration 
 of colonial questions that I am about to contend generally to-night. 
 
For myself I believe that the United States might have 
 continued to this day in full political union with ourselves, had the 
 rulers of past years been better advised, and given to colonial 
 topics one tenth of the consideration they gave to the false and 
 bewildering chaos of European politics. 
 
 That colonial Empire, however, was lost to us, and our fathers 
 with indomitable energy, and through great sacrifices of blood and 
 treasure, proceeded successfully to build up another — already far 
 greater in area and population than the one they lost — they 
 and we, have repaired their mistake ; we cannot repair a second and 
 similar error. There are practically no more lands to discover and 
 settle, nor with few exceptions do other nations now hold colonies 
 worth winning from them. 
 
 Other nations, as Profe ssor Seeley points out, have held great 
 colonial possessions, and uot knowing how to keep them have lost 
 them. Greater Spain, Greater Portugal, Greater Holland, and 
 Greater France have passed away and for ever ; Greater Britain 
 alone remains. Spain, Portugal, and Holland have fallen back 
 once and for all in the rank of nations. France, for all her energy 
 and patriotism, must soon pLy second to the United States, to 
 Russia, and perhaps to Germany. 
 
 It rests with this generation or the next to say, where in the 
 future our own country shall rank amongst nations. 
 
 Now you sometimes hear it said, chiefly for political purposes, 
 that Great Britain is already loosing her colonies, shrinking her 
 boundaries, and so forth, it may therefore be of some interest at the 
 outset of an address on the colonies to enquire how the case really 
 stands. 
 
 Let us see what shrinkages and what expansions have occurred 
 in recent times, that is to say, since the close in 1 8 15 of the great 
 colonial and Napoleonic wars. 
 
 Our colonial Empire as now existing has been slowly built up, 
 the first and mainly tropical part of it, before and during the wars 
 with Napoleon, and this portion was finally secured to Great Britain 
 after the peace of 181 5, that is, since that date, it has not again 
 been seriously liable to external attacks, before that time, during 
 thp long periods of war, which, with short intervals of rest, convulsed 
 Europe since the days of Cromwell, such colonies as we took by 
 conquest or settlement were liable to change hands frequently — 
 
Portuguese, Dutch, Spaniards, French and English being successively 
 engaged in the effort to acquire colonies, and with varying success, 
 until in the long run, thanks to her vast naval superiority, England 
 came out after Waterloo in 1815 the greatest gainer, with an already 
 large and varied assortment of colonies, Canada, the Cape Colony, 
 the West Indies, huge possessions in the East Indies, fortresses in 
 the Mediterranean and elsewhere. ' : ; . ; • : ; • ■:■ . 
 
 From that time and until a very few years before the commence- 
 ment of the present reign, or for nearly twenty years, very little was 
 done in the way of additions to the Empire, Botany Bay, in New 
 South Wales, and two or three points in Tasmania had been utilised 
 as convict settlements, but they had made little progress as colonies. 
 Then with the increase of wealth, the revival of trade and general 
 prosperity, and leisure at home, due to the long peace, men's minds 
 turned once more to possessions abroad. The " deadly fascination " 
 jf St. Chrysostom, and within a few years all the rest of the great 
 colonies in Australia were settled and fairly started on the road to 
 prosperity, the older colonies received a great impulse, and con- 
 stitutional government was, after a short struggle, granted to those 
 colonies which now possess it, to Canada in 1840, to New Zealand 
 in 1854, to the Australian Colonies in 1856, and finally complete 
 responsibility to the Cape in 1872. 
 
 Later on again, and right down to the present time, the 
 annexations, additions, and what may be called " rounding ofif " 
 of territory, continues, Fiji in 1874, Cyprus in 1878, one-third of 
 New Guinea in 1884, the Naval Station of Port Hamilton on the 
 Corean Coast, and the huge area of Bechuana Land in South 
 Africa, with other minor additions, in 1885, Upper Burmah at the 
 beginning of last year, and finally the island of Sokotra towards the 
 close of the year, and, I believe, a small block of territory on the 
 East Coast of Africa, near the Equa or, either annexed or protected 
 under an arrangement with the Germans, who have grabbed a much 
 larger piece to the south. 
 
 In all, omitting the two last-named countries, and Burmah, itself a 
 country as large as France, and which is annexed to India, 
 some 280,000 square miles of territory, or considerably more than 
 double the area of our own Islands, and more annexations, protest 
 as we will, are looming in the near future. 
 
 In this respect we seem to go on as the man pictured in Punch 
 as smoking in a railway carriage : — 
 
.'; " You ought'nt to smoke, Sir, (says the Guard), 
 . ' " So my friends say. 
 
 " But you mustn't smoke, Sir, . 
 
 " So my doctor says. >i^ 
 
 ' ' ■ ' . " But you shan't smoke, • , r ^ 
 
 '* So my wife says," 
 
 You oughtn't to annex, say the Tories. You mustn't annex, 
 say the Whigs. You shan't annex, say the Radicals. But we go 
 on annexing all the same. 
 
 Now against these enormous additions to our territories, what 
 have we lost or given up since 1815 ? 
 
 So far as I am aware, only the island of New Caledonia, taken 
 possession of by Captain Cook but never occupied, and in 1853 
 unfortunately annexed by France with our assent, the Ionian Islands 
 ceded to the then new Kingdom of Greece, and the Orange River 
 and Transvaal Territories in South Africa, each hastily annexed 
 by one ministry and restored to independence by another on further 
 consideration. 
 
 Of the four retrocessions, the only one that probably any 
 sensible Englishman would regret is New Caledonia, and that, not 
 on account of any intrinsic value of its own, but because it intro- 
 duces a rival power to Australian waters, and has, as a French convict 
 establishment, caused some annoyance to our Australian brethren, 
 if however, this annoyance should grow in the future to any serious 
 extent, there can be no doubt but that a federated Australia will 
 know how to deal with it. 
 
 When therefore we hear wild talk about abandoning our colonies 
 and so forth, we may do well to remember that such things have been 
 said from time to time during the last fifty years, but nevertheless, 
 the facts so far have been all the other way, and even to the present 
 day, the Empire so far from diminishing continues to swell at a 
 most portentous rate. 
 
 Now understand me, I am far from saying that these annexa- 
 tions were necessarily wrong, probably in the most recent cases 
 they have been forced on those in authority and who were respon- 
 sible, by circumstances, and much against their will. Our Colonial 
 Office from sheer mental slothfulness, if from no better reason, has 
 long done its utmost to discourage annexations, and in this has 
 been well backed up by the Radical party in the country, but we 
 cannot lay down hard and fast rules in such matters, nor adhere 
 through thick and thin to the absolute integrity of every principle 
 
we may wish to see carried out in Imperial concerns, we have some- 
 times to suffer from and make the best of past actions. 
 
 To quote the old simile of a stone thrown into a pool, the ripples 
 extend and widen long after the stone has sunk and the splash 
 subsided. 
 
 But, on the other hand, I most emphatically protest against the 
 doctrine that retrocession is, under any circumstance, inadmissable, 
 and that territory once annexed must be for ever held, that the 
 prestige, and perhaps the very existence of the Empire, is to be 
 staked if necessary, on the retention of every wretched settlement 
 or island we may now, or in the future, hold in any part of the 
 world. There are many places which I think we should consider as 
 held only on the condition that they continue to serve the particular 
 purpose for which they were taken, and from which therefore we 
 might at some time recede, with positive advantage to ourselves 
 and without injustice to others. 'i 
 
 We come now to the consideration of what is our colonial 
 Empire, what are its component parts, and their respective areas, 
 populations, trade, climates, and system of government. 
 
 To treat this part of my subject fully would, of course, require 
 a separate work on each colony — many of which works by-the-bye 
 are already in existence. For my present purpose it may be 
 sufficient, I think, to give a summary as in the accompanying list, 
 which embraces a concise statement on all the above matters. 
 
 In this list I have had to include the Channel Islands and the 
 Isle of Man, as also India and Burmah, but I do not propose 
 further to refer to these to-night, as India alone offers more than 
 sufficient matter for a separate address. 
 
 I may, however, point out that the government business of the 
 Channel Islands and the Isle of Man still passes through the Home 
 Office, as these islands have always been considered as integral 
 parts, not only of the Empire at large, but specially of the United 
 Kingdom, although they have peculiar laws and administrative 
 arrangements of their own. 
 
 Whilst India, because of its vastness and the peculiarly difficult 
 and delicate considerations which are for ever cropping up in its 
 government, is treated as an Empire, in itself an " imperium in 
 imperio," and is, consequently, administered by a special Office (the 
 India Office), presided over by a Secretary of State, always of 
 
Cabinet rank, and who is assisted by a Council, composed of 
 ex Anglo-Indian magnates. 
 
 The fortified position of Aden, at the mouth of the Red Sea, 
 and the tiny island of Perim, together with the whole of Burmah 
 are annexed to India for purposes of administration, and are there- 
 fore also subject to the India Office. 
 
 So far as I can discover, the list with which I have furnished you, 
 is complete up to the end of last year — with the exception of Sokotra 
 — though it has been a by no means simple task to compile it, as our 
 claims here and there about the world are in some cases of so vague 
 a character that, as we know in recent disputes with Portugal and 
 Germany, it has greatly exercised the Colonial Office itself to define 
 them ; at any rate, this list is more complete than any I have met 
 with. Those given in almanacs contain many errors of omission 
 and commission, whilst that published by the Colonial Office 
 leaves out certain of our minor possessions and Protectorates. 
 
 But we have also, in addition to our actual and acknowledged 
 territories, a multitude of treaty rights in connection with the soil 
 of independent nations or Potentates, giving us settlement rights or, 
 so to speak, pre-emptory claims, or debarring other nations, as well 
 as ourselves, from seizing the lands in question. 
 
 Of the first class are our settlements in China — at Canton, 
 Shanghai, and elsewhere, where Englishmen congregate on reserves 
 under consular jurisdiction. 
 
 Of the second class was our late treaty signed in 1876 with the 
 Sultan of Keshin, in Arabia, who claimed suzerainty over, and 
 collected tribute from, the large island of Sokotra, at the mouth of 
 the Red Sea, by which he agreed never to cede it to, or allow 
 settlement of it by, any other Power without our consent, and further 
 allowed our Political Agent at Aden to make an annual visit. This 
 treaty is now apparently abrogated. 
 
 Of the third class are our treaties with France, Germany, and 
 other Powers, as regards the Samoan Islands, the New Hebrides, 
 the Sandwich Islands, and other groups in the South Pacific. 
 
 Let me now give you a few rough figures to illustrate the areas 
 and populations of our colonial possessions. Roughly speaking, 
 Greater Britain, or, as Froude calls it, "Oceana," already com- 
 prises about one-seventh of the world's dry land, and includes, as 
 subjects of one monarch, more than one-fourth of the human race. 
 In other words, about eight million square miles of territory, and 
 
about two hundred and fifty million subjects — and these figures are 
 exclusive of the five hundred thousand square miles of territory and 
 fifty million inhabitants comprised in the Feudatory and so-called 
 Independent States of India, and also of merely protected areas 
 elsewhere. 
 
 To put it again in another way, Greater Britain about equals 
 Russia, with all its vast Asiatic possessions, is nearly three times 
 the size of the United States, fourteen times the size of France, 
 with all her colonial possesions, and nearly forty times as large as 
 Germany, which has (or had until the other day) practically no 
 colonies. - '■ 
 
 These are huge figures and, if of no other value, may at least 
 serve to show the greatness and importance of the subject we are 
 now considering, as it is obvious that, whether for good or for evil, 
 the retention or abandonment of this huge, and in population, 
 rapidly increasing connection, must seriously affect the future for- 
 tunes of the United Kingdom ; a country which holds sixty-five 
 square miles of extra territory for every one contained within its 
 own area, and to whose Government six persons own allegiance 
 outside for every one within, cannot afford for ever to treat with 
 indifference the subject of its colonial relations. 
 
 Let us now consider a rough classification of the colonies. 
 If you refer to the list, or possess any general knowledge of the 
 colonies, you will at once perceive that they cannot be all classed 
 under one head. They may be classified according to the reasons 
 for which their retention may be urged, and these are very various 
 according to their climates, their populations, that is whether mainly 
 native or European, or their form of government. 
 
 This last classification must be of itself valueless were it not 
 that in the main, and for obvious reasons, it follows roughly the 
 natural conditions of climate and race, as well as the special pur- 
 pose, if any, for which the colony was originally taken. 
 
 Thus, on reference to the list, you will perceive that I have 
 divided the methods of government under three heads — "Crown," 
 " Partly Elective," and " Responsible." 
 
 Both those which I have called " Crown," and those I have 
 entered as "Partly Elective," although they comprise almost as 
 many variations in the details of their governments as there are 
 colonies to be governed, come under the popular if not official 
 designation of " Crown Colonies," because in all alike the Crown 
 
II 
 
 possesses an effective veto on legislation; but in those which I have 
 specially denominated " Crown Colonies," the Government is 
 either purely official as in Gibraltar, Heligoland, Labuan, the Gold 
 Coast, &c., or tempered very slightly by the admission to the 
 Legislative Council of a few unofficial members of the community, 
 who are nominated by the Crown, and whose powers for good or 
 evil are practically limited to placing their opinion of particular 
 measures on record, as they can always be outvoted by officials, 
 are not usually even allowed to initiate legislation, and unless their 
 opinions are agreeable to the Governor are frequently severely 
 snubbed for expressing them, 
 
 Examples of this style of government may be found in Ceylon, 
 the Straits Settlements, Trinidad, the Fiji Islands, and others. 
 
 Examples of what I have termed " Partly Elective " govern- 
 ment may be found in Jamaica, British Guiana, the Leeward 
 Islands, Malta, Natal, and Western Australia, where the majority 
 of the Legislative Council is composed of non-official members, 
 elected under a more or less restricted property franchise, but the 
 Governor still possesses an absolute veto ; or in Barbadoes, the 
 Bahamas, or the Bermudas, where there is a double Legislature, the 
 first Chamber being mainly or purely official ; the second, elective, 
 on anything but a popular basis and its legislative powers as usual 
 entirely subject to the Governor's veto. 
 
 The two oddest forms of government exist in the small Atlantic 
 islands of Ascension and Tristan d'Acunha, both seized whilst we kept 
 Napoleon at St. Helena, for the better security of our prisoner. 
 
 The former is under the Admiralty, by whom the island is rated 
 in the Navy List as Tender to H. M.'s S. " Flora." This island 
 ship, which is always in commission, is commanded by a Post 
 Captain, and subjected to Man-of War discipline, and all lights 
 ordered out at ten p.m. A precious example of adherence to old 
 form, which is said to cost us ;^4o,ooo a year. 
 
 Tristan d'Acunha,* according to the "Colonial Office List" is for 
 the present under the moral rule of the oldest inhabitant, and his 
 
 • Tristan d'Acunha, — H.M.S. "Thalia" called here with relief stores, 
 August 5th, 1886. Pop. 97 — Males, 23 ; Females, 44 ; Children, 30 (under ten). 
 
 Cause of disproportion in sexes — 17 men just drowned during a storm. 
 
 About 500 cattle on the island, and an average of 10 sheep and a flock of 
 geese to each family. At " Thali.Vs" arrival, Islanders had been without tea, 
 coffee, tobacco, rice, or flour, for several months. The relief was sent in response 
 to the Chaplain's solicitations, he having come home for the purpose. The 
 Islanders seemed willing to emigrate en tnasse if the Government would find 
 them suitable homes elsewhere. 
 
temporary subjects — for it is hardly in the nature of things that 
 such a Governor should reign long — are reported well satisfied with 
 this patriarchal arrangement. 
 
 Both Natal and West Australia i-n one or another of these efforts 
 to shirk responsibility, and save itself from trouble, which is, or used 
 to be, characteristic of the Colonial Oflfice, have been offered full 
 Constitutional Government, but politely refused for very good 
 reasons. 
 
 Natal, because of the difficulty and expense of ruling its over- 
 whelming native population, and protecting its borders. West 
 Australia, because the offer was very properly restricted to a large 
 territory around the settlement of Swan River, where alone anything 
 like population exists. The West Australians did not like this limi- 
 tation, and argued very shrewdly that they had better wait awhile until 
 they could improve on the terms ; and they are probably right as the 
 waiting game in a growing community is the winning one. i . 
 
 With these two exceptions, and those of two or three fortresses 
 and naval stations, all Crown Colonies are situated in the tropics 
 and conversely, all tropical colonies are governed by the Crown, 
 for the good and sufficient reasons that the total population is 
 either too sparse to admit of responsible government or the native 
 races and interests are too important to make it just that their des- 
 tinies should be confided to the charge of the small number of 
 semi-resident Whites who carry on commercial pursuits in tropical 
 lands ; nor would it be safe now, or probably at any future time to 
 which we can look forward, to entrust the natives altogether with 
 their own government, that would be sure to result in the most 
 serious race and tribal complications, and might probably have 
 to be followed by a re-conquest on our part, or withdrawal and a 
 subsequent seizure by some other power. 
 
 On the other hand, and with the previously mentioned 
 exceptions, all the colonies with temperate climates possess full 
 responsible government, and all colonies, without exception, pos- 
 sessed of responsible government are mainly situated in temperate 
 or cold regions, since in all of these the white races have made 
 permanent homes and are rapidly developing into nations. 
 
 You will see, therefore, that all our colonial Possessions fall 
 naturally under three grand divisions. 
 
 The First Division, comprising the whole of the Crown Colonies 
 and Possessions, that are either tropical, and mainly inhabited by 
 
native races, or with populations too small for any other form of 
 government, or held as naval stations. 
 
 These colonies, omitting Protectorates and odd islands, are 
 administered under twenty-six separate governments, and include, 
 roughly speaking, 160,000 square miles of territory, with a popula- 
 tion of six and a quarter millions. With few exceptions, they have 
 all been acquired by war with European nations, or diplomacy, 
 generally due to war. 
 
 The Second Division, comprising all those colonies which, 
 owing to climate and the presence of a permanent and increasing 
 European population, have either received or must eventually 
 receive responsible government. 
 
 They are eleven in number, contain about seven million square 
 miles of territory, and about nine and a half millions of population. 
 The bulk of these have been acquired by comparatively peaceable 
 settlement. • . ': 
 
 The Third Division, comprising British India, with its Feudatory 
 States, and Burmah, embraces about one and a half millions of 
 square miles, and 256 millions of population. 
 
 Let us now consider the First Division — Crown Colonies and 
 Possessions. ^' .-''' ' '.•',-••'•-■ '■k-- v ',"■■-- ''-,;',■.■;.■■:•'• 
 
 Some of these need not detain us long. For instance, the 
 detached Coral Islands, in the Pacific Ocean, and some at least of 
 the islands attached to Mauritius are, so far as I can judge, perfectly 
 valueless, and seem to have been annexed by over zealous naval 
 commanders, and subsequently tacitly " allowed " by the Colonial 
 Office, on the general principle that induced the Knight in " Little 
 Alice " to carry about with him a mouse trap, namely, that it might 
 come in useful some day. 
 
 After these, there is a second batch of " Claims " and " Pro- 
 tectorates " perfectly useless in themselves and held by us, solely 
 to prevent any other nation taking them, and using them against 
 our shipping or neighbouring colonies, or to prevent troubles with 
 their native inhabitants. 
 
 Of the latter, the Maldives and Laccadives, attached to Ceylon, 
 and the Nicobars, to India, are examples. 
 
 Of the former, to keep off other nations, the Tristan d'Acunha 
 group, seized when Napoleon was confined at St. Helena, and St. 
 Paul and Amsterdam Islands, on the route from the Cape to 
 
..::■■■•' V,.:-,..-.. 14 . . ■ - „;■ , ■•■ /:.'■■ 
 
 Australia, are instances, as also the numerous islands about New 
 Zealand, together with Perim, Sokotra, and other islands at the 
 mouth of the Red Sea, on the route to India. 
 
 The story of the seizure of Perim, in 1855, though, I believe, 
 often told and well known, is always interesting and amusing. 
 
 A French admiral was sent out expressly to take possession of 
 Perim, hitherto unnoticed by the English. He called at Aden, 
 where the English Resident, being very curious as to the object of 
 his visit, invited him to dinner, plied him with good wine and many 
 questions. Learning by these means that he meant to sail again at 
 daybreak northwards the Englishman suspected Perim as his 
 object, and in order to obtain an excuse for leaving the table with- 
 out exciting the suspicions of his guest, he was seized suddenly with 
 a violent fit of coughing, which compelled him to leave the room. 
 Directly he was outside, he sent for the commander of the only ship 
 in the harbour under his orders, and directed him to sail immediately 
 for Perim, there to plant the British flag and put some seamen 
 ashore. The French admiral presently retired to his ship, and 
 sailed next morning, only to arrive at Perim and find the English 
 already in possession. He returned to his station a sadder and a 
 wiser man. 
 
 A third group may be formed for the present out of the 
 Protectorates at the Straits Settlements on the West African coast, 
 in South Africa, and also over New Guinea, all established in the 
 interests of the colonies on which they border, but not otherwise 
 concerning the Empire as a whole. 
 
 Fourthly, we have a group of Naval Stations, most important as 
 bases of supply and harbours for the Navy and Mercantile Marine, 
 and without which in these days of heavy coal consumption and 
 costly ships, it would be impossible for the Navy adequately to 
 perform its duties. 
 
 Such are Heligoland in the North Sea, Gibraltar and Malta \n 
 the Mediterranean, Bermuda in the North Atlantic, St. Helena and 
 Ascension in the South Atlantic, Port Hamilton (since abandoned) 
 off Corea, whence it was intended that our ships should watch the 
 Russian North Pacific squadron, and the Falkland Islands, near 
 Cape Horn, which were occupied, I am informed by the Colonial 
 Office, mainly to protect the whale fishery in those seas. 
 
 Such Stations as these, commanding the principal trade routes 
 of the world, are simply invaluable to an Oceanic Power, and I 
 
15 
 
 think we should grudge no necessary expense in order to maintain 
 and render them impregnable ; they should be regarded as part 
 and parcel of our fleets rather than as colonies, and held almost 
 without reference to cost as we hold an ironclad or a fort on the 
 Thames or at Portsmouth. This subject of the defence of our 
 Naval and Coaling Stations has lately been referred to in the House 
 of Commons by an eminent politician. Now I do not think that I 
 should often be disposed to differ from Lord Randolph Churchill 
 when that gentleman was advocating economy. I am not in love 
 with taxation in general, nor the Income Tax in particular, and I 
 devoutly believe that the Army and Navy Estimates may be greatly 
 cut down (especially the former) without endangering the country ; 
 but I would myself rather commence with almost any other item 
 than this one. That, however, is a matter of opinion, and one 
 which I cannot stay to argue to night. 
 
 Fifthly, we can separate from the others a number of colonies 
 which either combine the advantages of a flourishing trade with 
 those of a Naval Station, or are valuable for their trade alone, but 
 none of which are worth notice as producing anything themselves. 
 
 Such are Aden at the mouth of the Red Sea, Singapore at the 
 extreme end of the Malay Peninsula, Hong Kong off China, and 
 Sierra Leone on the West Coast of Africa ; the first three of these 
 do an immense trade, the last — Sierra Leone — a small trade, thus 
 adding enormously to the importance they possess as Naval 
 Stations. 
 
 The rest of the Straits Settlements and the other West 
 African Colonies, together with the newly-formed North Borneo 
 and National African Companies are examples of trading settle- 
 ments only, valuable as an indirect source of wealth while their 
 trade exists, useless and better abandoned .'f it should cease. 
 
 With regard to the North Borneo and National African 
 Companies I may add a word or two. 
 
 Both of these Companies exercise their authority over the 
 territories within their jurisdiction under somewhat similar con- 
 ditions to those enjoyed by the old East India Company. The 
 Council or Board of Direction has general power to elect or remove 
 the Governor or other officials, and to maintain an armed force for 
 defensive purposes, and to insure order within the Company's 
 jurisdiction, subject to the approval of Her Majesty's Secretary of 
 State for the Colonies. 
 
They hope no doubt some day to become producers, but at 
 present they cannot be considered other than as traders only, 
 neither can their territories, strictly speaking, be classed as colonies 
 at all, as they are not officially recognised as such ; but since, by 
 the grant of Royal Charters or Protectorates ov'er them and theirs, 
 the Colonial Office has become more or less responsible for their 
 doings, they cannot well be omitted from a general review of the 
 colonies. 
 
 Of late years, it has not been the fashion to encourage this 
 form of colonization, but, nevertheless, there is much to be said in 
 its favour, and not a few of our possessions in the past and present 
 had a similar origin, notably some of the United States, the Hudson 
 Bay Territory in Canada, the West African Settlements, the 
 Straits Settlement, and India itself. 
 
 Sixthly and lastly of the First Division, we come to the import- 
 ant group which are distinguished as producers ; they include 
 Ceylon, Mauritius, all our West Indian possessions, embracing 
 some five and twenty chief islands, with the two colonies of 
 British Honduras and Guiana, on the mainland, and the Fiji 
 group. . 
 
 They are all situated in the tropics, and in annexing them we 
 have incurred special responsibilities, which I think we must all 
 recognise, and which involve, in my judgment, in order that these 
 responsibilities may be adequately discharged, that we should re- 
 tain possession and continue to administer them, at least as far into 
 the future as we need trouble ourselves about. 
 
 These responsibilities are two-fold — First, to the native popula- 
 tion ; Second, to the English or Creole settlers. 
 
 Ceylon, by far the most important of the lot, contains a popula- 
 tion of about 2,800,000 — roughly, three millions — the vast majority 
 of whom are Cinghalese and Tamils, the latter originally from 
 Southern India ; there are, in addition, a considerable number of 
 Moormen or Mahommedans, the descendants of Arabs, who have 
 made their homes in the island for centuries past, some remnants 
 of the aboriginal inhabitants, and a few thousand white settlers. 
 
 In Mauritius, with a population of about 360,000, about two-thirds 
 are Negroes and imported Tamils from India, many of whom are now 
 permanently resident; the remaining one-third consist of Creoles, the 
 pure blooded descendants of the early French settlers, and a small 
 number of Europeans. 
 
In the West Indies, which includes the Bahamas, Jamaica, the 
 Leeward and Windward Islands, Trinidad, British Guiana, and 
 British Honduras, the population is roughly one and a half million", 
 almost entirely negroes or mulattoes, the bulk of whom speak 
 English as their only language. 
 
 In Fiji, out of a total population of some 108,000, only about 
 3,000 are whites, the rest are Fijians or Tongans, conquerors in the 
 old savage days from the neighbouring Tongan Islands. 
 
 And in all these colonies there are of course numerous half-castes. 
 
 Now, whether rightly or wrongly, we have annexed all these 
 places and have administered them, except Fiji, for periods varying 
 from seventy to over two hundred years, we have introduced 
 our ways of government, our justice, and to some extent our 
 civilization, and, as regards the negro population of the West 
 Indies, our language and religion : we have overthrown the old 
 native government, where such existed, and broken in on many of 
 the old customs ; we have governed them of late years at least, on 
 the whole, wisely and well, but we have rendered them unfit to 
 govern themselves on the old lines, if they ever had any ; and we 
 have not been able, we can hardly be said to have tried, to render 
 them fit to govern themselves in the newer ways ; if, therefore, we 
 gave thern up now, we should leave them a prey to social disorder 
 and misrule among themselves, or easy victims to the next comer. 
 If that comer was another civilized nation, France or Germany for 
 instance, they might not suffer by the change in the long run, but 
 they assuredly would for a time, and, when things settled once more, 
 they would find themselves at least no better off than under our 
 rule, therefore, and for their own good, we are, I conceive, morally 
 bound to hold them as part of the Empire. 
 
 But besides the native population, we must not forget our own 
 countrymen — planters, merchants, investors, and others, who have 
 spent many of the best years of their lives in opening out estates, or 
 building up businesses, or have invested large sums of money in 
 one or another of these colonies. Lands have been bought and 
 houses built, and numerous works carried out by these our fellow- 
 subjects, under Crown grants, or with direct Crown sanction and 
 encouragement, given expressly to assist the development of the 
 colony, and it would be a distinct breach of faith and a cruel 
 desertion on our part were we to leave this energetic— if small 
 minority, which is so indispensible to the commercial prosperity of 
 
i8 
 
 every tropical colony — to struggle for its rights, perhaps even the 
 liberties and lives of the individuals, with native rulers or new 
 conquerers, or to clear out at a ruinous sacrifice of its possessions. 
 
 In addition to these moral reasons, and the political one that 
 we should probably suffer seriously in prestige by retiring from such 
 important colonies, and so involve ourselves in further troubles, we 
 must not forget that nearly all of them — except the recently annexed 
 Fiji group (and even Fiji pays its way) — are a source of considerable 
 indirect gain. 
 
 It is true that neither they nor any other British colony pay 
 anything directly to the British exchequer as tribute, except for a 
 quid pro quo in the way of military or naval protection, but they all 
 do a more or less appreciable trade with this country, amounting in 
 the aggregate, for those I have included under Group VI., to 
 nearly five millions per annum, that is, goods handled or made in 
 this country (and in either case providing a wages fund for our 
 artizans and labourers, as well as employing a large number of 
 English ships and seamen), to the value of nearly five millions, are 
 annually exported to these Crown Colonies; unless, therefore, for 
 very stringent moral or political reasons — both of which I have 
 endeavoured to show point the other way — we should certainly 
 be wrong to do so ill a turn to our own overgrown population, as to 
 wilfully give up all or any portion of this trade. 
 
 With this sixth group of possessions the first great division of 
 our colonies closes. 
 
 Now in considering the important question of the material 
 strength added to the Empire by its various parts, or their consoli- 
 dation or federation into a world-wide Empire or Commonwealth, 
 we must keep the distinction between this and the second division 
 clear in our minds and treat of them separately. : . u. 
 
 In one sense, most of the Crown Colonies can never become a 
 sure or permanent addition to the strength of the Empire, there is 
 no probability that at any time within our view the mass of their 
 inhabitants can be so intimately associated with the Anglo-Saxon 
 race as to enable us to treat them as absolutely with us and of us, 
 and to cease to maintain the extra military and naval establishments 
 necessary to cope with an outbreak of rebellion. Cinghalese, 
 Tamils, Fijians, Negroes, and even most Half-castes, living as they 
 do under vastly different conditions of climate, speaking different 
 languages, and inheriting other traditions and peculiarities of colour 
 
»9 
 
 and ways of thought, can never so entirely imbibe Anglo-Saxon 
 feelings and prejudices as to unite with them as Canadians or 
 Australians might do. 
 
 We may educate them to govern themselves or nearly so, we 
 may give them, if we choose, responsible government, we may 
 induce them by wise and kindly rule to look upon us as good 
 friends and well-wishers, but we can never be more to them than 
 foreigners, nor ever induce in them that mighty bond of union 
 which springs alone, from blood relationship, from the community 
 of race and colour, of national feeling and pride in common ancestors 
 and inherited traditions, they may be contented and loyal to a 
 certain point, most of them are so now, they may as in the case of 
 the great negro population of the West Indies, possess no national 
 traditions of their own, no real national feeling, have learnt all that 
 they know from us, even speak our language as their own, but the 
 insuperable barrier of race and colour will for ever prevent an 
 absolutely trustworthy and complete union. 
 
 Therefore in resolving, as I hope we shall do, to maintain these 
 colonies (some of them always, nearly all of them, under existing 
 circumstances, for the present), we must resolve also to do it, vi et 
 armis, by force if need be, against themselves and against all comers, 
 and to that end we must be prepared to back our authority, if 
 necessary, by material as well as moral means. 
 
 But although I maintain they cannot be regarded as ever likely 
 to become a trustworthy and permanent addition to the strength of 
 the Empire in other and more limited ways, they do add consider- 
 ably to our resources, and, under wise government, they may yet do 
 so much more. 
 
 Firstly, as I have said, they add to our resources by the trade 
 they do with us. 
 
 Secondly, under certain contingencies, they may be useful as 
 recruiting grounds for soldiers. • ' 
 
 India is by far the best example of both kinds of usefulness, as 
 it may also, at any moment, become the most striking instance of a 
 possession which is a source of weakness instead of strength ; with 
 India, however, I am not to-night concerned. 
 
 But from the other Crown Colonies also, as I have shewn, we 
 receive an indirect benefit in the way of trade, and this trade not 
 only adds to our wealth but it enables us to maintain a larger popu- 
 lation in these islands than they could otherwise support, and it is 
 
obvious that, other things being equal, a country with a population 
 of thirty-six millions, such as Great Britain and Ireland, is a more 
 powerful state than one with a population of four millions, such as 
 Holland. 
 
 There is also a small advantage derived from the constant stream 
 of British colonists returning home to spend in the mother country 
 the wealth they have earned in its colonies, in this minor point the 
 the tropical colonies are proportionately more valuable than those 
 in temperate climates, as from the former, the Anglo-Saxons must 
 not only return home themselves from time to time if they wish to 
 preserve their health, but they must also send home their children 
 to be educated and reared, and remit money on their account. 
 
 As regards the absolute physical strength of the State, reckoned 
 by its fighting power, in men and money they also as I have said 
 assist, not only by enabling Great Britain itself to maintain a larger 
 population, but they may be also be made available, to what extent 
 we shall never realise until a real necessity arises, as recruiting 
 grounds, at least so far as to neutralise the drain they cause in this 
 direction in times of comparative peace, and although it is open to 
 dispute whether an Indian or negro regiment may be good for 
 much if placed in line against Europeans, they are good as against one 
 another, or against other less highly-disciplined races, and the system 
 which we already to some extent adopt of garrisoning one province 
 or country from another, is capable of a much greater extension 
 if it should ever be necessary to use for action elsewhere the services 
 of every available British soldier. 
 
 Therefore, though taken as a whole, and from a direct military point 
 of view, the Crown Colonies are no doubt rather a cause of weakness 
 than of strength to the other parts of the Empire, yet in other ways 
 they contribute materially to the prosperity of the whole, and since 
 the danger of rebellion may be reduced to a minimum by good 
 government and a sufficient reserve of force, there is little to urge 
 against the most part of them, except their liability to attack from 
 external foes. 
 
 No doubt in the event of war with another naval Power, the 
 defence of our tropical colonies would prove, at least for a time, 
 a source of much anxiety to the authorities, and some of them might 
 even be taken, their fate, however, would ultimately depend on the 
 general issue of the war, if we were successful, they would, if not 
 previously recovered, be demanded back, and of course returned. 
 
ax 
 
 If we were defeated, some of them would likely enough be torn 
 from us by the treaty of peace, whether they had been previously 
 seized or not. 
 
 On the whole I think it is pretty sure that, besides the moral 
 reasons for retaining them, the indirect advantages accruing to us 
 from tropical colonies are much greater than the more obvious 
 direct disadvantages, and there are few of our neighbours, therefore, 
 in Europe who would not gladly relieve us of them ; but the case 
 for the retention of each rests on its own circumstances alone, and 
 in some instances, if strong to-day may be entirely demolished 
 to-morrow. 
 
 Any way these colonies fairly represent to us the "desirable 
 calamity" and the "domestic peril," and to other nations the 
 " deadly fascination " of St. Chrysostom's woman. 
 
 We have now to consider the second division of our colonies, 
 comprising the great self-governing communities of our own race to 
 which reference is intended nineteen times out of twenty when the 
 colonies are mentioned in ordinary writings or conversation. 
 
 They are nine in number — Canada, Newfoundland, New South 
 Wales, Victoria, South Australia, Queensland, Tasmania, New 
 Zealand, and Cape Colony ; or if we include West Australia and 
 Natal, which must some day occupy similar positions, eleven in all. 
 
 According to Sir W. W. Lawson, in his inaugural address to 
 the Statistical Society in 1885, the area of these colonies within the 
 temperate zone, and, therefore, suitable as a permanent home for 
 our race, is equal to three-fourths of the total area of all the British 
 colonies and India. I make the amount myself somewhat less. 
 Deducting the tropical portions of Australia, the figures are roughly 
 as 5,750,000 to 9,084,000 square miles, or say two-thirds. 
 
 As illustrating their unique importance I may point out to you 
 that no other country possesses any similar colonies whatever, nor, 
 in fact, any outside territory of the least account within the 
 temperate zones ; nor, thanks to our pre-occupation of all such 
 inhabitable or available lands, can they hope now ever to obtain 
 any except through our weakness. 
 
 Notwithstanding considerable differences that exist between them 
 as regards their internal conditions and possible futures, they all 
 agree on many important points in their relations to the mother 
 country. All of tl;>em, though in varying degrees, are bound to us by 
 
common ties of race, religion, language, institutions, and inherited 
 traditions, all of them possess or will possess responsible govern- 
 ment, and are to all intents and purposes independent. Lastly, all 
 of them possess a remarkably good opinion of themselves, and I 
 must confess, seem to me a little too fond at times of the amuse- 
 ment called, in America, "Twisting the Lion's tail ;" that is, trying 
 how much they can get out of us by trading on the well known 
 weakness of the Colonial Office to lead a peaceable life. 
 
 Most of them possess great areas of unoccupied land, and all 
 are capable of sustaining an enormously larger population than that 
 which now inhabits them ; and lastly, all are likely in the future, 
 with the help of local federation, to develop into great common- 
 wealths. 
 
 It must, therefore, be obvious at once that such colonies as 
 these stand on a very different footing in relation to the question of 
 a united or federated British Empire or Realm than do the Crown 
 Colonies. 
 
 From whatever point of view we regard them, whether as sources 
 of wealth by the trade they do with us, as sources of military 
 strength by the assistance they can and seem willing to bring to us, 
 if called upon, or as territories whither our own ever increasing 
 population may emigrate without ceasing to be our fellow subjects ; 
 even now in their infancy, it would be difficult to over estimate the 
 importance to us of retaining the connection ; it is impossible to do 
 so, if we regard also the future — fifty years hence say — when either 
 Australia or Canada may number a population half as large as our 
 own. 
 
 As regards the Cape, there is no doubt, much to be urged on 
 the other side, and an intimate political union with Canada might 
 have its drawbacks, but in the case of Australia or New Zealand, I 
 can see absolutely no objections. They profit from the connection 
 now as much or more than we do, but with their vast capabilities 
 of expansion, a United Australia, or a United Canada, must ulti- 
 mately by sheer weight of numbers surpass in material power this 
 small land of ours, even as the United States are doing; and 
 bearing this in mind, it behoves us if we wish well for the future 
 greatness of our country, that we should leave no stone unturned 
 to make with them an honourable and lasting union. 
 
 They can, it is true, leave us when they choose, and as they 
 grow more and more confident in their own power and resources, 
 
they may choose to do so ; in that case, let it at least be our care, 
 that they leave us only with good wishes on both sides, and not 
 with high words and bad blood. But whether for the purpose of 
 retaining the political connection, and strengthening it, or at least 
 of avoiding an other than friendly separation, it is equally important 
 that the people of this country should seek to understand the 
 question in order that they may act with judgment and fore- 
 thought rather than from ignorance and impatience, and to that 
 end it were much to be wished that more time was given in every 
 school in Great Britain to teaching the history, geography, and 
 social conditions of our great self-governing colonies. 
 ^ Now, at the present time, the European population of Canada 
 is over four and a half millions, of Australia and New Zealand 
 about three and a half millions, and of Cape Colony and Natal 
 under half million — in all, say eight and a half millions of European 
 descent. These are not all, of course, of our own race. 
 
 In Canada, there is a large French population, and at the Cape 
 there are more Europeans of Dutch than of British parentage, but 
 the proportion of these British subjects of foreign descent 
 diminishes every year, as compared with those of British origin, and 
 for the moment we need not stop to consider this point. 
 
 The main fact is that there are to day in the self-governing 
 communities beyond the sea's eight and a half millions of British 
 European subjects, mostly Anglo-Saxons of the same ancestry and 
 speaking the same language as ourselves. Such a population, 
 already nearly a fourth of our own, welded with ourselves in an 
 offensive and defensive alliance against external enemies would bring 
 to the whole no mean accession of strength, and would, as it in fact 
 already does to a great extent, add largely to the importance and 
 stability of the Empire. 
 
 But all these Colonies are capable of maintaining a much larger 
 population than they now do. Were Canada or Australia peopled 
 in proportion to inhabitable areas, as our own islands are, they 
 would each of them number their inhabitants by tens of millions ; 
 no doubt such an ultimate expansion is far off yet, but in the mean- 
 time a vast increase is merely a question of years. 
 
 Professor Seeley has calculated that in less than half a century 
 the Englishmen beyond the seas will equal in number the English- 
 men at home, and that the total will not fall short of one hundred 
 millions ; that is, supposing that our own population continues to 
 
24 
 
 increase as it has done of late years, and temporary depression and 
 bad trade notwithstanding, seems likely to do, provided the union 
 with the colonies be maintained ; but whether our own population 
 increases or remains stationary, that of the colonies must go on, all 
 the faster by emigration if ours overflows, and by the end of another 
 century, no long time in the history of a nation, may not unlikely 
 exceed one hundred and fifty millions. 
 
 The United States, starting with a population of about two 
 millions at the Declaration of Independence, in a hundred years has 
 increased by fifty millions, or in the proportion of twenty-five to one. 
 
 The remnant of our colonial Empire in the temperate zone, 
 at the time of the severance of the United States could not have 
 contained 120,000 souls of European descent, mostly French, add 
 to these another 120,000 as the white population of the Cape, when 
 it was taken, say 240,000 in all, and this small number has swelled 
 in the some period of one hundred years, in the old and new 
 colonies, by natural means and by emigration, to the present 
 number of eight and a half millions, or in the proportion of thirty- 
 five to one. 
 
 Our colonies may well, therefore, in another century, with the 
 greatly improved means of communication, and the greater value set 
 on human life, increase from eight and a half to one hundred and 
 fifty millions, or as eighteen or nineteen to one, but confining our 
 calculations only to the next half century, we may fairly assume 
 with Professor Seelev that one hundred millions of British speaking 
 subjects at home and abroad will be under the mark if the 
 political connection continues. 
 
 One hundred millions of British subjects in the year of our Lord 
 1936 (some here present may live to see the day), only think what 
 that means, what vast possibilities of good -to the human race it 
 suggests ! By the same period there should be something like one 
 hundred and fifty millions in the United States, a kindred race 
 speaking the same language, possessing the same literature, and 
 governed by the same general ideas as ourselves. 
 
 The agreement of the two great Anglo-Saxon States would mean 
 the peace of the world, there would be, and there could be no other 
 nation that could afford to break that peace in defiance of their 
 mandate. 
 
 If wars are ever to cease from the land, it can only be through 
 the existence of great commercial States, all powerful to strike if 
 
25 
 
 need be, but pledged to peace by all their interests and all their 
 feelings ; States such as Germany in Central Europe, already a 
 great make-weight for peace (temporary war scares notwith- 
 standing), or the United States on the American Continent, or 
 let us hope in the future a British Empire. 
 
 Nor even if war was allowed to commence anywhere, need it 
 seriously concern such a British Empire of the future, any more 
 than a European war now affects the United States, which secure in 
 its vast and evergrowing latent strength, can afford to dispense 
 almost entirely with standing armies, and can spend on peaceable 
 progress, to the incalculable advantage of its working population, 
 the huge sums annually expended by European nations on arma- 
 ments and means of mutual destruction. 
 
 Again, before war could be declared by the mother country, 
 the allied colonies would have something to say in the matter, and 
 being out of Europe, where in most instances the casus belli would 
 be likely to originate, they would be much less influenced by the 
 war fever, and much better able to view the matter calmly. 
 
 That is one way of regarding the value of the colonies to 
 England, the additions, great at present, enormous in the future, 
 which they can bring to our material resources, union already makes 
 both them and us less liable to attack ; in the future it may 
 make us all but invulnerable by sheer weight of numbers, and in 
 so doing may enable us to dispense with the greater portion of that 
 huge burden of taxation to which we now submit in order to pro- 
 vide an artificial means of defence. 
 
 No doubt, as an Oceanic Empire, our naval armaments must 
 always be considerable ; but even these may be reduced rather than 
 increased as the danger of attack diminishes, and their incidence 
 when borne by one hundred or one hundred and fifty millions 
 instead of by thirty-six millions will be comparatively light. 
 
 Another way in which the colonies under consideration have 
 been of the greatest value to us in the past, and must continue to 
 be more and more so in the future, is in the matter of trade ; and 
 this is a question which comes much nearer home to us of this 
 generation, to us present here to-night, than does the other one of 
 population; population, at least for a sufficient development, is a mat- 
 ter of the future : the trade with the colonies is already a subject 
 of the greatest moment to us, and on its continuance much of our 
 immediate as well of our future prosperity must depend. 
 
26 
 
 » 
 
 Sir W. W. Lawson, in his inaugural address to the Statistical 
 Society already quoted, says : 
 
 " Although the system of free trade opens the markets of the whole world to 
 our colonies, nearly one-half of their trade, amounting to 199 millions a year, is 
 carried on with the mother country, nothwithstanding all the influences, of 
 distance, convenience, suitableness of products, and competition of commercial 
 rivals operating to reduce it." 
 
 Of this sum about eighty-eight millions was done by the colonies 
 now under consideration, and of the eighty-eight millions over forty 
 millions were exports from this county, that is British goods either 
 manufactured or handled in Great Britain ; they include such 
 various articles as woollen and cotton fabrics, engines and machinery, 
 rails, wire, and general hardware, agricultural tools and implements, 
 submarine cables, glass, earthenware, boots, saddlery, leather 
 articles, chemicals, paper, books, guns, and so forth, through an 
 infinite variety of manufactures ; and also horses, cattle and sheep, 
 for breeding purposes, to a considerable value. 
 
 During the same year, 1884, our five best customers among 
 foreign countries — the United States, France, Germany, Belgium, 
 and Holland — took about eighty-one millions ; therefore, the three 
 groups of constitutional colonies, with a European and native popu- 
 lation of say nine and a half millions, take half as much as our five 
 best foreign customers, with a total population of about one hundred 
 and fifty millions, and as might be expected, the proportion in 
 favour of the colonies increases year by year with great rapidity. 
 The reason of this comparatively enormous demand, mainly from 
 Canada and Australia, is obvious enough ; these communities are 
 mostly of British descent, they have retained with their connection 
 with the mother country their liking for English fashions and 
 English goods of all kinds. No doubt the trade will not continue 
 to increase in proportion to the population ; as the latter grows it 
 will of course rely more on its own resources, open out more than 
 hitherto the natural wealth of the land and inaugurate its own 
 manufactures on an ever increasing scale ; but for the present at 
 least, and so far as we can look forward, the demand for English 
 goods from the colonies, provided the unity of the Empire is 
 maintained, is likely to continue to increase, and our general 
 prosperity from that source at least to be secure. 
 
 But suppose a severance from the Empire of these colonies, if 
 it was an unfriendly one, the results must of course be disastrous, 
 and for many years afterwards our trade with them must fall to a 
 
27 
 
 minimum, whilst even a friendly severance by setting up distinct 
 interests and breaking the sentimental bond that now leads British 
 colonists to patronise British manufactures, and to come home 
 annually in tens of thousands to spend a well earned holiday in the 
 mother country, and to take back with them fresh notions in favor 
 of British goods as well as frequently the goods themselves, must 
 result in an immediate loss of trade and a greater loss in the future ; 
 and what such a loss would mean here at home with our overgrown 
 population depending so largely on outside trade for its daily bread, 
 I need not stop to point out, it is sufficient to say that even such a 
 severe depression of trade as we are now suffering from, would be 
 as absolutely nothing in comparison with that which would result 
 from the loss of our trade with Greater Britain. 
 
 This is the second and to us at this moment by far the most 
 practical consideration in estimating the value of the colonies to 
 England. 
 
 A third way in which we may regard them is as homes for our 
 surplus population. ;>, . 
 
 In 1 815, scarcely two thousand persons emigrated from the 
 United Kingdoms; in 1882, over forty thousand thus left us to 
 seek new homes. 
 
 Now, those who go to the United States or other foreign 
 countries, are for the most part lost for ever to the nation that gave 
 them birth ; they take themselves, their power of work, whether 
 mental or physical, their daily wants— to be supplied by other 
 producers — and their potential value as fathers and mothers of 
 future citizens, to swell the numbers and increase the wealth of other 
 and possibly hostile nations. 
 
 Those on the other hand who go to our colonies, remain sub- 
 jects of the same Crown, and continue as before, only with added 
 energy and usefulness to fulfil the duties of citizenship to the same 
 State. 
 
 In this address I am not concerning myself with the value of 
 Great Britain to the colonies ; that is their concern, but of course, 
 on most points, the benefits cannot but be reciprocal, and I should 
 imagine, in the matter of greater security to be derived from union, 
 for many years to come very much in their favour. 
 
 From this point of view, as suggested in the " Handbook to 
 the Colonies," the constitutional colonies may fairly be regarded 
 as so many great estates, inherited by all the subjects of Her 
 
28 
 
 Majesty, and which are always, so long as any unoccupied lands 
 exist, available for free distribution, or at least at prarie values, 
 among the p'^cr^ who can or will avail themselves of the chances 
 they oflFer. 
 
 There are of course, " unemployed " in Canada and Australia, 
 as there are in the United States, or at home ; and there always 
 will be, not only because many of those who emigrate have an 
 invincible repugnance to work of any kind, but also and more 
 largely because too many emigrants are adapted only to the life 
 of large cities, and are clerks or traders instead of agriculturists 
 and shepherds. That is an evil which cannot be eradicated, which 
 can only be combatted by warnings and ofificial discouragements, 
 but it does not in the least affect the general value of colonies as 
 affording a sure means of earning a livelihood to healthy and sober 
 emigrants not afraid of work, and who can adapt themselves to a 
 life on the land. 
 
 Now I have already pointed out that although the self-governing 
 colonies can be classed under one head, on many counts besides 
 their method of government, which is in fact only a result of the 
 main points of race, climate, and capability of future progress, which 
 they possess in common, yet that there are very notable differences 
 in their circumstances, so to speak. 
 
 In only one group of the three is the population anything like 
 homogeneous and practically free from race jealousies or native 
 embarrassments, that group of course comprises the Australian 
 colonies and New Zealand. 
 
 With the exception of a small and diminishing population of 
 Maoris in New Zealand, and of " Black-fellows " in the northern 
 parts of Ai'siralia, also fast dying out, and soon as well as the 
 Maoris to be absolutely lost in the fast increasing white population ; 
 there are neither natives nor European communities, other than 
 Anglo-Saxon, to complicate the problems of the future. 
 
 From one end to the other, east, west, north, and south, 
 Australia and New Zealand are British, no other language is 
 spoken, no other nation has founded, or can now found settlements 
 in those fortunate lands, the ^nglo-Saxon there is absolute master 
 of the situation, and absorbs and assimilates with ease, as in the 
 United States, emigrants from any other nation. 
 
 Australia, almost alone of the colonies, has cost us little or 
 nothing in the process of colonization. " How much did dat hat 
 
29 
 
 cost you ? " said one nigger to another in Virginia. " Don't know, 
 brudder, dar was no one in the shop, time I bought him." There 
 was practically no one in Austraha when we took possession. 
 
 Australia with a total area of nearly three million square miles, 
 has almost indefinite capabilities of expansion, indeed Australians 
 themselves are inclined to believe that their future may rival that 
 of the United States; without going quite so far myself, I am 
 prepared, nevertheless, to believe much that they claim for it. 
 
 New Zealand also with an unsurpassed climate, a most fertile 
 soil, and an area nearly as large as Great Britain and Ireland, may 
 well grow almost without effort into a strong homogeneous nation 
 of many millions. 
 
 For these lands the future is fair and there is not a cloud on 
 the horizon, they have but to wait a few years more to attain their 
 majority among nations, and then secure in their invulnerability of 
 latent strength and isolation, no harm can ever come to them 
 except from within, and it is hardly conceivable that disputes 
 should ever arise among them not capable of peaceful adjustment, 
 they have all been settled at nearly the same time, under similar 
 conditions, and by the same classes, and there is no approach to 
 anything like the same social differences between one Australian 
 colony and another, as lay at the root of the war between the North 
 and South in the United States. 
 
 The Dominion of Canada is not so happily situated in regard to 
 its circumstances, either internal or external, as the Australias. Its 
 total estimated area is greater — three and a half million against three 
 million square miles — but a much larger part of this surface is pro- 
 bably unfitted for human occupation, and for four or five months of 
 the year locked up by an arctic winter, whilst near)' all of its rivers 
 and ports are closed to navigation during the winter months, and 
 business operations more or less in abeyance. 
 
 But a far more serious difficulty that Canada may have to con- 
 tend with in the future is that which arises from the separation of 
 its population into two distinct races, speaking different languages, 
 professing different forms of religion, and inheriting different ideas 
 and traditions. 
 
 We need not take much account of the remnants of Indian 
 tribes which must soon disappear before the white man, without 
 embarrassing the future, not yet of the French half-castes, notwith- 
 standing the recent rebellion. These half-castes, like the Indians, 
 
30 
 
 are hunters and nomads, they possess no permanent national 
 characteristics, and are merely a temporary phase of early coloniza- 
 tion, to be soon swallowed up in the advancing tide of civilization. 
 
 But the French colonists, or Habitans as they are called, 
 occupy altogether a different position, and so far from evincing any 
 tendency to die out or become assimilated with the Anglo-Saxon 
 population, they are every year in Lower Canada, that is, in the 
 great province of Quebec, becoming more and more the dominant 
 race, and supplanting those of British descent in every department 
 of social life ; a result partly due to their own sturdy qualities and 
 large families, and partly to the restless energies of our own country- 
 men, which lead them to be always pushing out into the vast and 
 newly opened lands of the interior, leaving the less enterprising and 
 more contented Habitans to increase and multiply in the older 
 portions of the colony. 
 
 These French Canadians, for the most part, have but one 
 national sentiment. Unlike most colonists, they are not of their 
 adopted country first, and their mother country second, or vice versd, 
 they belong only to the country in which they live ; they are 
 Canadians pure and simple, and their motto is, " Canada for the 
 Canadians," by which term they understand French Canadians, 
 the descendants of the original settlers, and not of the British 
 conquerors. 
 
 Their old-fashioned Catholicism, fostered and absolutely con- 
 trolled by their priests, their language and intense conservatism in 
 manners and customs, keep them entirely out of sympathy with the 
 rest of the world, as much with their original mother country, 
 France, as with their step-mother, England. 
 
 In a certain limited sense, they are loyal to Great Britain and to 
 the Dominion Government, but their loyalty is hardly of the sort that 
 could be reckoned upon in times of trouble, and their race feelings 
 and prejudices are always ready to blaze out, as in the recent 
 instance of Kiel's execution ; when, as a community, they sided 
 strongly with the twice unsuccessful rebel, for no other apparent 
 reason than that he was a Catholic and half bred French Canadian, 
 and as in the steady way in which they ever give their support by 
 vote or custom to the French Canadian candidate for office or the 
 French Canadian merchant or shopkeeper. 
 
 In this distinction of races as well as in its contiguity to the 
 overwhelming vitality of the United States lies the future danger 
 
31 
 
 to the Dominion, and a special difficulty in forming between it 
 and the rest of the Empire a close and enduring bond of union. 
 Fortunately the greater enterprise of the Anglo-Saxons, and the 
 rapidity with which they are spreading out over and occupying the 
 vast interior, as well as their nearly complete control of the Eastern 
 and Western sea boards, gives to them so great an advantage in the 
 struggle for existence as to leave it hardly in doubt but that they 
 must in the future control, even more than in the present, the 
 destinies of Canada, and should the question of disintegration of 
 the Dominion ever seriously arise, as it did between the Northern 
 and Southern States of America, they will probably be both able 
 and willing successfully to resist it; but the French Canadian 
 difficulty in the meantime exists, and must be reckoned with as a 
 potent factor in any attempts that may be made, now or hereafter, 
 to federate or consolidate Greater Britain. 
 
 Lastly of the three groups of constitutional colonies we come 
 to that which has most recently received responsible government, 
 and which is in every respect alike the least important and the 
 most troublesome. 
 
 The South African colonies have been a thorn in the side of 
 the Colonial Office ever since 1820, and after a careful study of 
 both sides of the question, and with the strongest feeling in favor 
 of colonial enterprise, I have come reluctantly to the conclusion 
 that it would have been far better for this country if we had never 
 made a settlement in South Africa or had strictly confined it to 
 a military occupation of Cape Town and the immediate neigh- 
 bourhood, as we hold Gibraltar or Aden, as a post on the 
 route to India, even though such an occupation would imply 
 considerable fortification and constant readiness, that is, military 
 expenditure. 
 
 At the present moment our South African colonies comprise, 
 besides Cape Colony proper and its annexed districts, containing 
 in all an area of some 240,000 square miles, or a country as 
 large as Austro-Hungary, the Crown Colony of Natal, 21,000 
 square, and the protected area of Basuto Land, 10,000 square 
 miles, and of Bechuana Land, the annexation of 1884, about 
 185,000 square miles; both the latter purely native territories, 
 held solely in the interests, or at least on account of Cape Colony 
 and Natal. Also the Zulu reserve for which we have made our- 
 selves responsible. 
 
32 
 
 The problem to be solved here is complicated to the last degree, 
 not only by the presence in overwhelming numbers of a native 
 race possessed of huge vitality, but by the strong Dutch Africander 
 element in our own colonies, the existence of two independent 
 Africander States — the Orange River Free State and the Transvaal 
 — and of native countries, such as Pondo Land, over which we 
 exercise a Protectorate only, and Zulu Land on our borders, as 
 well as by the constant pressure southwards of apparently in- 
 exhaustible hordes from the interior, and as if these complications 
 were not enough, we have recently had opened out the prospect of 
 further disputes with European nations, in the confirmation of the 
 Portugese claims to Delagoa Bay, of the German claims on the 
 Southern, Western, and Eastern coasts, and of the French Protectorate 
 over the great island of Madagascar, on the South eastern coast, a 
 pretty kettle of fish indeed, and one which it will need all the 
 resources of statesmanship to stew into harmony, if indeed success 
 in the direction which we all desire is ever attained. 
 
 In the Cape Colony, the population of natives to Europeans 
 is as three to one, or 1,240,000 to 340,000, and the population of 
 colonists of Dutch descent to those of English, as two-and-a-half 
 to one, or 240,000 to 100,000. 
 
 In the whole of South Africa, there are only about 1 20,000 of 
 English descent against 360,000 of Dutch descent, and 2,500,000 
 natives. 
 
 In 1879, Mr. Chamberlain stated in the House of Commons 
 that between 1871 and that year. South African wars had cost 
 England ;:^3,3i6,ooo, of which only ;^i63,ooo had been repaid, 
 and the Zulu war involved us in a further five or six millions. Since 
 then we have had the war with the Transvaal, and. Colonel Sir 
 Charles Warren's expedition in Bechuana Land. 
 
 In 1863, Mr. Gladstone, in a speech, also in the House of 
 Commons, stated that he calculated, that Kafir, or native wars, had 
 cost this country not less than twelve millions. In the meantime 
 we are administering, at a great cost to ourselves, the countries 
 of Basuto Land and Bechuana Land, and generally exercising an 
 irresolute supervision over Zulu Land, as well as carrying on inces- 
 sant and costly disputes with the Africander republics — and all this 
 for a couple of colonies containing barely 120,000 of our own race, 
 and importing goods from us to a less value than five millions, or 
 about one-fifth of the value taken by our Australian colonies, which, 
 
33 
 
 except in the matter of naval protection, cost, and have cost us, 
 next to nothing. Things might not be so bad, if only our own 
 Africander subjects, enjoying responsible government under British 
 protection, were loyal ; but by all accounts we receive from the 
 Cape, this is far from being the case. 
 
 The French Canadians to whom I have before alluded, are, at 
 least in ordinary times, contented and passively loyal, but a large 
 part of the Dutch population at the Cape, seems to be in a 
 chronic state of threatening rebellion, and regularly to oppose 
 itself to any attempt on our part, either to promote Federation 
 among South African States, or to draw closer the union with 
 Great Britain. 
 
 There exists amongst them an " Africander League, " which 
 openly preaches the doctrine of Africa for the Africanders, which 
 has recently insisted in carrying on the debates in the Cape 
 Parliament in both languages, nothwithstanding the patent incon- 
 venience of such a course, and which would seem to be trying in 
 all directions to exalt the Dutch colonist at the expense of the 
 British. 
 
 Some part of our difficulties have arisen no doubt from the 
 grant of responsible government in 1872, nor does it appear that 
 at that time there was any sufficient demand for such an innovation, 
 whilst the small proportion of European colonists to the native popu- 
 lation, and the race differences existing between the former, all argued 
 strongly against it, and in favor of the firm rule and single authority 
 of a Crown Colony, but the Colonial Office was, I suppose, weary of 
 much serving, and anxious, as usual, to evade responsibility, and 
 shift the burden of deciding on a course of action amongst so many, 
 and such divergent interests on to other shoulders. As a natural 
 result of such weakness, the Colonial Office has found itself more 
 worried and pressed than before, and learnt in the most practical 
 way that a Constitutional Government may sometimes cause it 
 more trouble than a Crown Administration. 
 
 Basuto Land, conquered for, and annexed to the Cape Colony, 
 has by it, been repudiated and thrown back on the Colonial Office, 
 and the incorporation of Bechuana Land with Cape Colony has 
 also been declined, practical politicians out there, well understanding 
 that it was equally useful for their purposes, and much cheaper, 
 that England should administer and pay for these troublesome 
 acquisitions. 
 
34 
 
 Now when we come to consider fairly all these draw-backs we 
 may well ask, of what value are such colonies to us ? and frankly 
 in this case I admit that I don't think they are at present at least 
 of any value, on the contrary they ^re a distinct source of weakness, 
 both military and financial, and if we could bring ourselves to treat 
 the question simply as men of business, we might without the least 
 hesitation, vote to let South Africa go, and retain only by force, if 
 so advised by military experts, a few miles of territory around Cape 
 Town as a station on the alternative route to India, and to prevent 
 an enemy from establishing himself on such a point of vantage. 
 
 It is true that in so doing we should throw up absolutely any 
 chance of recouping ourselves indirectly for the twenty millions 
 odd already expended in fighting native battles for the colonists — 
 Dutch and English ; that we should leave the rest of South Africa 
 a possible and very probable prey to the first great power, France 
 or Germany, that chose to step into our shoes, who, commencing, as 
 they would do, where we left off, would derive all the benefit of our 
 profuse expenditure of blood and treasure ; and after all, whether 
 wisely or righteously spent or not, our money and lives have not been 
 spent altogether in vain since the great native clans or chieftanships, 
 which successively threatened the white man's supremacy, have one 
 after another been broken up and reduced to submission, so that 
 there is not at this moment in South Africa, since the suppression 
 of the Zulu " fighting machine," a single chieftain or tribe powerful 
 enough to threaten serious danger to the colonies. 
 
 But I would rather that we should write all this past expenditure 
 off as a bad debt and wash our hands of the whole business, than 
 continue to throw good money after bad, on the chance that South 
 Africa may one day, under our management, become a powerful 
 and united State in alliance with the rest of Greater Britain, did 
 such a course seem permissible on other considerations ; but I fear 
 it is not so, and that here, as elsewhere, we have by the acts of 
 those who preceded us, as well as by our own acts in recent times, 
 incurred moral responsibilities which we cannot shirk, and that 
 there is no honourable alternative before us but to go right on, 
 making the best we can of a bad job, and endeavouring by a 
 patient, wise and firm policy so to order matters as gradually to 
 teach our Dutch subjects that their best interests lie in a firm 
 union with the rest of the Empire, our native subjects that we can 
 and will protect them in the peaceful possession of their lives and 
 
35 
 
 liberties, and our troublesome Africander neighbours, that whilst 
 we are willing to leave theni "to stew in their own juices," we will 
 not tolerate incursions on our borders or attacks on natives under 
 our protection. 
 
 With South Africa this brief review of the colonies comes to a 
 conclusion. 
 
 Let me now sum up what I conceive to be the leading points 
 in connection with our colonial Empire : — 
 
 1. Our colonial Empire still increases vigorously, not only in 
 population by natural means, but also in area by new annexa- 
 tions and Protectorates. 
 
 2. The present colonial question is comparatively modern and 
 its urgency quite recent, since the bulk of our colonies date as 
 such, only since the Peace of 1 8 1 5 ; and by far the most important 
 of them, always omitting India, practically since Her Majesty 
 ascended the throne in 1837. 
 
 3. Owing to the vastness of the areas and populations concerned, 
 the question is one of the greatest magnitude and importance. 
 
 4. Although our present colonial Empire is in effect the second 
 this country has formed, it is also the last it can form, and if it be 
 now taken from us or abandoned it cannot be replaced by a third. 
 
 5. Taken altogether, this colonial Empire, although a source of 
 considerable direct cost, and some weakness and even danger in 
 regard to certain of its components, nevertheless adds enormously 
 to the general resources, and consequently to the material greatness 
 of the British nation. 
 
 6. Whether we were justified in taking them or not, we cannot 
 now part with the leading colonies without incurring much personal 
 loss and consequent suffering among the working classes. 
 
 7. In some of the most important Crown Colonies, we have 
 incurred moral responsibilities in connection with the natives, and 
 to a less extent with the whites, which we cannot ignore. 
 
 8. This colonial Empire is composed of two quite distinct 
 elements. 
 
 a India and the Crown Colonies, which are mainly tropical 
 and inhabited by native races, and which can never be 
 united with us in complete political equality ; but their 
 association with ourselves must always ultimately depend 
 on our material and intellectual superiority. 
 
36 
 
 h The self-governing colonies, which are mainly situated in 
 
 temperate climates, and inhabited by men of our own 
 
 race, who may form an equal and complete political 
 
 union with ourselves. 
 
 9. — The tendency of modern States, autocratic, constitutional, 
 
 and democratic alike, is in the direction of union ; accumulated 
 
 strength from sheer bigness, a few huge Stales must soon between 
 
 them rule the world. Our action in regard to our colonies will 
 
 decide whether we shall be among the rulers or the ruled. 
 
 These are, I think, the leading facts which require to be kept 
 clearly in view, whenever the colonial question is under 
 consideration. 
 
 Now, ladies and gentlemen, I have much to say with regard to 
 the means that may be adopted to strengthen and consolidate the 
 union — such as it is — between the various portions of the Empire — 
 the means that have been suggested during the partly-sentimental, 
 partly-practical movements of the last two or three years in favour 
 of the colonial connection, but I have already run out my hour 
 glass, and in your interests solely, and much against my own feelings, 
 I am compelled to omit all this part of my subject. 
 
 I will only say now, that in the main I agree with the most 
 recent suggestion put forward by Mr. Froude in "Oceana," a 
 suggestion, itself the natural outcome of the unsatisfactory results 
 of the discussion of previous propositions, and that is, just to leave 
 matters alone, to take no direct steps towards federation that are not 
 distinctly asked for or cordially accepted by the constitutional 
 colonies themselves, but — and the "but" is important — to do our 
 best to maintain and develop friendly feelings in a variety of minor 
 ways. To cultivate to the utmost the sentiment of blood relationship. 
 To accustom ourselves to look upon these colonies (Div. II.) as 
 really parts of one stem with ourselves, and not as fruit which must 
 ripen and fall off. To promote an arrangement for mutual naval 
 and military defence, and then to trust to time, education, habit, 
 commerce, and sentiment to do the rest. 
 
 With regard to the first and third divisions, the Crown Colonies 
 and India, since for the reasons I have given, I do not see that these 
 can ever be admitted into a really equal union with the rest of the 
 Empire or Commonwealth, and, in fact, it would be very undesirable 
 that they should. 
 
37 
 
 " Man is the nobler growth our realms supply, 
 And souls are ripened in our northern skies." 
 
 An intimate association with Eastern or tropical races would 
 conduce neither to our physical nor moral robustness. I can 
 only suggest in their case that we should give them good 
 government and good laws, and associate by degrees their 
 leading men with our own officers in the task of administration, 
 always retaining to ourselves the ultimate authority, and to that 
 end maintaining in or near them, under Imperial control, a sufficient 
 naval or military force. In short, Cromwell's advice to his troops 
 before the battle of Dunbar should be our motto here : 
 
 " Put your faith in Providence and keep your powder dry." 
 
 Believe me, this question of a closer union with our free 
 colonies is one of the highest importance to us all — to ourselves in 
 the future even more than to the colonists, and amongst ourselves, 
 to the working classes in particular, their comforts, the very means 
 of existence to many of them, are dependent on the continued 
 stability of our colonial Empire. It is no class question, no 
 question now of provision for younger sons, though younger sons 
 may still obtain more than their share of official appointments ; no 
 party question ; all of us now, whatever our political opinions, 
 whatever our station in life, are more or less directly concerned in 
 the maintenance of the unity and integrity of the Empire. 
 
 The only reason why the vast importance of the subject has 
 not been hitherto more fully recognised and more generally taught 
 has been, I suppose, the indistinctness due to distance, and the 
 apparent complication and multiplicity of details. 
 
 It has been like a mass of clouds on the horizon, shapeless 
 apparently and wanting definition, until the sunlight falls upon 
 them, when they stand out in full relief, with all their upper out- 
 lines clear and distinct against the blue sky beyond, dissipating 
 as they advance under the genial influence of the sun's rays, or 
 deepening into storm-threatening masses if the light again fades off 
 them. 
 
 We are, all of us, too apt to concentrate our attention on nearer 
 and more distinct objects, or as Mr. Snider, of breechloader fame, 
 once expressed himself to my father in regard to the cautious ten- 
 dencies of business men, ** too ready to place the cent so close to 
 the eye that we cannot see the dollar in the distance." A death 
 at our own door is a more shocking event to most of us than an 
 
38 
 
 earthquake in South America which swallows up ten thousand lives 
 at one stroke. 
 
 On this great question let us try to realize the position of the 
 colonies, their size and growing importance in the world. Let us 
 study them on the spot, if we can, here at home, with maps and 
 history, and statistical reports if not. Let us by all means manage 
 our domestic affairs ourselves, and in our own ways, but do not let 
 us forget that Greater Britain, of which they and we alike form part, 
 and to which, affect what carelessness we may, we are all of us at 
 times proud to belong, 
 
 DIRMIXOHAM : 
 PRINTED BY J. L. ALI.DAV, 8l'CrE880U TO T. H. LAKIN8, EDMUND STREET. 
 
THE 
 
 bi^itish: 
 
 PROM THE K 
 
 COLONY. 
 
 EUROPE. 
 
 HELIGOLAND 
 
 GIBRALTAR 
 
 MALTA AND GOZO 
 
 , ASIA. 
 
 CYPRUS 
 
 CEYLON 
 
 M AU)i VK Islands 
 
 Laccaiiivk Isi,an"i>s 
 
 STRAITS SETTLEMENTS. 
 
 SiNdAI'KllK 
 
 Pl'.NAXli 
 
 Malacca 
 
 ri'.iiAK 
 
 SkLAN(U»1! 
 
 SfxoAi UjoN(; 
 
 Ki;klin(j Islanos . . 
 
 LAliUAN 
 
 NORTH BORNEO 
 
 HONG KOMi 
 
 KoWLOiiN' rKNINSULA 
 
 BRITISH INDIA 
 
 Nativk Iniha 
 
 BniMAH, Ul'l'Kll 
 
 BrUMAH, LOWKI! 
 
 Andaman Islands 
 
 NicoiiAi; Islands 
 
 Adk.n 
 
 Bi:i!iM 
 
 .MosiiA Islands 
 
 SilKdTIlA 
 
 How ACCJUIRKD. 
 
 When. 
 
 CoiKiiiost L. 1807 
 
 Coiunicst '... 1704 
 
 Taken 1800 
 
 Treaty . . 
 Cou([uest 
 
 1878 
 1 7m 
 
 Ce.ssion 1819 
 
 Cession ... 
 Excliange 
 
 178.") 
 1824 
 1874 
 1874 
 1874 
 
 Protected ... 
 Protected ... 
 Protected ... 
 Annexed . . . 
 
 Cession |... 1847 . 
 
 Royal Charterl... 1881 . 
 
 Cession '... 1841 . 
 
 Ce.ssion i... 1861 . 
 
 CoiKiuest 1625 to 
 
 ... 1849 . 
 
 Con(ine,st '... 1886 
 
 Sqre. Miles, 
 
 1 
 115 
 
 Coni|Uest 
 Occupied 
 Claimed.. 
 Ce.ssion .. 
 Seized . . . 
 Cession ,., 
 Cession .., 
 
 1826-52 
 
 KodiiiA MoniMA Islands i Cession 
 
 18:J8 
 1855 
 1840 
 1886 
 
 Settlement 
 
 Cessions 1861 
 
 I'rotccted I.. 1884 
 
 Con([llest 
 
 AFRICA. 
 
 WEST AFRICA SETTLEMTS. 
 
 Sir.ituA Lf.onk 
 
 GAMiiiA RiVKii Settlement ... 
 
 (VOLD coast I I Conipie.st and 
 
 AND PiuiTKcTuUATr. j j Ccs.slons ... 
 
 I LA(i0S 
 
 AND PlInTlXTiiK.VrK 
 
 NIGER DISTRICTS 
 
 CAPE COLONY 
 
 Walfiscii Bay 
 
 PoNDo Land 
 
 i>.\si'T(i Land 
 
 P.Kcm'ANA Land 
 
 NATAL AND St. Lvcia Bay.. 
 
 Zn.r RicsKuvK 
 
 ASCENSION 
 
 St. HELENA 
 
 TRISTAN D'ACUNH A 
 
 Ni(iiiTiN(iALK Islands 
 
 lN.\cci;.ssiitLK Island 
 
 MArRITIUS 
 
 Slvchkllks 
 
 RiiDliliUKZ 
 
 Cn.Vdos AKCllllM'.L.\CiO 
 
 AMII!A\ri', IsL.\NDS 
 
 AssiMi'TKtN Island 
 
 AlMiKIti; \ IsL.\NDS 
 
 1787 
 1588 
 
 1662-1872 
 
 .. 3,584 
 24,702 
 
 .. 1,445 
 
 10,975 
 
 . 3,05.3 
 
 .. 1,636 
 
 9 
 
 30 
 
 30,000 
 29 
 
 787,000 
 
 509,730 
 
 190,000 
 
 87,220 
 
 Population. 
 
 ... 2,000 
 
 18,381 
 
 149,782 
 
 .. 186,000 
 2,764,000 
 
 Tlir'gli Trade. 
 
 592,000 
 
 .. 7,972,000 
 
 423,000 
 
 400 
 
 ... 6,000 
 150,000 
 
 I ... 160,000 
 
 195,000,000 
 ..56,000,000 
 .. 1,670,000 
 .. 3,700,000 
 
 Total Trade. 
 
 ...36,212,000 
 
 170,600 
 
 4,300,000 
 
 66 
 
 ..7 
 
 1,700 
 
 20 
 
 3,000 
 ...69 
 
 4,657 
 
 1806-77 
 . 1884 . 
 . 1874 . 
 
 \nne.\ed 
 Protected 
 
 Protected 1... 1868 
 
 I'rotccted !... 1885 
 
 Anne.\e<l 1843 
 
 Proclaimed ...!... 1884 
 
 Seized ,. 
 Taken .. 
 Seized .. 
 Seized . . 
 Seized .. 
 Con(|nest 
 Taken . . , 
 Seized ... 
 Annexed 
 
 1815 
 1673 
 1815 
 1815 
 1815 
 1810 
 1810 
 1810 
 1885 
 
 1,071 
 
 National 
 
 l 242,000 
 
 Incu'dkd 
 ... 10,000 
 ... 185,000 
 ... 24,000 
 
 35 
 47 
 20 
 
 ...4 
 ...2 
 708 
 
 350 
 
 34,000 
 ...150 
 
 1-152 
 
 ,000,000 
 
 9,021,000 
 
 3,458,000 
 
 74,696 I... 1,252,000 
 
 651,000 
 
 75,270 
 
 African Com 
 
 ... 1,252,000 
 
 WITH Cai'K 
 128,000 
 
 424,494 
 
 165 
 
 . .. 4,650 
 
 100 
 
 None . . . 
 None ... 
 . 370,766 
 
 . 16,000 
 
 A.MsTKiiDAM Islands. 
 St. Pai l Island 
 
 AMERICA. 
 
 DOMINION OF CANADA. 
 
 ... 1,194,000 
 ... 1,210,000 
 
 I'ANY, I'NDKll 
 
 ...12,300,000 
 Colony 
 
 2,634,000 
 
 63,500 
 
 6,600,000 
 
 NEWFOUNDLAND... 
 
 LaiikaiiiiI! Coast ... 
 
 BEUMPDAS 
 
 BAHAMAS ... 
 
 .lAMAICA 
 
 T/AYMAN IsLANhH ... 
 
 C<>ni|Uest and 
 
 Settlement ... 
 
 Colonized 
 
 Colonized 
 
 Final Cession 
 ComiiieNt 
 
 1758-83 
 .. 1623 .. 
 
 JitlMttittm 
 
 1609 
 1785 
 1055 
 
 dM^ 
 
 3,500,000 
 
 .. 40,200 
 . 80,000 
 
 41 
 
 5,400 
 
 4,163 
 
 Htm 
 
 4,4.50,000 
 
 ... 193,100 
 
 4,200 
 
 ... 14,888 
 ... 43,521 
 ,.. 581,000 
 
 mm 
 
 .49,500,000 
 
 3,373,000 
 
 ... 372,000 
 .... 380,000 
 . 2,991,000 
 
 ■IBI 
 
I 
 
 LATEST STATISTICS. 
 
 IIsT 1886. 
 
 E. 
 
 Leadino Bxpobth. 
 
 e. 
 
 Uiaiii, Cotton, Fruit, and Wine 
 
 Cott'ee, Tea, Ciiu'liona, Pluniliago 
 Precious Stones, Cocoa Xut Products 
 
 Till, Sugar, Sj)iccs, RuIiIhm', eh 
 
 Climate. 
 
 Teni}H!rate. 
 Tempi rate. 
 Tenii)erate. 
 
 Government. 
 
 Hemarks. 
 
 Suli-troj)ieal 
 J Tiopical .. 
 
 Tro[iical 
 
 9 Coal, and Forest Products 
 ..! Forest Products 
 
 Iq! Cotton, 0]iiuni, Seeds, "Wlieat, Indigo, 
 .lute. Tea, etc 
 
 ) Rice, (Juins, Teak, Dye-woods, etc. ... 
 
 (ruan 
 
 Palm Oil .lud Kernels, (iround Xuts, 
 Ik'unie Seed.s, Rnliher, etc 
 
 Palm Oil and Kernels, (iold, etc 
 
 Palm Oil and Kernels 
 
 RoYAI, CHAIlTF.l!, 188G 
 
 Diamonds, Cold, Copjier Ore, Wooi, 
 Wine, Ostrich Feathers, etc 
 
 Wool, Sugar, Coilec, Hides, etc. ... 
 
 Tropical 
 
 Ti()[ucal 
 
 Suli-tropical 
 
 Sul)-tropieal to 
 
 tro[iical 
 
 TrojiicaJ 
 
 Trojiical 
 
 Tro]iieal 
 
 Trojiical 
 
 'l'ro|iical 
 
 'I'lopical 
 
 Tropical 
 
 Tropical 
 
 Trop 
 
 Crown Xaval Station. 
 
 Crown Road to India. 
 
 Partly Elective | Xaval Station. 
 
 Crown !■ Road to India 
 
 (.^rown 
 
 Crown 
 
 Producing. 
 Aieiely supervised. 
 Merely supervi.scd. 
 
 Trading and X'^aval Station. 
 
 Trading Settlement. 
 
 Trading Settlement. 
 
 I Xative State, protected. 
 
 I X'ative State, protected. 
 
 I Xative State, protecteil. 
 
 ! Route to Australia. 
 
 Crown ; X'aval Station. 
 
 Comiiany ; Trading Company. 
 
 Crown ^ Xaval and Trading Station, 
 
 Ruled liy the Viceroy. 
 Entii'cly feudatory to the Crown. 
 Ruled liy the Viceroy. 
 Ruled liy the \'iceroy. 
 Indian Convict Prison. 
 Merelv supervised. 
 RcHite to India, Trading Station. 
 Ro'ite to India, 
 Route to India. 
 Route to India, 
 
 CroMii, through 
 the India-i 
 Othee..., 
 
 Sugar, Runi. Vanilla, Cocoa Nuts. 
 .Mai/e, eti- 
 
 Tindter, Copper Ore, Fur.s, Fish, 
 Cattle, (Jrain, etc 
 
 Coil Fish, Cod and Seal Oilw, Seal- 
 Sealskins, (Jop|ier Ore 
 
 Vi'jjetalilcM 
 
 S|Mpnge, FruitM, etc 
 
 / Sugar, llnm, Fruits, Collce, All- 
 
 Tropieul ... 
 
 Trii|iieal 
 
 Tropical ... 
 
 Tropical 
 
 Tem])erate... 
 
 Temiicrave... 
 Suli-tro])ical 
 Suii-tropieal 
 Sub-tropical 
 Suli-tiopical 
 Tro](ical ... 
 Trojiical ... 
 Temperate... 
 Temjierate... 
 Temperate... 
 
 Leased to a Com- 
 pany 
 
 OlitaiiH'd lor Telegraiih Station, 
 
 Crown Xaval and Trading Stations. 
 
 Crown 
 
 Crown 
 
 Comiuiny 
 
 Re.s|)onsihle 
 
 Commissioner .... 
 Commissioner .... 
 Comndssioner .... 
 Partly Klective... 
 Commissioner .... 
 
 Adnuralty 
 
 Crown 
 
 Oldest Inhaliitant " 
 
 Tropical 
 
 Tropical 
 I Temperate 
 
 Arctic to temper- 
 ate 
 
 Huh-aretic 
 
 Arctie 
 
 Mild 
 
 Tropical 
 
 "'riiiiiiir 
 
 Parti v Elective... 
 
 ReNpoHHilile .... 
 
 Respoiisilile .... 
 
 Partlv Elective. 
 Partl'v ICIective. 
 
 m 
 
 'artlv 
 ife 
 
 ■tiv. 
 
 Trading Settlement. 
 
 Trading Settlement. 
 
 Trading Comimny. 
 
 X'atives as .'J to 1 uf Whites. 
 
 Meld for Cape Colony. 
 Held lor Cajie Colony. 
 Held for CVqie Colony. 
 Xativcs as 13 to 1 of Whites. 
 Held lor Xatal. 
 l^sed hy Whalers. 
 Xavfil .Station. 
 
 Taken to guard Xa]ioleon at 
 St. Helena, 
 
 Producing, 
 
 Producing, 
 
 Sanatorium, etc, 
 
 (.'oaling Station at Diego (tarcia. 
 
 l{oute to Australia, Uii.nhaliited 
 
 X'aval Station. 
 Producing. 
 
 i'liidniii 
 
 ii 
 
TiKs AND Caicos Islands. 
 
 lURlJADOES 
 
 WINDWARD ISLANDS. 
 
 (fP.KNAKA 
 
 Sr. YlN( KXT 
 
 Sr. LrciA 
 
 TtiliACd 
 
 LFEWARD ISLANDS. 
 
 ANTKirA 
 
 iroNTSKUItAT 
 
 Si'. KlTTS 
 
 Nr.vis 
 
 ANta'ii.i.A 
 
 Vll!(;lN" Isi.ANMlS 
 
 DoMINIt'A 
 
 IjAIMU'DA 
 
 « TRINIDAD 
 
 HRITISH GUIANA 
 
 15RITISII HONDURAS 
 
 FALKLAND ISLANDS 
 
 Sorrii (tKoiiciA 
 
 AUSTRALASIA. 
 
 NEW SOUTH WALES 
 
 NouFoi.K Island 
 
 LtJitn HmvKs Island 
 
 PrrcAiuN Island 
 
 VICTORIA 
 
 SOUTH AUSTRALIA .. 
 
 (n^EENSLAND 
 
 WEST AUSTRALIA 
 
 TASMANIA 
 
 NEW ZEALAND 
 
 Kkkmadkc Islands .. 
 
 Chatham Islands .. 
 
 Antipodks Islands .. 
 
 Bounty Island 
 
 ArcKLANO Island 
 
 Cami'IJELL Island 
 
 Macquauik Islands . 
 
 EMKitALT> Islands 
 
 S.E. NEW GUINEA .. 
 FIJI ISLANDS 
 
 Rotumah 
 
 Fannino Island .. 
 Caroline Island .. 
 Staubuuck Island 
 Malden Island 
 
 Tivatv yr.. 178". 
 
 ColoiiiziMl ./..\... 162.". 
 
 Final Cession 
 Final Cession 
 Final Concpiest 
 Final Comiucst 
 
 Final 
 Final 
 Final 
 
 Colonized 
 
 Final Cession 
 Cession 
 Cession 
 Cession 
 
 Colonized 
 
 Final Cession 
 
 Colonized 
 
 Con<{nest 
 
 Taken 
 
 Final Con(|uest 
 
 Settled 
 
 Claimed 
 
 ] 78:5 
 I78;i 
 ] 80.3 
 1803 
 
 ... 1632 .. 
 
 ... 1783 .. 
 
 ... 1783 .. 
 
 ... 1783 .. 
 
 .. 1783 .. 
 1666-181.''. 
 
 ... 1783 .. 
 
 .. 1632 .. 
 
 .. 1797 .. 
 
 .. 1803 .. 
 
 .. 17!>8 .. 
 
 .. 1833 .. 
 
 Colonized .. 
 
 Colonized .. 
 
 > Claimed .. 
 
 Settlement 
 
 Coloniz(>d .. 
 
 Colonized .. 
 
 Colonized .. 
 
 Colonized .. 
 
 Colonized .. 
 Annexed 
 
 Annexed . . 
 
 Claimed 
 
 Protected 
 Cession ... 
 Cession ... 
 
 - Claimed 
 
 1788 
 1789 
 
 .. 183.^ .. 
 
 .. 1836 .. 
 
 ,. 182o .. 
 
 .. 1829 .. 
 
 .. 1803 .. 
 1839-40 
 
 .. 1886 .. 
 
 .. 1810 .. 
 
 1884 
 1874 
 1880 
 
 TOTAL OF THE COLONIES AND INDIA 
 
 GREAT BRITAIN AND IRELAND. 
 
 Isle of Man 
 
 Channel Islands 
 
 GRAND TOTAL OF THE EMPIRE 
 
 ... 1, 
 109, 
 ... 7, 
 ... 6, 
 ... 1, 
 
 169 
 166 
 
 12.'. 
 140 
 243 
 114 
 
 108 
 35 
 68 
 
 r.o 
 
 3.T 
 
 64 
 275 
 
 75 
 ,754 
 000 
 502 
 500 
 000 
 
 310, 
 
 938 
 
 16 
 
 ...5 
 
 87, 
 903, 
 668, 
 978, 
 
 26, 
 104, 
 
 884 
 690 
 497 
 300 
 215 
 000 
 
 337 
 
 88, 
 • 7, 
 
 457 
 663 
 
 9,085,511 
 
 121,115 
 
 281 
 
 73 
 
 9,206,980 
 
 ... 5,000 
 171,860 
 
 139,. 553 
 
 116,000 
 
 .. 153,128 
 .. 264,361 
 . 27,452 
 1,553 
 
 None ... 
 
 .. 57,000 
 2,475,000 
 
 973,300 
 
 941.100 
 
 4,488,000 
 
 4, 321,, 500 
 
 .. 5.55,000 
 
 ... 169,000 
 
 992,875 
 470 
 
 1,000,000 
 .. 320,057 
 .. 310,000 
 .. 33,000 
 .. 130,541 
 .. 573,480 
 None . . , 
 
 128,414 
 
 272,915,207 
 
 ...36,400,000 
 
 54,089 
 
 88,806 
 
 309,458,102 
 
 .41,078,000 
 
 .35,257,000 
 .12,373,000 
 .11,055,000 
 .... 926,800 
 . 3,132,000 
 .14,7,55,000 
 
 r80,000 
 
 68.5,985,000 
 
Sugar, Rum, Coroii Troin' 
 
 «Hi 
 
 Sugar, Rum, llolasst's, Logwood, 
 S|)i('e.s, etc 
 
 Sugar, Rum, Molasses, Limejiiiic, ete. Tropica 
 
 Partly Klectivc ! I'nMliicii 
 
 lii'. 
 
 Ti 
 
 d|>ical 
 
 Sugar, Cocoa, etc 
 
 Sugar .'■ 
 
 Mahogany, Logwood, aud Sugar .. 
 Wool, Hides, Tallow, aud iMuttou 
 
 Crown 
 
 Parti V Klectivc. 
 
 Wool, .Meat, 
 Coal, etc. ... 
 
 Com, Wiue, Gold, 
 
 Tropical Crown 
 
 Tiopical 
 
 Tropical 
 
 Temperate 
 
 i^ul) -arctic 
 
 Partly Elective. 
 
 Crown 
 
 Crown 
 
 Tem])erate 
 
 Mil.l 
 
 Mild |. 
 
 Tropical I i Mutineer.- 
 
 "Wool, Corn, Wine, Cold, etc Temi)eratc I Re.siwn.sihle : 
 
 'r<idi 
 
 icing. 
 
 Pi'oiliicii 
 
 I'roduciug. 
 Producing. 
 Pi'oduciiig. 
 
 Taken for protection of Wlia]( 
 Fi.slu'rv. 
 
 of the " liountv.' 
 
 "Wheat, Wool, Wine, Copper, etc. 
 Wool, Sugar, (Jold, Tin, etc. 
 
 Wool, Tiniher, etc 
 
 Wool, Timl)cr, Jam, Hops, et 
 Wool, Gold, Corn, Frozen Meat, Kauri- 
 gum, etc. 
 
 Sugar, Coi)ra, Cotfec, etc. 
 
 Guano Tropical 
 
 Teni]). to tro])ical 
 Temp, to tropical 
 Temi). to tropical 
 
 Temi»eratc 
 
 Temi)erate. 
 
 Tvopi(?al 
 Tropical 
 
 Responsible .... 
 Re.sponsil)le .... 
 Partly Elective. 
 Responsilile .... 
 Responsible .... 
 
 Commi.s.sioner 
 Crown 
 
 Pop., exclusive of 40,000 Maoris. 
 
 Uninhabited Lslaiuls, 
 
 Mo.stly unknown. 
 Producing. 
 
 Merc Coral Lsland.s in the Paciiii 
 
 NOTE.-( 
 NOTE. 
 
 f CROWN Where Crown has sole control of legislation. 
 
 JOVFR\MF\T ^ PARTl^V KLKCTIVE ... Where Crown controls legislation, Imt Legislative 
 J Hodv is jiartlv elective. 
 
 ( RESPOXSIP.LE Where full Con.stitutional Govermuent c.\i.st.s. 
 
 -The area of Colonics situated in temperate or cold climates, and adapted to the Auglo-Sa.xon race, 
 c.xelu.sive of tro[)icnl Aust'iilia, is about r>,7.")0,000 .s(|uare miles, or say two-thirds of the whole, 
 and the jire.sent white ])opuIation of the .same about 8,.^)00,00(). 
 
 The total white jiopulation of all the Colonics and India is under 0,000,000, or less than 
 one-thirtieth of tlie whole. 
 
1 88 
 
 The Secretary, 
 
 Imperial Federation League, 
 
 30, CHARLES STREET, BERKELEY SQUARE, W. 
 
 Please enrol my name as a Mejnber of the ''Imperial Federation League!' 
 I enclose hereivith {Standing Order* on my Bankers fori £ s. d., 
 
 which I intend to subscribe ammally to the ftmds of the League. 
 
 Name 
 
 Addres 
 
 CHEC^rrES snoxjXiij be chossexj " ■hloa.-el-e. & co." 
 * Form of Standins; Order is attached. 
 
 [over. 
 
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 of the League monthly, post-free. 
 
 A payment of One Guinea annually ensures inscription on the Register, and the receipt of all 
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 The Friends of the League are reminded of the great expense necessarily incurred in the 
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STANDING ORDER. 
 
 To "^ 
 
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 Signature 
 Address ... 
 
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