,/"■
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Foreign &> Colonial
Speeches
By the Right Hon.
Joseph Chamberlain, M.P.
JViotoi^rnf'/u'd by
Elliott cr= Fry.
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Foreign ^ Colonial
Speeches
By the Right Hon.
Joseph Chamberlain, M.P.
Authorised Edition
London
George Routledge & Sons, Limited
Broadway, Ludgate Hill
Manchester and New York
1897
Printed by Ballantyne, Hanson d-r' Co.
At the Ballantyne Press
Preface
When Lord Salisbury was called upon to form a
Government in the summer of 1895, ^^^ when it
was known that it was to be strengthened by the
inclusion of the Liberal Unionist leaders, there was
much speculation as to the office which Mr. Cham-
berlain would be invited to occupy. To his own
immediate friends it was well understood that he
had a decided preference for the Colonial Office,
but to " the man in the street " the appointment
came as a surprise.
By a curious but common misapprehension, this
great Department, charged with so many interests
vitally affecting the future of the British Empire,
had come to be regarded as an office of secondary
importance ; and it was a surprise to many that the
post should be deliberately chosen by a statesman of
the reputation and energy of the member for West
Birmingham. Those, however, who had more closely
vi Preface
watched the political career of Mr. Chamberlain
recognised the fitness of the choice, which gave him
an opportunity of carrying into practical effect the
ideas and the policy which had long been present to
his mind.
There is an undefined impression that in his earlier
days Mr. Chamberlain was dominated in regard to
foreign policy by the views of the " Manchester
school " and the " peace-at-any-price " party. Never
was there a greater mistake. Although he has never
shown any sympathy with the noisy "jingoism "of
the music-halls, he has always been an Imperialist in
his conceptions. As President of the Board of Trade,
from 1880 to 1885, he was precluded from taking
any very active part in foreign and colonial afiairs ;
but, even at this time, Mr. Bright is reported to
have said that " the junior member for Birmingham
was the only ' Jingo ' in Mr. Gladstone's Cabinet " ;
and it is certainly true that in all his public
speeches, whether as a youth in the Birmingham
and Edgbaston Debating Society, in Parliament,
or outside, Mr. Chamberlain has given evidence of
his strong sense both of the advantages and the
obligations of empire.
Between " Little Englandism " and Imperialism
it seems to us that there is no half-way house, and
Preface vii
no room for the laissez /aire policy which too long
regulated the attitude of this country towards her
colonies and dependencies. Either we must relin-
quish our possessions abroad, and leave the colonies
to themselves, in order that the mother country
may avoid all causes of complication with foreign
Powers; or we must boldly recognise our respon-
sibilities to our kinsmen beyond the seas and to
the native races who own the sway of Her
Majesty.
This is the text which has been the subject of so
many of Mr. Chamberlain's addresses. This is the
lesson which he has been enforcing upon his fellow-
countrymen — that the democracy of the British
Empire have the greatest possible interest in the
conduct of its foreign and colonial affairs — that their
comfort, happiness, and very existence, depend upon
a wise, a far-sighted, and spirited policy.
Recognising, as he has long done, the gravity of
the problem with which the United Kingdom is con-
fronted, with its limited area and ever-increasing
population, Mr. Chamberlain has constantly insisted,
as no other statesman has insisted before, upon the
supreme importance of maintaining the integrity of
the Empire, of developing the " Imperial estate," of
extending the dominions of the Queen, and of pre-
viii Preface
serving and extending friendly relations between
the mother-country and all her colonies and depen-
dencies.
This policy, and the methods by which it may
be carried into effect, are fully set forth in the
following speeches, and are now presented for the
consideration of those who share Mr. Chamberlain's
belief in the destiny of the Anglo-Saxon race and
the future of the British Empire. ,.
THE EDITOR.
London, June i, 1897.
Contents
V
A Mission to the United States
and Canada
PAGE
The Mild Sovereignty of the Queen ... 3
loronto, Dec. JO, /SSy , ,
Britons in America 14
J Philadelphia, Feb. 2g, 1888
Relations with the United States and the
Colonies v. .20
Devonshire Club, April g, iSSS
Egypt
The 13RIT1SH Occupation of Egypt ... 31
li\tm.\n^\\a.m, March 24, i8go •
Egypt and the Soudan . . . . . , . 45
House of Commons, March 20, i8g6
X Contents
The Unity of the Empire
PAGE
The Future of vhe British EImpire . •* • 73
Dinner gi /en on the completion of the Natal
Railway, London, Nov. 6, iSgjj
A Young Nation 82
Imperial Institute, London, Nov. zi, i8gj
Splendid Isolation , . -91
Whitehall Rooms. London, Jan. 21, i8g6
A Noble Heritage loi
Congress of Chambers of Commerce of the
Empire, London, June 10, i8g6
The Expansion of the Empire
Pegging out Claims for Posterity . . . 109
House of Commons, March 20 y iSgj
Want of Employment and the Development of
Free Markets . . . . . . . ^131
Birmingham, Jan. 22 , i8g4
British Trade and the Expansion of the Empre 140
Birmingham Chamber of Commerce, Nov. ij,
j8g6
Imperial Trade
The First Step to Federation . . .161
Canada Club Dinner, London, March 2j, iS^^
/
Contents xi
PAClf
Commercial Union of the Empire . . . 177
Congress of Chambers of Commerce of the
Empire, London, June 9, iSgd
South Africa
British Interests in South Africa . , . 191
Lojidon Chamber of Commerce, May i^, 1888
South African Affairs 204
Constitutional Ckib, London, April 22, iSgd
The Progress of South Africa . . . . %ii<
Sruth African Dinner, London, May 21^ i8g6
Our Rights and Obligations in South Africa . 220
Cafd Monico, London, March 27, iSgy
Imperial Policy
A Year's Work . . . . . . . . 229
Birmingham, Jan. jo, iSg^
The True Conception of Empire .... 241
Royal Colonial Institute Dinner, March ji,
i8g7
Index . . . ' .' . . . ^ • . • 249
A Mission to the United
States and Canada
A
The Mild Sovereignty of the
Queen
Toronto, December 30, 1887
/// the autumn of 1887, Mr. Chamberlain went to the
United States as Chief British Commissioner and
Vlempotentiary to arrange a settlement of a long-
ftariding controversy/ as to the respective rights and
hligations of the fishermen of the United States and
'anada.
The negotiations resulted in the corwlusion of a
eaty, which was afterwards rejected by a party
ie of the Senate of the United States. The Com-
issioners had, however, arranged a modus vivendi
be in operation until the treaty was ratified ; and
is instrument has since been renewed from time to
^e, and still regidates the relations of the two
mtries in regard to the fisheries.
During his visit to America, Mr. Chamberlain
le several public speeches in the United States
\d Canada on the relations between the English-
aking peoples. The follozoing address was
4 The Mild Sovereignty of the Queen
delivered on December 30^ 1887^ in responding' to the
toust of'''TheConimen'ud hiterests of the Empire^'' at
the annual dinner of the Toronto Board of Trade: —
Mr. ]*resident and Gentlemen, — I thank you most
sincerely for the kindness with which you have
received me and for the assurance which this kind-
ness gives me of your sympathy and support. I am
very glad to be here among you, and to have the
honour of meeting so many of the prominent repre-
sentatives of the activity and enterprise which have
done so much for the prosperity of the Dominion, and
which have made of the Queen City of Canada a great
centre of commercial life and enterprise.
Mr. President, you said truly that the subject to
which you have called me to respond is a far-reaching
one. It is the commercial interests of the empire —
not of any part alone. (Applause.) I am glad that
the Board of Trade of Toronto think me worthy of
responding to so large a toast. It proves to me that
you, at all events, have not been prejudiced by
anything that you may have heard to Ydy disadvan-
tage. (Hear, hear.) I read this morning, in one of
your most influential journals, that I had declared
that the interests of Canada must be subordinated to
those of Manchester; and la another article in the
same paper I have seen it stattd that I came over
here to represent British exporters. That is a most
unfortunate misrepresentation. I am here as a repre-
sentative of Great Britain in behalf of her colony of
The Mild Sovereignty of the Queen 5
Canada, whose interests Great Britain is bound in
honour to maintain and defend. If I had used any
language like that imputed to me I should have been
unworthy of the position that I hold.
I regret these mistakes on the part of an influential
organ of public opinion, not so much on personal
grounds as because they tend to discredit and em-
barrass the negotiators who are engaged in your
defence, and to that extent they damage your cause.
But I have referred to this matter for another reason
— because I want to point out to you that we hear a
little too much about antagonism of interests. (Ap-
plause.) Our interests are your interests and those
of the mother country, and I will go further and say
that those of the United States also lie in the same
direction — (applause) — and that what the plenipo-
tentiaries have to do is to show that there is no
divergence of interests; or that, if a divergence
exists, we have to deal with it in such a spirit as shall
show that we desire to reach a friendly, agreement
which will be mutually beneficial and satisfactory.
Now, I am speaking to-night under considerable
difficulty, and I confess that at first I hesitated to
accept your hospitable invitation, because I was
afraid that it was not possible for me to make an
adequate response to your kindness. As you are well
aware, the mission I have undertaken imposes re-
strictions upon me that I am compelled to observe.
I am not able to discuss as I would like some of
those questions which have probably the greatest
6 The Mild Sovereignty of the Queen
interest for all of you. But I was assured that you
would make every necessary allowance for me, and
that you would not expect from me any premature
disclosure of confidential negotiations, or any full and
complete discussion of matters of controversial policy.
Although I am afraid that I cannot promise you
the communication of any State secrets, yet I think
there are some general considerations which affect
my mission, and which I may perhaps, with your
permission, lay before you.
In the first place let me refer to the spi;it in which
a mission of this kind ought to be undertaken. As
I passed through England on my way to the United
States, and again when I crossed the boundaries of
the Dominion, there was one idea impressing itself on
my mind at every step, an idea which is indelibly
written on the face of this vast country. That
idea is the greatness and the importance of the
destiny which is reserved for the Anglo-Saxon race
— (Cheers) — for that proud, persistent, self -asserting,
and resolute stock, that no change of climate or con-
dition can alter, and which is infallibly destined to
be the predominating force in the future history
and civilisation of the world. (Renewed cheering.)
It is said that patriotism begins at home. I am an
Englishman. I am proud of the old country from
which I am come. I am not unmindful of its glorious
traditions or of the value of institutions, moulded, as
they have been, by centuries of noble endeavour.
(Applause.) *
The Mild Sovereignty ")f the Queen 7
But I should think our patriotism was dwarfed and
stunted indeed if it did not embrace the Greater
Britain beyond the seas — (loud cheers) — if it did not
include the young and vigorous nations carrying
throughout the globe the knowledge of the English
tongue and the English love of liberty and law ; and
gentlemen, with those feelings I refuse to think or
to speak of the United States of America as a foreign
nation. (Applause.) We are all of the same race
and blood. I , /jse to make any distinction between
the interests of Englishmen in England, in Canada,
and in the United States. We can say with regard
to all these peoples, the older and younger nations :
Our past is theirs — their future is ours. You cannot,
if you would, break the invisible bonds that bind us
together. Your forefathers worshipped at our shrines.
They sleep in our churchyards. They helped to make
our institutions, our literature and our laws. These
things are your heritage as much as they are ours.
If you stood up to deny us, your speech, your coun-
tenances, your manner of life, would all combine to
avow us. (Loud cheers.) Gentlemen, I urge upon
you our common origin, our relationship, because
while these things confer privileges, they also entail
obligations. We are branches of one family. It
behoves us to do all that is in our power to promote
the good-feeling and affection that ought to charac-
terise intercourse between kinsfolk. Differences
there must arise — petty conflicts of interests and of
right. If we approach them in a proper spirit of
8 The Mild Sovereignty of the Queen
forbearance and kindness, I do not believe that any
controversy will or can arise between any members of
the English-speaking race that will not be capable of
favourable and satisfactory adjustment. (Applause.)
Gentlemen, I am glad to tell you that this spirit
has animated one and all of the plenipotentiaries who
have recently been engaged in the conference at
Washington ; and it is upon the existence of that
spirit that I base my hope and belief that we shall
find an arrangement of this difficulty and controversy
that will be satisfactory to every man who desires
sincerely to promote the amity of the English-
speaking people. (Applause.)
I do not think it necessary that I should urge
upon you your special interest in good neighbour-
hood with that great republic that for thousands of
miles is separated from you only by an invisible line.
(Hear, hear.) The great interests with which we
are entrusted, important as they are, are really
insignificant beside the importance of maintaining
those good relations, and to secure those good
relations ; and all that is necessary to maintain and
confirm them is that we should approach this ques-
tion in the spirit that I have indicated, and deal
with it as among friends, and not as between suhrer-
saries, stickling for petty points and extremest rights,
and counting every small concession made in the
interests of peace a loss and a sacrifice. (Applause.)
I will make one more general observation, and it
is one to which I anticipate a general assent. Any-
The Mild Sovereignty of the Queen 9
thing which can increase and develop commercial
relations between two countries is not only good in
itself, but it will tend to bring about this good
feeling that I desire. I think that the prospect of
improved relations with the United States is hopeful,
and my hope is altogether independent of any formal
bargains or negotiations. No man who considers
intelligently what is passing in the United States at
this moment can doubt that circumstances will at no
distant date force the government of that country to
modify their tariff more or less liberally. Sooner or
later that tariff will be altered so that it will cease to
be what it is at present, a wall of commercial ex-
clusion between the United States and the rest of
the nations of the world. (Applause.) Whenever
this change is effected it must have a g reat influence
on your policy in the Dominion.
What is the pressing, the most urgent need of
Canada at this moment ? It is the early and rapid
development of the illimitable resources of your
country that have been opened up by your magnifi-
cent railway enterprises. (Loud applause.) You
want to get upon the ground, at the earliest possible
moment, an active, industrious population, which
will work your mines and till your fields. A tariff
which is unnecessarily high — understand I do not
presume to offer any opinion on your tariff, I merely
make a general observation ; I do not say whether
your tariff is, or is not, unnecessarily high ; that de-
pends upon how you feel it — (cheers and laughter) —
lo The Mild Sovereignty of the Queen
but I say that a tariff that is unnecessarily high
must have a tendency to bear heavily upon precisely
the industry — the agricultural industry — which you
wish to foster and to develop, and to divert from it
labour which will go into other industries stimulated
by this tariff. I am ready to sympathise with the
inhabitants of a new country who repudiate any idea
that their country shall be one in which existence
shall be monotonously confined to a single trade or
industry. I understand the desire — I will go further,
and say the need — for various pursuits and occupa-
tions ; but I say that in the case of Canada any
anxiety on this score is surely a little premature.
(Loud cheers.) The first object is to get the popu-
lation on the land. When you have multiplied
those industrious producers, you will find you have
created a vast population of consumers ; and powerful
industries, suited to your local interests, will spring
up and prosper whether there be any tariff or not.
(Cheers.)
You will see, from what I have ventured to say,
that I am in favour of the widest possible commercial
union and intercourse, not only with the United
States, but with all the world. (Cheers.) That is
the true *' unrestricted reciprocity." There is, how-
ever, a restricted reciprocity which would make you
dependent for your financial freedom upon the
Government of another State, and perhaps pave the
way for the surrender of something which is still
more important ; I mean your political independence.
The Mild Sovereignty of the Queen 1 1
There are those who have adopted the well-known
saying of Mark Twain, and who still think that as,
upon this continent, the lion must lie down with the
lamb, it would be better if the lamb consented at
once to lie down inside ike lion. (Laughter.) I
confess I do not entertain that opinion, and I do not
think it worth while, even if it were proper, to
discuss to-night the various proposals, more or less
disguised, more or less insidious, for your painless
extinction and possible absorption.
I have not discovered in the course of my stay in
the United States any general desire on the part of
the American people, who have a good stock of
territory of their own, to increase it and to increase
their responsibilities at the same time ; and any such
arrangement as that which I have been considering,
if it comes about at all, must come about after full
discussion, and with good-will on both sides. When
you become tired of the mild sovereignty of the
Queen — (applause) — when you cease to be proud of
the institutions which yourselves have framed, with
due regard to your local needs and requirements,
and when the slender tie which still binds you to the
mother country, and which, like the electric cable, if
it exerts no pressure, still maintains the community
of sympathy and interest — when this tie becomes an
irtolerable strain, then it will be time enough for us to
consider the necessary measures of relief. (Hear, hear.)
But, in the meantime, I cannot but think, that in
working out the great problem of federal government
1 2 The Mild Sovereignty of the Queen
which seems to have been left in charge of the
English people, we shall more quickly reach the
perfection of our free institutions by diversity of
effort, and that this will prove to be more fertile and
more effective than the immediate adoption of a
single course of action. Of one thing you may rest
assured ; that if you desire to remain an integral
part of the vast empire of Great Britain, your
interests will be maintained and your rights will be
respected, having behind them all the influence which
that empire can wield ; your fellow-subjects through-
out the world will rejoice in your prosperity, will
take pride in your ceaseless activity, and look for-
ward with confidence to the speedy development of
your resources. It is only a short time in the
history of a nation since your confederation was
established. Less than a human generation has
passed away, and yet a new Canada has been
revealed to us — not an ice-bound desert, which im-
perfect information formerly caused us to picture,
but a vast stretch of fertile territc-ry, which is sure
to be the home, at no distant date, of a teemir^
population of God-fearing, law-abiding and indus-
trious men and women, determined, as I hope they
will be, to maintain — ay, and not only to maintain,
but also to draw closer — the bonds which unite them
to Great Britain. I am confident that their loyalty
and affection will never lack a warm response ; and,
gentlemen, they will be " citizens of no mean city " —
(applause) — a dominion the like of which the world
The Mild Sovereignty of the Queen 1 3
has never seen, whether in regard to its extent, its
resources, its population, or its beneficial influences.
One of our poets, Matthew Arnold, has written of the
burden of this vast empire. He has spoken of Great
Britain as a Titan staggering under the burden of
the obligations of empire. Yes ! obligations ! But
we will not lessen them by a cowardly surrender, or
by a mean betrayal of the interests that are entrusted
to our care. (Applause.) Relief must be found in
drawing together the great component parts of the
empire, and not by casting away the outposts or
cut* ng off the bulwarks. True democracy does not
consist in the dismemberment and disintegration of
the empire, but rather in the knitting together of
kindred races for similar objects.
Gentlemen, you have your portion in the lot of our
national life. It may well be that the Confederation
of Canada may be the lamp to light our pathway
to the Confederation of the British Empire. That
idea may only exist at present in the imagination of
the enthusiast ; but it is a grand idea. (Hear, hear.)
It is one to stimulate the patriotism and the states-
manship of every man who loves his country; and,
whether or not it should ever prove capable of
practical realisation, let us all cherish the sentiment
which it inspires, let us do all in our power to
promote the closer relations, the kindly feeling, the
goodwill, which ought always to exist between the
sons of England throughout the world and the old
folks at home. (Loud and prolonged cheering.)
Britons in America
Philadelphia, February 29, 1888
The Jbllowing address was delivered on February ^9,
1888, in the Horticultural Hall, Philadelphia, to
3000 English men and women, members of the Order
of the Sons of St. Georg-e. Mr. Chamberlain was
received loith enthusiastic applause, and, after thank-
ing the meeting for its kind welcome, proceeded as
follows : —
I DEEM it a great privilege and pleasure to meet this
representative gathering of the Sons of St. George.
I have while here made myself acquainted with the
nature of your organisation and your history, and have
followed with the greatest interest the more recent
developments of your work. I can only say, as far
as I understand your objects, and the way you pro-
pose to accomplish them, that you have my sympathy
and good wishes.
I suppose I am right in assuming that the vast
majority of this great meeting are British Americans.
(Cheers.) I should like you to consider what is
Britons in America 1 5
involved in that distinctive appellation. In the first
place, you are Americans, who have loyally and
patriotically, without reservation, thrown in your lot
with the great Republic that has so generously
opened the portals of its constitution to you, and
invited you to share its privileges and responsibilities.
I cannot but congratulate you on your choice. Here,
in Greater Britain, you find the characteristics of the
Great Britain you left behind. You find the tenacity
and endurance of the race, and learn that in crossing
the Atlantic it has not lost its courage and devotion
to duty. Its aspirations to liberty are tempered only
by its reverence for law. You have changed your
residence, but have not changed the cardinal con-
ditions and features of your life. Your mother
tongue still sounds in your ears, and the institutions,
literature, religion, and laws of your adopted country
are household words to you all. You decided to
share the fortunes of America, but you have not on
that account surrendered your great inheritance in
the past of England. You have behind you a thou-
sand years of glorious traditions, and who can tell the
possibilities of the future, or measure the prospects of
human progress ?
There is another leading idea connected with
your Order. You are British Americans, and you
have to show that allegiance to your new country
is not incompatible with an affectionate regard
for your old home. I believe that friendship
and unbroken amity between Great Britain and the
1 6 Britons in America
United States is the best guarantee for the peace
and civilisation of the world ; and it was to promote
that object that I came to this country, accepting at
twenty-four hours' notice the difficult and delicate
mission with which I was charged by the Queen.
That mission has accomplished its purpose, and the
result of our labours is now submitted to the judg-
ment of the American people. It is not a mere
treaty of fisheries that we have made ; it is a treaty
of amity and good neighbourhood. (Cheers.) Great
Britain has held out the right hand of fellowship to
the United States, and I believe that every patriotic
American who can rise above party bias will be in
favour of grasping the hand thus held out. If you
want to appreciate the treaty, you must first appre-
ciate the spirit in which it was submitted, and in
which those who negotiated it came to this work.
We do not regard this long-standing difference as a
dispute between hostile or rival nations, but rather
as a difference of opinion between friends mutually
anxious to remove every cause of dispute. Under
these circumstances, to speak of concessions which
have been made to us, or which are made by us, as
an ignominious surrender on either side is an abuse
of language. There has been no surrender on either
side of anything that it was honourable to maintain.
There have been concessions on both sides made
between friends, who would, if they had been
enemies, have disputed them even at the point of the
bayonet.
Britons in America ' ^7
I have been in America four months, and during
that time I have received from every one with whom I
have been in contact personal kindness and hospitality,
which have made a deep impression on me, leaving
upon my mind an overwhelming burden of gratitude.
At the same time I have been pained at some ex-
pressions which have been publicly used by indi-
viduals, and especially by language which I have
seen in the press, concerning my country. We are
treated as though we were a foreign and rival nation.
I decline to be considered a foreigner in the United
States. (Cheers.) I feel much as a distinguished
diplomatist, who once told the Prince of Wales that
the world was divided into three classes — Americans,
Englishmen, and foreigners. I confess that I am
astonished at men who boast of an unbroken line of
British descent, and who are proud of the purity of
their speech, when I hear them fouling the nest from
which they sprang, and imputing to Englishmen a
policy, a malignity, a duplicity, and an arbitrr-ry
character, only existing in their diseased imagina-
tion. (Cheers.) I should like to appeal to these
hostile critics, and should wish to ask them whether
they have considered all the inferences which may
be drawn from such sentiments as these. Have they
forgotten their early traditions, that we are of the
same blood as themselves, men of the same character,
and imbued with the same love of justice which is
the distinguishing feature of our race ? Which of
us in this world is infallible ? We may be open to
B
1 8 Britons in America
their friendly remonstrances, but we are depicted
as monsterB of iniquity.
I wonder they did not reflect that they are deriding
the stock from which they come, and are throwing
discredit upon institutions which they embody, and
which we, in the old country, have perfected through
a long course of centuries until now they are even
more democratic than those of the United States.
(Cheers.) When I see different views sometimes
presented to the American public by those professing
to be its guides, philosophers and friends, I incline to
think that the time has come when some American
Columbus should undertake the discovery of England
— (laughter) — not the England so frequently de-
picted to you as the dreary land groaning under a
cruel and tyrannical government, a nation which is
on the downward road to speedy well-deserved extinc-
tion, but the England of to-day, the true England, the
mother of nations greater than herself, existing under
a popular government in which all are represented, the
England, which, in her glorious maturity, wields the
sceptre of dominion over hundreds of millions of
contented subjects.
I believe this Order of yours will do something to
remove prejudice and to produce a right impression
of the character of Englishmen and English policy.
I heartily wish you prosperity and success. You are
right to identify yourselves with the fortunes of
America, to play your part in the government of this
vast continent, and to have your share of its respon-
Britons in America 19
sibilities, and your part in its obligations. You are
right at the same time to keep green in your hearts
the memory of your native land. That is a sentiment
which has been implanted by the Creator Himself
deep in the human breast, and I hope that you have
not forgotten the ties binding you to your old home,
to the motherland that bore you, and to the traditions
of the proud-spirited dominant race to which you
belong.
, \
Relations with the United
States and the Colonies
Devonshire Club, April 9, 1888
On April 0, 1S88, M?: Chamhcrlain icas entertained
at a house dinner at the Devonshire Club upon his-
I'eturnJ'rom the United States^ and to mark the eom-
pletion of his labours in eonncetion xcith the Fishery
Commission. Earl Granville occupied the chair and
proposed^'' The Guest <)/'the Evening'.'" In returning
thanks Mr. Chamberlain said : —
I THANK you very much for the warmth of your
reception, and for the kindness with which you have
honoured the toast which has been proposed by Lord
Granville. I appreciate fully the unusual character of
this gathering. I am very glad to see so many of my
old colleagues, and friends, and fellow-workers, from
whom I am temporarily dissociated by a difference
which I regret as much as they can do. (Cheers.) I
think from their presence here to-night, as well as from
the speech to which we have just listened, that I may
Relations with the United States, Qfc. 21
venture to assume two things. In the first place, that,
in spite of divergencies of the most important cha-
racter upon ]X)liti«jal and domestic questions, there is
no intermission of the personal regard and good-will
— (cheers) — which has been cemented by a long pre-
vious acquaintance. In the second place, that every
Englishman who is worthy of the name sympathises
with the objects of my recent mission, approves of
such measure of success as has been already obtained,
and is eager for a final settlement which shall remove
all causes of difference between the United States and
ourselves. (Cheers.)
I confess, my lord, that your hospitality to-night
places me in a somewhat embarrassing position. I
do not pretend that I am able to glide over thin ice
with such skill as yourself. (Laughter.) I feel, as
far as I am concerned, that it would be better for me
to forget for one evening all subjects of party or
sectional character. (Hear, hear.) At the same
time the most ordinary diplomatic discretion precludes
me from saying anything of importance about the
negotiations or about the treaty which is now under
the consideration of the Legislatures of the countries
chiefly concerned. In these circumstances I can sym-
pathise with Figaro in the comedy of Beaumarchais,
who undertook to edit a journal under the conditions
that he was to say nothing against the Government,
nothing about politics, nothing about morality or reli-
gion, nothing against men in office, and nothing about
any one who had any interest in anything. (Laughter.)
22 Relations with the United
He endeavoured, I remember, to get out of his diffi-
culty by calling his newspaper a journal inutile.
(Laughter and cheers.) If, my lord, to-night I have
to pronounce a diseours inutile, I think I may claim
some excuse ; but, whatever may be my personal diffi-
culties, I do not think this representative demonstra-
tion can possibly be considered as useless. It is, as
you have pointed out, a significant fact. It marks
the change that has taken place in public opinion in
this country in the course of the last quarter of a
century. It is quite curious to look back to the time
of the great Civil War and to the opinions which
were then expressed by distinguished statesmen
and writers on both sides of politics. They were
animated by a sincere dread lest the United States
should become a great aggressive Power, dangerous
to the peace of the world ; and there is no doubt that
they were genuinely afraid of the introduction in this
country of American ideas and of American institu-
tions.
Why, gentlemen, it is ludicrous to contrast the
results as we know them with the fears and the antici-
pations of those too timid politicians. (Hear, hear.)
The United States of America in the interval which
has elapsed has more than doubled its population,
until at the present time it exceeds the whole Eng-
lish-speaking population of the British Empire.
Yet, so far from being aggressive, it is the most
pacific country in the world ; and it has shown the
remarkable spectacle of a nation of sixty millions
States and the Colonies 23
content with an army of 25,000 men, and a fleet which
is barely sufficient to carry the national flag to the
principal centres with which it has commercial inter-
course. (Cheers.)
As to the introduction of American institutions
into this country, we all know that America has
developed a conservatism which must be the envy of
many people in the United Kingdom. (Laughter and
cheers.) Nowhere in the world is the authority of
the law greater, is the respect for the law more
universal. (Cheers.) It is now over a century since
they adopted the Constitution which then went far
beyond the ideas of the governing classes of Europe.
But now they have adhered to that Constitution with
a persistency and a devotion unparalleled in history;
and there are many Americans who say that much
of our recent legislation is unconstitutional and revo-
lutionary. (Hear, hear.) As to our practice, they
are astonished at the mildness with which we meet
the assaults upon the authority of Government.
(Cheers.) I do not know whether it is this devotion
to their Constitution, or whether it is this respect for
law, and this determination that the rule of the
majority constitutionally expressed shall be respected
by the minority, which has commended American in-
stitutions in this country ; but, at all events, I think
that there is now an appreciation of American insti-
tutions, and of the American people, which, perhaps,
did not exist a generation ago. (Cheers.)
All the prejudice, all the ignorance. I hope, and
24 Relations with the United
certainly all the dislike, have vanished from the
minds cT Englishmen ; and there is now among all
parties, and among all sections, one universal feeling
of goodwill and admiration, not untinged with envy,
and a cordial desire for a hearty and for a durable
friendship, (Cheers.) That was the feeling which I
considered myself specially commissioned to express
in the conference at Washington.
As Lord Granville has said, I claim no triumph, and
I sought no triumph. I should have thought it a
mistake in politics, to speak of nothing higher. (Hear,
hear.) But I claim, in common with my colleagues,
to have done our best to secure an equitable and
a friendly arrangement. (Cheers.) I do not think
that this spirit was inconsistent with the mainten-
ance of the great colonial interests which were com-
mitted to the charge of the British Plenipotentiaries.
I believe we all held it to be our duty to yield every-
thing that good neighbourhood and the comity of
nations could claim at our hands, while at the same
time we held fast to treaty rights ihtA> long usage and
equity and international law had sanctioned. (Hear,
hear.)
I believe that we have fulfilled the conditions that
we laid down for ourselves in undertaking this
mission. I see that Mr. Secretary Bayard, the states-
man who holds the most important position in Mr.
Cleveland's Government-,, says, in a letter that has
been recently published, " Conciliation and mutual
neighbourly concession have together done their
States and the Colonies 25
honourable and honest work in this treaty, and have
paved the way for relations of amity and mutual
advantage." I believe that that opinion would
express the view of the vast majority of the people of
Canada. I have no doubt that it is in accordance
with the opinion of the vast majority of the people of
the United States ; and I hope and trust that it will
receive its final endorsement from the great repre-
sentative bodies which have now to pronounce upon
it. (Hear, hear.) If that be done, when we have
removed the local and temporary, although long-
standing, causes of difference between us, then I
think that we may trust to the good feeling and
common interests, and more than all to tl 3 common
blood, and common origin, and common traditions of
the Anglo-Saxon race, to preserve unbroken the
amity and peace which are essential to the progress
and civilisation of the world. (Cheers.) In the case
of the United States of America I hope for amity and
peace, and I ask for nothing more. Our course has
been marked out for us as separate and independent,
but I hope as friendly, nations.
But is it necessary, is it desirable, that our relations
with Canada, with our great colonies in Australasia
and South Africa, should follow the same course,
should result in a similar absolute independence ? I
am willing to submit to the charge of being a senti-
mentalist, when I say that I will never willingly admit
of any policy that will tend to weaken the ties
between t^e different branches of the Anglo-Saxon
26 Relations with the United
race which form the British Empire, and the vast
dominion of the Queen. (Cheers.) We all feel a
natural pride in the restless energy and dauntless
courage which have created this great empire. We
feel a satisfaction in the constant evidence which is
given us of the affectionate attachment of our fellow-
subjects throughout the world to their old home.
(Hear, hear.) It seems to me that it would be un-
patriotic to do anything which would discourage this
sentiment — that it would be cowardly and unworthy
to repudiate the obligations and responsibilities which
the situation entails upon us. (Hear, hear.) I would
be willing to put it on the lowest possible grounds.
Experience teaches us that trade follows the flag, and
even in commercial questions sentiment is a powerful
influence on the question of profit and loss. A great
part of our population is dependent at the present
moment upon the interchange of commodities with
our colonial fellow-subjects, and it is the duty of
every statesman to do all in his power to maintain
and increase this commercial intercourse, and to foster
the attachment upon which to a large extent it is
founded. We have to watch for opportunities to
strengthen the ties between our colonies and our-
selves. There is a word which I am almost afraid to
mention. I have been assured upon the highest
authority that confederation is an empty dream, the
fantastic vision of fools and fanatics.
States and the Colonies 27
" It cannot be. The vision is too fair
For creatures doomed to breathe terrestrial air.
Yet not for that shall sober reason frown
Upon that promise, nor that hope disown.
We know that only to high aims are due
Rich guerdons, and to them alone ensue.'
I am well aware that up to the present time no
practical scheme of federation has been submitted or
suggested, but I do not think that such a scheme is
impossible. (Hear, hear.) There are two points
which have to be prominently borne in mind. There
is the question of commercial union and the question
of union for defence. I have heard it argued that
the colonies would be very foolish to allow themselves
to become mixed up in our old-world policy, and to
concern themselves with wars in which they can have
no possible interest or advantage. But I may point
to the action of the colonies not so very long ago in
the case of the Egyptian war — (hear, hear) — when
they exhibited a sentiment, which I think we should
all be ready to appreciate, on an occasion in which
they certainly had nothing but a sentimental interest.
But I will go further. I suppose the colonists read
history ; and if they do, they will know that every
great war in which this country has been engaged
since the great French war at the beginning of the
century, and that every dispute which has seriously
threatened our peace, have arisen out of the concerns
and interests of one or other of the colonies or
of the great dependency of India. (Hear, hear.)
28 Relations with the United States, ^c.
Under these circumstances it appears to me that it
may be at least as much to the interests of the
colonies, as to those of the mother country, that we
should seek and find a concerted system of defence.
(Cheers.)
The difficulty in the case of commercial union is,
no doubt, much greater. It is no use to expect that
our colonies will abandon their custom duties as
their chief and principal source of revenue. It is
hardly to be hoped that the protected interests,
fostered by their system, will willingly surrender the
privileges which they now enjoy. All we can do is
to wait until proposals are made to us ; to consider
those proposals, when they come, with fairness and
impartiality ; and to accept them if they do not in-
volve the sacrifice of any important principle or of
any interest vital to our population.
Meanwhile, we ought not to do anything to dis-
courage the affection, or to repel the patriotic and
^oyal advances of our fellow-subjects and fellow-
kinsmen, who are proud of the glorious traditions
of our country, who share with us our history, our
origin, and our common citizenship in the greatest
and freest empire that the world has ever known.
(Loud and continued cheers.)
Egypt
The British Occupation of
Egypt
Birmingham, March 24, 1890
Speech delivered on March ^4-> 1S90^ at the annual
soiree of the Wed Birmingham Liberal Unionist
Association : —
I AM delighted to be once more amongst you, as I
have always regarded our relationship as a relation-
ship between friends rather than the more formal
connection which usually prevails between a mem-
ber and his constituents. (Cheers.) Now, if I
consulted my own feelings, and perhaps the feelings
of many of you, I should stop here. (Laughter.) I
have been told already by one gentleman that he
is thirsting for the blood of those who would interrupt
such proceedings as yours. For my part I agree
with him, and I feel it to be almost an unpardonable
presumption to interpose anything in the nature
of a speech. (A voice. — Hear.) I am not in the
least surprised at that gentleman's agreement. The
32 The British Occupation of Egypt
gentleman who agrees with me is, no doubt, free and
independent; but I am a slave. (A laugh.) I am
told that the majority, at all events, would not be
satisfied unless I took the opportunity of addressing
a few words to you upon some matters of public
interest. If that is so, I obey your behests, and I
will endeavour, to the best of my ability, to comply
with your wishes.
But about what shall I speak ? I cannot help
thinking that you must be almost as tired as I am of
the eternal Irish question, and of the personal abuse
and recrimination which attend every discussion of
it. This is altogether an exceptional meeting, and
under these circumstances, perhaps, I may be per-
mitted to take an exceptional subject, and for once
in a way to leave the well-worn and beaten path of
political controversy and to discuss with you a
question which at present, at all events, is outside
all party politics — a question of the very greatest
importance to all of us, but which at the same time
has received so little public attention that I do not
believe the majority of the public have as yet made
up their minds about it.
Since I last had the pleasure of meeting you, I
have been able to fulfil a long-felt desire to visit that
wonderful land of Egypt which has so great a
fascination for travellers, and which affords so many
subjects of profound interest for the historian, the
archaeologist, and the politician. Thousands of years
before this country was inhabited by the English
The British Occupation of Egypt 33
race, thousands of years before we have any record
whatever of our history, of our conditions, of our
population, Egypt was a powerful Empire with a
great and refined civilisation ; and even to this day
in Egypt there exist the ruins of this civilisation
to attest the influence, and the power, and the
cultivation of dynasties which held their sway there,
at a time which goes back to the earliest records of
our biblical history. I have seen the relics of this
wonderful past pictured on the tombs and collected
in the museums. I have seen the whole domestic
rid public life of this ancient people; the tools
which they used, the instruments they played upon,
the ornaments they wore, the models of their houses,
their clothes — everything which enables one to re-
constitute the life of the people ; and, if 1 only had
time, I could go on for a considerable period, and
not altogether without interest to you, in telling
you of this marvellous picture of a long-lost civili-
sation, which has been unveiled for us by recent
discoveries.
But I am not going to talk about old Egypt. I am
going to talk to you about the latest chapter in the
history of this wonderful country, a chapter in which
for the first time England and Englishmen have
played the most prominent part. I want to tell you
in the fewest possible words what is the great task
which we have undertaken in Egypt, how far we
have already accomplished it, and what ought to be
the policy of the English nation with regard to it.
c
34 The British Occupation of Egypt
Now you all know that the occupation of Egypt
was forced unwillingly upon the Government of Mr.
Gladstone. I do not think that any of us liked it
at the time, or that any of us would not have been
glad to have escaped from the obligation; but, in
common with other European Powers, and especially
in common with France, we had undertaken a great
responsibility. Europe had interests in Egypt.
Europe could not suffer Egypt to go back to a state
of barbarism ; and Europe had made of France and
England mandatories of its will. We had told the
present Khedive, who had come unexpectedly and
perhaps unwillingly to the seat of power after the
forced abdication of his father, Ismail Pasha, that, if
he would follow our advice, we would maintain his
authority. In the disorder which followed the state
of things to which the country had been reduced by
its previous government, in the confusion which pre-
vailed, and with every kind of petty and personal
ambitions seething all round, a military insurrection
broke out. This insurrection led to disorder at
different times and in different places. There
was a massacre of Christians and Europeans, in
which many scores, and probably many hundreds,
perished; and it became absolutely necessary to
interfere. Every attempt was made by France
and England to prevent anything in the nature
of armed intervention, and peaceably to settle
the difficulties which had arisen. But i.rabi Pasha,
who was himself the tool of others less honest
The British Occupation of Egypt 35
even and more self-seeking than himself, had his
head turned by the success which followed his first
efforts, and finally he defied the Powers of Europe,
and began to fortify Alexandria against the foreign
fleets.
There were then two alternatives open to us. We
might have retired from the scene altogether. We
might have abandoned the Khedive, who had de-
pended upon our pledges, and who had wholly
followed the counsel which we had given him. We
might have left Egypt to anarchy, to disorder, and
to massacre ; and we might have allowed all the great
European interests — not merely the interests of the
creditors of Egypt, but the interests of all who had
honestly invested capital in industrial enterprises in
that country — to go to ruin. If we were not to do
that the only alternative was by an armed intervention
forcibly to restore order.
We decided that our honour and our duty required
us to take the latter course ; but, at that moment,
France, which had recently undergone a change of
Government, suddenly altered its policy, retired from
all share in the business, and threw upon our shoulders
alone the whole responsibility of restoring Egypt once
more to its proper place among the nations of the
world. I think that the policy of France was hardly
worthy of a great nation. I think that it was a short-
sighted policy, and I know that it was taken in direct
opposition to, and in defiance of, an eloquent protest
by M. Gambetta, who was one of the greatest of
36 The British Occupation of Egypt
French statesmen and patriots. But when that
policy was taken it left to us no alternative. The
duty was cast upon us. We had to go alone or to
be unworthy of our mission. We decided to go on
and endeavour to carry out the work of regenerating
Egypt.
Now let me tell you, as shortly as I can, what was
the state of Egypt, of this ancient country, at the
time that this duty was cast upon us. The Govern-
ment of Ismail Pasha, the predecessor of the present
Khedive, was one of the worst Governments to which
Egypt had ever been subjected; at all events, the
worst Government of which we have any historical
knowledge. It was arbitrary, it was cruel, it was
oppressive. But these are the common characteristics
of Oriental Governments. Many Governments which
had preceded it had been of the same character ; but
what was worse than all, what made this the most
fatal of all the Governments of Egypt, was that it
was incapable, inefficient, and ignorant, to a degree
which made it disastrous to the country. What was
the result of the action of this Government ? In the
course of the reign of Ismail Pasha an enormous debt
was contracted, altogether disproportionate to the
means of the country. It was expended largely in
extravagance, in foolish enterprises, and very little
for the benefit of the real interests of Egypt. The
revenues had ceased to meet the expenditure ; there
was an annual and an increasing deficit, and in a
short time it was perfectly evident that if the state of
The British Occupation of Egypt 37
things continued Egypt would be absolutely bank-
rupt. The taxation was onerous in the highest
degree, not merely because it was heavy in itself, but
because it was levied by corrupt officials, who were
themselves underpaid, and who sought to recoup
themselves, and to make their fortunes, by extorting
from the unfortunate peasant more than what he w as
legally required to pay. He had no justice in any
European sense of the word. The courts were cor-
rupt; they carried out their business in a most
ineffectual way, even when they were honest. Torture
prevailed almost universally. What is called the
kourbash — that is to say, the bastinado — was used
upon every occasion ; was used to extort the payment
of taxes ; was used to obtain confession of crime ; was
used to secure respect for authority, and for the
position of every village tyrant, and every provincial
governor who was inflicted upon this miserable
country. You had a system of forced labour called
the corvie, which was intended originally to main-
tain works of in'igation, and to keep clear the canals,
by which the great system of watering the country
was carried out. This had been abused, as everything
else had been abused ; and hundreds and thousands of
men were taken from their own work, taken from
their fields at a time when the harvest ought to have
been proceeded with, or the fields ought to have been
tilled, in order to labour on the land of others, and
without prospect of any direct advantage or benefit
to themselves. You had a conscription, a forced
38 The British Occupation of Egypt
conscription, which also pressed most injuriously upon
the people, which was open to the same objection as
the corvee — that is to say, that while it pressed very
lightly upon the rich, it pressed very hardly indeed
upon the poor ; the rich escaped by means of bribes,
but the poor could not escape. They had double
burdens to pay. Under the conscription an enormous
army was formed in order to carry out the ambitious
projects of the then Khedive. This army was engaged
for life. The men were sent in chains to the Soudan
and the equatorial provinces of Egypt. They were
sent in chains to a country in which they perished
like flies, some of them in consequence of the con-
ditions of the life to which they were condemned,
some of them because they were badly fed, and
others by the sword of the fanatical tribes against
whom they were constantly at war. Lastly, to sum
up this account of the pr-ivious condition of Egypt,
the irrigation of the country, upon which its welfare
depended, without which it would be a barren desert,
and which alone has accounted for its extraordinary
fertility, wf.s allowed to get into bad order. The
canals were choked up, and the cultivation of the
country was hindered. In the supply of water the
rich once more benefited at the expense of the poor.
They could get all the water, and the best water,
while the poor could get no water at all. So that you
had the unfortunate peasant in this position — that,
while the exactions upon him were increasing almost
beyond the power of a human being to sustain, the
The British Occupation of Egypt 39
only means by which he could obtain a bare sub-
sistence, let alone meet the claims upon him, were
being taken away or doled out to him by corrupt
oflScials.
That was the state of things only eight years ago.
Those were the Augean stables which England had
to cleanse ; and I say to you, after having inquired
into this matter on the spot, after having consulted
not merely the officials, whether Egyptian or English,
but having taken the opportunity of conversing with
every native with whom I could come in contact, and
with representative men who were well able to express
their opinions — I say to you that the state of the
fellaheen of Egypt was more miserable than the con-
dition of any similar peasantry on the face of the
earth.
Eight years later what did I find when I went to
Egypt ? I found a total change. I found the finances
restored. I found an equilibrium between revenue
and expenditure. I found the deficit turned into a
surplus, which was being used for the reduction of
taxation and for the promotion of public works and
national education ; and remember that this surplus,
which is already a large one, might have been much
larger but for the action of the French, who have
refused their consent to the conversion of the debt,
which would have enabled the interest on a portion
of the debt to be reduced, and consequently the
burdens on Egypt to be diminished. I do not think
that such action as that is worthy of a great and
4© The British Occupation of Egypt
generous nation. They retired from the jBeld. They
left us to do the work. Surely they might rather
help us to do it well than throw difficulties in our
way. (Hear, hear.) Courts of justice had been es-
tablished throughout the country, and although I will
not say that they are perfect, yet, at all events in
theory, you have a complete code of equal justice,
and I believe that corruption, at any rate, has almost
entirely become extinct. Taxation has been revised.
The peasant knows now exactly what he has to pay
and when he has to pay it. Payment has been fixed
at dates to suit his convenience — when the harvest
has been gathered, and he is best able to meet his
obligations. The oflicials have ceased to be ill paid ;
they receive their salaries as regularly as the Custom-
house collectors in England ; and the time has gone
by when these local officials could, even if they
wished, extort from the peasant one farthing more
than his legal obligation. The corv6e has been
gradually reduced during several years, and this year
it has bsen abolished altogether. (Cheers.) Con-
scription for the army has been gradually reduced.
It is no loviger as onerous as it was. The army, which
has been under Sir Francis Grenfell, has been made
a most efficient machine for the defence of the
country. It is about one-fourth of the number at
which it stood in the time of the late Khedive, and
now the men are only taken, as here, for short
service, and then return to their families. During
their service they are well paid, well cared for, and
The British Occupation of Egypt 41
well looked after. The irrigation has been reviewed
and renewed. New works have been established.
More water has been procured for the purpose.
Arrangements have been made to secure an equal
distribution of it. The rich and poor stand exactly
on equal terms. Each man, according to the extent
and character of his land, may depend upon having
a proportionate amount of what is truly in Egypt the
water of life.
All of this has been done in seven years. I do not
say there is not still a great deal to do ; but at least
you will well understand what a change has been
effected in the condition of the peasantry of Egypt
by the operations which have taken place under the
British occupation. One of the Ministers said to me
when I was in Cairo the other day, "This is not a
reform, this is a revolution and a new birth." (Hear,
hear.)
I have spoken to you about the present, and now
I want to say a word or two to you about the
future. I am going to make a confession. I
admit I was one of those — I think my views were
shared by the whole Cabinet of Mr. Gladstone — who
regretted the necessity for the occupation of Egypt.
I thought that England had so much to do, such
enormous obligations and responsibilities, that we
might well escape, if we could, this addition to them ;
and, when the occupation was forced upon us, I
looked forward with anxiety to an early, it might be
even, to an immediate evacuation. The confession I
42 The British Occupation of Egypt
have to make is that having seen what are the
results of this occupation, having seen what is
the nature of the task we have undertaken, and
what progress we have already made towards its
accomplishment, I have changed my mind. (Cheers.)
I say it would be unworthy of this great nation
if we did not rise to the full height of our duty,
and complete our work before we left the country.
(Cheers.) We have no right to abandon the duty
which has been cast upon us, and the work which
already shows so much promise for the advantage
of the people with whose destinies we have become
involved.
This great alteration is due to the influence of a
mere handful of your fellow-countrymen, a few
scores of Englishmen acting under Sir Evelyn Baring,
our Minister at Cairo. They, by their persevering
devotion, and their single-minded honesty, have
wrought out this great work, and have brought
Egypt from a condition which may fairly be described
as one of ruin, to the promise of once more being
restored to its ancient prosperity. I hear sometimes
of pessimists who think the work of England is
accomplished, who will tell you that we have lost the
force and the capacity to govern. No ; that is not
true ; and as long as we can spare from our abundance
men like these, who, after all, are only ordinary
Englishmen — men like these, who are able and
willing to carry their zeal and their intelligence
wherever it may conduce to the service of humanity,
The British Occupation of Egypt 43
and to the honour of their native land — so long as
we can do that we need not despair of the future of
the United Kingdom. (Cheers.) But we owe it to
them, we owe it to ourselves, that their work shall
not be in vain. You cannot revolutionise a country
like Egypt — you cannot reform all that is wrong in
her system, all that is poor and weak in the character
of the people — in a few minutes, or a few years.
Egypt has been submitted for centuries to arbitrary
despotism. I believe there is hardly any time in her
history, even if you go back to almost prehistoric
ages, when she has not been in the grasp of some
foreign ruler; and, under these circumstances, you
cannot expect to find ready to your hands a self-
governing people. They are not able — they cannot
be able — to stand alone ; and they do not wish to
stand alone. They ask for your support and assist-
ance, and, without it, it is absolutely impossible that
their welfare can be secured. If you were to
abandon your responsibility, your retirement would
be followed by an attempt once more to restore the
old arbitrary methods and the old abuses, which in
turn would no doubt be followed by anarchy and
disorder ; and then in time there would be again a
foreign intervention, this time the intervention of
some other European country. I have too much
confidence in the public spirit of the country to
believe that it will ever neglect a national duty.
(Hear, hear.) A nation is like an individual ; it has
duties which it must fulfil, or else it cannot live
44 The British Occupation of Egypt
honoured and respected as a nation ; and I hope that,
as we have been singled out for the perfonnance of
this great duty, the whole nation, without distinction
of party, will resolve to carry it to a triumphant
issue. (Loud cheers.)
Egypt and the Soudan
House of Commons, March 20, 1896
On March 20, 1896, Mr. John Morley moved a re-
duction in the Foreign Office Vote in order to discuss
the policy of the Government, who had recently an-
iwunced their intention of despatching a military
expedition along the valley of the Nile as Jar as
Do7igola. In replying to Mr. Morley, Mr. Cham-
berlain said : —
Mr. Lowther, as a member of the Cabinet which the
right honourable gentleman opposite (Mr. Morley) be-
lieves to have gone mad — (laughter) — I hope I may,
nevertheless, be permitted to congratulate the House
upon the return to this House of the right honourable
gentleman, and upon his active participation in our
debates. (Cheers.) We do not always agree with
him, and we do not agree with him upon the present
occasion, but we feel his presence amongst us, and his
part in our discussions will certainly add to them a
variety and interest which otherwise they might have
missed. (Hear, hear.)
46 ^gypt ^^^ the Soudan
I may say that the right honourable gentleman is
entitled to claim, as he has done, that he is pursuing
a consistent course in the line which he has taken to-
day. He says that in the past he has been impartial ;
and I readily admit that statement. He has attacked,
I think, as strenuously as he is attacking us, the
gentlemen who are now bis colleagues, when they
were pursuing a policy similar to that which he now
condemns. It is a suggestive and instructive fact
that the criticism of the right honourable gentleman,
like the criticism which has proceeded from every
other member of the House upon the proposal of the
Government, is a criticism which comes from men
who are in favour of immediate, or, at all events, of
the earliest possible evacuation of Egypt. We have
to bear that in mind. From such a standpoint the con-
clusion of the right honourable gentleman is perfectly
logical and intelligible. It is quite clear that in such
a case it is natural for him to exaggerate the diffi-
culties attending the prosecution of our present
policy, and to depreciate the value of that policy,
whether in Egypt or in Italy.
If Egypt has ceased to be any concern of ours, if
our duty is to " scuttle " from Egypt at the earliest
possible moment, what matters it whether Dervish
rule is barbarous, as the right honourable gentleman
himself admits it to be, or whether it is, as the hon-
ourable member for Northampton (Mr. Labouchere)
told us the other day, more civilised than our own ?
(Laughter.) What does it matter whether Egypt is in
Egypt and the Soudan 47
danger, or whether she has, as the right honourable
gentleman says, an impregnable frontier at Wady
Haifa ? If we are to go out of Egypt, and no
longer to make it our concern that the prosperity
and security of Egypt shall be maintained, cadit
qv/estio, the whole discussion comes to an end,
and I shall be prepared to follow the right honour-
able gentleman in his natural conclusion. The
greater contains the less, and every argument we
have heard to-night, as every argument which we
heard in the same direction the other night, are all,
if I may say so, tainted by this preconceived deter-
mination of honourable gentlemen that our duty is
to have nothing more to do with Egypt.
Let me point out, at this stage, what seems an
extraordinary inconsistency on the part of the right
honourable gentleman. He was talking of the possi-
bility of Egyptian rule in the Soudan. What my right
honourable friend spoke of was Anglo-Egyptian rule,
meaning Egyptian rule under English influences. But
the right honourable gentleman opposite, in speaking
of Egyptian rule, described it as a return to a rule so
barbarous, so corrupt, that the Soudanese would not
submit to it under any circumstances. But, at the same
moment, the right honourable gentleman argues that
we have so renovated the character of the Egyptian
Government — (hear, hear) — that all possibility of
barbarous and corrupt rule has ceased, and we may
safely leave Egypt. (Cheers.) But if the Egyptians,
under our guidance during the last fifteen years, have
48 ^gyp^ ^"^ ^^^ Soudan
become a new people, if we can safely leave Egypt,
and the reforms we have instituted, to the Egyptians
whom we have trained and educated, surely in the
same way you may leave to them also the responsi-
bility for the recovery of the Soudan.
Let us suppose that it is our policy to recover the
Soudan in the way the right honourable gentleman
has suggested. In the first place, it is quite impossible
to judge of the present policy of the Government unless
we can first make up our minds whether the position
in Egypt is to remain as at present, or whether we
seriously contemplate an immediate withdrawal.
I think the admission of the right honourable gen-
tleman renders it unnecessaiy for me to dwell largely
on the arguments in favour of remaining in Egypt.
I will summarise them briefly. In the first place,
we point to the advantages which our stay there has
conferred upon Egypt. I do not think there is any-
thing in our recent history to which we can look back
with greater pride and satisfaction than the peaceful
revolution accomplished in Egypt — (cheers) — by a
handful of British civil administrators, and a handful
of British officers, supported, no doubt, in the last
resort, by the strength of the British Empire. What
was the state of the case when we went to Egypt ?
The country appeared to be in the last state of decay.
Her finances were bankrupt, her army had been
annihilated, her administration was corrupt, justice
was an empty name, extortion and torture were
practised, the administration of every department
Egypt and the Soudan 49
was feeble and inefficient, the great system of irriga-
tion, upon which the prosperity of Egypt depended,
had been allowed to fall into desuetude, and had
ceased to be capable of providing for the necessities
of the country. Commerce and agricnlture were
almost ruined.
We have been in Egypt fifteen years, and I say
that every traveller to whom I have spoken, who
has been in Egypt with an impartial mind, whether
Englishman or American, or even in some cases a
foreigner — because I have seen some remarkable
articles by a distinguished Frenchman on the subject
— admits that the change amounts, as I have said, to
a revolution. To those who have not travelled in
Egypt I point to Lord Cromer's most interesting
report. A deficit of nearly a million sterling has
been transformed into a surplus of over a million.
At the same time there has been a great reduction of
taxation which presses on the people. I do not
speak of the regularisation of that taxation, or its
just collection, instead of being extorted by persons
making their fortunes out of the collection. Corvee
has been abolished, judicial institutions have been
reformed, large grants have been made for education,
and the irrigation system, under the care of British
engineers, has been restored to a position which I
can say it hardly occupied even in the country's most
prosperous days.
The second argument I have is that every well-
informed person, whether our own authorities in
D
50 Egypt ^^d the Soudan
Egypt, or those impartial travellers to whom I have
referred, agrees that at the present time, if we were
to leave Egypt, all this would be undone. The right
honourable gentleman, the leader of the Opposition
referred the other day to a speech of mine, delivered
in 1884, in which I protested against a policy of
annexation or establishing a protectorate over Egypt.
He quoted that speech as though it involved an
admission on my part — at all events, in 1884 — that
we could safely leave Egypt. Whatever may have
been the case in 1884 — and I deny that even in that
year I had any idea that evacuation could shortly
take place — whatever I may have thought, or we may
have thought, in 1884, I believe that now, at any
rate, the vast majority of the English people are
convinced that our work is not complete, and that
it would be dishonourable in us to leave Egypt until
it was completed.
But I do not mean to be understoood as saying
that our present policy alters in the slightest degree
the position we hold in Egypt. Whatever that
position may be with regard to eventual evacuation,
the policy announced on Tuesday last does not in the
slightest degree affect it. The situation is not
altered ; we shall, at least, be as ready afterwards
as we were before — (laughter) — to consider any pro-
posals leading to the eventual evacuation of Egypt,
and we have never gone back from our pledges in
that respect. But all I point out is that in the past,
no doubt, we were too sanguine as to the time at
Egypt and the Soudan 51
which the fulfilment of the pledges given could
properly take place. No doubt, under pressure,
statements were made at different times, and by
different Governments, which were not indeed state-
ments that amounted to promises, but which were
rather in the light of an expression of hopes, and
references were made to the periods after which the
evacuation might possibly take place. That is a
mistake which I do not think we are likely to repeat.
(Cheers.) All we say is that the position in Egypt
is such that the difficulties of evacuation are greater
than we anticipated, that it vvill take longer to make
a self-supporting people of the Egyptian nation than
we Imagined to be possible, and I cannot help adding
that, if the difficulties attending such a task were
great in themselves, they have not been made easy by
the action of some of our allies, who have interfered
to hamper and embarrass our administration.
Now, I proceed to argue the question of the " new
policy," as it has been called. Although we are pre-
pared to say that it is not a new policy, but only a
development of the old policy of the country, I am
ready to argue the point on the assumption that at
all events the vast majority of tbo House are deter-
mined that we shall remain in Egypt until our work
has been accomplished, and until we can retire with-
out any idea that, by our retiring, we should sacrifice
all the advantages which Egypt has hitherto gained
by our presence in that country. I believe the
policy I am defending is the only justifiable policy if
52 ^gypt ^^^ t^^ Soudan
we continue to hold ourselves responsible for Egypt,
and if it be desirable in the interests of Egypt.
Sir, the right honourable gentleman laid the foun-
dation of his argument in an attack on the Govern-
ment, because, as he said, they had only furnished to
the House three trumpery telegrams as the basis of
their policy. I must say that a greater perversion of
the action of the Government I never heard in the
course of my experience in this House. What are
the facts? The statement of the policy of the
Government was made, in the first place, in a speech
by the Under-Secretary for Foreign Affairs, and then
in fuller language by my right honourable friend the
leader of the House, and I must say a clearer state-
ment was never made of the objects the Government
were pursuing, and the reason for which they were
pursued. (Cheers.) The right honourable gentle-
man spoke as though the sole grounds for the policy
of the Government were certain rumours which had
been current as to the movements of the Dervishes,
and that upon those rumours, detailed in three tele-
grams, we were basing our whole policy. That is
absolutely contrary to the facts. The Under-Secretary
for Foreign Affairs mentioned in the course of his
early statement that we had had notice of movements
showing a certain ferment among the Dervishes
previous to the decision of the Government. That
statement might have stood by itself. I do not
know whether the right honourable gentleman sus-
pected the integrity of the Government, but he
Egypt and the Soudan 53
claimed to see the original telegrams on which the
statement was made, and the telegrams were given
to show that the statement was justified; but the
Government have never put forward these rumours
as being the basis of their policy.
I shall, perhaps, repeat a little of what was con-
tained in the argument of my right honourable friend,
but I hope I shall be able to show to the House that
it is not upon so slender a foundation that we base our
policy. But, for the right honourable gentleman to
found, as he did, his whole attack upon the Govern-
ment upon this misapprehension of the importance
of the telegrams, is a course of argument I can only
describe, in his own words, as flimsy, irrelevant,
meagre, and hollow. (Hear, hear.)
I ought to notice another argument of the right
honourable gentleman. I have spoken of the advan-
tages which our rule has conferred upon Egypt. The
right honourable gentleman says this policy will
withdraw these advantages from Egypt because it
will submit Egypt to a large expenditure. First, the
funds are to come from a surplus which we are not
permitted to use in any other way for the benefit of
Egypt. Although the assent of the majority of the
Caisse has already been given — and we have no
knowledge at present which would lead us to assume
that the assent of the remainder of the Powers will
not be given — to this expenditure, we know perfectly
well it has been refused, and would probably be
refused, to expenditure for other purposes. There-
54 ^SyP^ ^^^ ^^^ Soudan
fore we are not withdrawing from Egypt funds which
we can use for the ordinary purposes of administra-
tion. I go beyond that, and I say, if this policy
should have any of the results contemplated in the
speech of the right honourable gentleman, if it should
Lave the great result of relieving Egypt from the
constant pressure and menace of a Dervish attack,
the saving to Egypt would more than compensate
her for the capital expenditure, supposing that capital
expenditure were not the unlimited sum which the
right honourable gentleman referred to, but a sum
within the fair resources of Egypt herself.
It has been said that any advance beyond the
frontier would be a new departure and a reversal of
the policy which fixed our frontier at Wady Haifa.
That policy was set aside when we went to Sarras and
Murad Wells. When exception is taken to this
expedition, it is well to bear in mind that we have
already proceeded beyond the old frontier to positions
in one case forty and another eighty miles distant.
I want the House to follow me in my view of the
situation, and in order to do that I must ask the
House to go back for a minute to the circumstances
which prevailed when Egypt was forced to abandon
the Soudan. There is no doubt that the corruption
and inefficiency of the Egyptian Government —
although, bad as it was, it did not compare for a
moment with the brutal and barbarous tyranny of
the Khalifa — predisposed the population to rebel,
and when a leader was found who, on the one hand
Egypt and the Soudan 55
appealed to their religious fanaticiBm, and, on the
other, promised them a redress of material grievances,
he found a soil prepared for his operations, and was
readily supported by the great bulk of the tribes.
When, at the commencement of the campaign, he
gained, as he did, easy victories over the ineffi-
cient, badly led, and ill-treated troops of Egypt, he
enhanced the prestige attaching to hi*^ name and was
able to go on to conquer the whole country, and to
establish himself after the fall of Khartoum.
At that time the Mahdi was at the height of his
power, influence, and prestige, and it was absolutely
impossible for Egypt to have reconquered the Soudan
against the forces of the Mahdi. Such reconquest
could have been undertaken only by Great Britain ;
it could have been carried out only by an enormous
expenditure of blood and treasure. As at that
moment the regeneration of Egypt proper had not
been commenced, it appeared to the Government at
that time — and I have no doubt that at the time the
decision was a wise one, nor do I think that any one
ever contested it — that it was a necessity of the
moment that the Soudan should be abandoned. But,
even at that time, the abandonment was not adopted
without great hesitation. We knew perfectly well
what it raeant for the Soudan ; we knew also what it
meant in the future for Egypt. Practically, at the
moment of the decision, it appeared to be an inevit-
able one.
I must, however, remind the House that that
56 ^gyp^ ^^^ *^^ Soudan
decision was reconsidered by the same Government
at a later date. What happened ? An expedition had
to be sent from this countr}^ not in order to recover
the Soudan, but for the relief of General Gordon ;
and when, unfortunately, that expedition arrived in
the neighbourhood of Khartoum too la^ to relieve
General Gordon, the Government had then to con-
sider under the altered circumstances, with a large
force in the Soudan, whether they were still under
that obligation to retire from the Soudan ; and that
Government decided that it was their duty to remain.
(" No, no.") Does the honourable member doubt it ?
I will give him the date and everything. That
Government in 1884 decided that it was its duty to
remain, and, to use the words of General Gordon, " to
smash the Mahdi at Khartoum." Those are the words
of General Gordon.
The Government decided to follow the advice of
General Gordon and smash the Mahdi. Why did
they do so ? They did so because they believed it
was necessary for the safety of Egypt. The leader
of the Opposition has a practice against which I am
inclined respectfully to protest ; it is to single out for
quotation speeches of those who have been his col-
leagues in the Cabinet in order to fix upon them some
special responsibility for the decision of the Cabinet
to which they belonged. He has done that on several
occasions with regard to the Duke of Devonshire and
myself. He knows that, while every member of the
Cabinet has a corporate responsibility for the decision
Egypt and the Soudan 57
of the body to which he belongs, that that may not
necessarily involve his own personal opinion upon the
subject. I suppose there has never been a case in
which sixteen or seventeen gentlemen have met
together without dijffering in opinion on some points ;
I imagine that in most cases in which they differ, the
minority yield to the majority ; and, if that be the
etiquette of our constitutional system, the member of
a minority is not bound to oppose in public everything
to which in private he may have offered objection.
I make this observation to introduce a quotation from
what was said by the leader of the Opposition, when
the decision of the Government to smash the Mahdi
was questioned by the right honourable gentleman, the
mover of this amendment. I do not attempt to fix
upon the right honourable gentleman any special or
personal responsibility ; I only say that as the mouth-
piece of that Government on that occasion he used
these words : " For the safety of Egypt I do think
it is absolutely necessary that the military power of
the Mahdi should be broken at Khartoum." I say that
the policy of that Government, the Government which
decided upon the evacuation of the Soudan, was,
when the opportunity occurred, to reconquer the
Soudan. I see my right honourable friend shakes his
head. I will make a correction ; to use his own words,
the policy of that Government was that the military
power of the Mahdi should be broken at Khartoum,
and some kind of orderly government set up in its
place. I point to that as showing that it was the
58 Egypt ^"^ the Soudan
opinion of the Government of that time that the
safety of Egypt could be secured only by establishing
an orderly government at Khartoum.
We know perfectly well that that Government did
not carry out its intention ; it did not smash the
power of the Mahdi ; and there was a good and suffi-
cient reason. The relations with Russia became ex-
tremely critical ; a credit of eleven millions had to
be asked for ; and it was impossible to keep a large
force of British troops locked up in the Soudan.
(Hear, hear.) I quite agree ; I understand the object
of that cheer. But what is it that we have proved ?
It is that the Government, of which the leader of the
Opposition was the spokesman, believed it was desir-
able in itself, on its merits, to smash the power of the
Dervishes at Khartoum, but there were circumstances
which made it undesirable to carry out that desirable
policy at the time. Yet the policy in itself was a
wise policy, a desirable policy, and necessary in the
interests of Egypt.
I think the mover of the amendment did some
injustice to Egyptian rule when he spoke in such ex-
aggerated terms of its mischievous character in the
Soudan. Let him bear in mind what we have been
told in the interesting book to which he referred, the
account of Slatin Pasha's experiences in the Soudan.
Slatin Pasha points out that in the Soudan under
Egyptian rule telegraph and post-office services were
established, Christian churches, and schools, and
Mahommedan mosques, were built, the lands were
Egypt and the Soudan 59
cultivated, and hostile tribes were compelled to keep
the peace.
But what followed when the Egyptians abandoned
the country ? We are told in the same book that at
l^ast 75 per cent, of the population have been de-
stroyed by war, famine, and disease, while the
remainder are little better than slaves ; that the slave
trade, with all its horrors, prevails in the land ; and
that great plains, once occupied by considerable popu-
lations, have been reduced to desert wastes. It must be
remembered, when the honourable member for North-
ampton (Mr. Labouchere), following Mr. Gladstone,
talks of the people of the Soudan as " rightly strug-
gling to be free," that the result of that struggle has
been that they are now much more slaves than ever
they were under Egyptian rule. (Ministerial cheers.)
I will not dwell upon the results of the change of
rule in the Soudan ; but, deplorable as those results
are, we have to consider, not the interest of the
Soudan, but the interest of Egypt. Egypt is under
our protection — Egypt is a dependency of ours.
(Ministerial cheers.) Let us ask ourselves, if Egypt
were independent and strong, what would be the
policy of patriotic Egyptian statesmen ? Anybody
who knows anything of the opinion of the most dis-
tinguished politicians in Egypt can have no hesitation
as to what their answer would be. Do not let the
House make a mistake. Every nation has, in these
matters at any rate, two policies. It has a practical
and present policy ; it has a future and ideal policy.
6o ^8^yP^ ^"^ ^^^ Soudan
I am talking now of the ideal policy, and not of the
immediate practical policy of that country ; and I
say that the aspiration and ideal of every Egyptian
statesman, without exception, is the recovery of the
Soudan. (Ministerial cheers.)
I particularly desire that I may not be misunder-
stood on this point. I do not say that if Egypt were
independent she would at present enter upon a cam-
paign for the reconquest of the Soudan, but I say that
Egyptian statesmen believe that, until her influence
over the Soudan has been recovered, there will never
be permanent peace, and that there will never be per-
manent prosperity, in the country. They make, and
they have always made, it a grievance against English
intervention that by it they were forced to abandon
their hope of recovering the Soudan, and it is a curious
fact that some of those foreign critics, who are now
representing the policy of the Government to be a
fatal, injurious, and offensive policy, have done every-
thing in their power to induce the Egyptians to lay
stress upon this particular grievance — that we did
not allow them to reconquer the Soudan. (Hear, hear.)
The opinion of those Egyptian statesmen to which I
have referred is, and has always been, that the Nile is
the life of Egypt, and that accordingly the control of
the Nile is essential to the existence and security of
Egypt. I say again that, while this is the ideal of
every Egyptian statesman, I do not for a moment
suppose that, even if they were left alone, they would
attempt the reconquest of the Soudan with their
Egypt and the Soudan 6i
present resources ; but they hope and believe that
sooner or later their influence there may again become
paramount.
I now come to the practical policy of Egypt. The
present policy of Egypt itself is the defence of the
Egyptian frontier — that is to say, the defence of all
that we call Egypt proper. We are asked to believe
that this defence ought to consist of the maintenance
of what we have been told is the ideal frontier of
Wady Haifa. The right honourable gentleman, the
member for the Forest of Dean (Sir C. Dilke), spoke
of that frontier as being exceptionally strong, because
there was a desert in front of it, through which
the Dervishes must pass to an invasion of Egypt. Of
course I do not deny that. The desert in front of Wady
Haifa is a barrier against conquest, but it is also a
screen for raids. (Hear, hear.) Experience ha«
shown very clearly that, however excellent that fron-
tier may be, if anything like a conquest of Egypt
were attempted by the Dervishes, it is no protection
at all against continual incursions and raids, which
are made from behind our frontier at Wady Haifa ;
and the position is one of permanent insecurity to the
villages and lands that lie on the inner side of our
frontier. That being so, I say that no possibility of
our fulfilling our duty to the people who are actually
within our frontier exists so long as Dervish power
continually threatens the peaceable industry of those
people by these sudden raids and incursions ; and we
cannot leave out of account altogether the fact that ,
62 Egyp^ ^"^ ^h^ Soudan
in spite of this strong frontier, it was possible for a
very serious invasion to be made — an invasion the
forces of which the right honourable gentleman, the
member for the Forest of Dean, somewhat under-
estimated, but which, under other circumstances,
might have attained still larger dimensions.
I admit that, bad as the situation is at Wady Haifa,
it has been borne for some years ; and it might have
been borne for some years longer but for recent events
which have materially altered the situation. The defeat
of the Italians has caused a new situation. If we ask
the House to go beyond Wady Haifa, it is not in con-
sequence of three telegrams, which the right honour-
able gentleman described as trumpery telegrams ;
but it is because of the entirely new situation that
has been created by the disastrous defeat of the Italian
army by the natives in that part of Africa. (Hear,
hear.) It is no new thing to say of barbarous and
savage tribes that their aggressive force is largely
determined by what I must call moral as opposed to
physical considerations. It is determined by their
enthusiasm ; by their fanaticism ; and, above all, by
the prestige of success ; and a body that would be
absolutely inoffensive, that would not stir a step under
other circumstances, might be encouraged and driven
to a dangerous degreo of fanaticism and fury by such
an event as that to which I have refened. (Hear,
hear.)
The defeat of the Europeans in Abyssinia has
encouraged, and, according to the last advice we can
Egypt and the Soudan 63
get, 18 likely to still further encourage, a dangerous
ferment amongst the Dervishes ; and it is now the
opinion of all the authorities that if Kassala were to
fall — and, though we hope for the best, we cannot be
absolutely certain that it is still secure — if Kassala
were to fall, the effect might be altogether incalculable
upon Egyptian interests (hear, hear); because, though
we have reason to believe that up to the present time
there has been great discontent with the Khalifa —
that many tribes have been alienated from his rule
by his barbarity and cruelty, it is possible, in the
presence of a great defeat of Europeans, with the
consequent rising of the courage, and the spirit, and
the hopes of the native tribes, that their intestine
disputes may be put aside, and that they may join
together in one great effort to destroy that Egyptian
civilisation of which we are the protectors. (Hear,
hear.)
That is the position. (Ministerial cheers.) That
is the caase of the new poKcy, as it has been called.
That is the cause of the development of our policy ;
that is the basis upon \rhich we ask the House to
place it. (Ministerial cheers.) We say that it is to
the interest of Egypt — almost to the paramount
interest of Egypt — that, if possible, Kassala shall not
fall. (Ministerial cheers.) The right honourable gen-
tleman, the member for the Montrose Burghs (Mr.
Morley), made an attempt, which I do not think was
worthy of him — although it has been made by other
honourable members — to distinguish between the
64 ^gypt ^^^ ^^^ Soudan
interests of Egypt and the interests of Italy in this
matter. Sir, the interests of the two countries are in-
separable. You cannot separate them. Even if Italy
did not appeal, as she does appeal, strongly to our
sympathies in her present time of trouble — even if she
were pi\t out of the question altogether — it would still
be the interest of Egypt to do what she could to
prevent the fall of Kassala. (Ministerial cheers.)
The advance which we have taken is dictated by
this consideration — that it is the wiser policy of
Egypt to anticipate the threatened attack — the attack
which we believe to be probable, and even certain —
in the event of the fall of Kassala ; that it is the
wiser policy of Egypt to anticipate this attack, and
to prevent that concentration of the Dervir'nes upon
a single objective which would, after a success in the
first instance, bring them, with all the prestige of that
success, to attack Egypt itself. (Hear, hear.) We
want to create a diversion. If we were to allow the
Dervishes to direct all their efforts against Kassala,
and if Kassala were to fall, then all their 1 jrces would
combine against Egypt. In the meantime we make
a diversion, which we were told from the Opposition
side the other night that Italy would not be thankful
for, and which could not be of any use to Italy. But
honourable members who said that were a little pre-
mature. If they had waited twenty-four hours they
would have seen that Italy has appreciated the course
we have taken ; that she has warmly and cordially
accepted it, and has thanked ns for it. (Ministerial
Egypt and the Soudan 65
cheers.) It is an incident that, in attempting the
defence of Egypt, we are also assisting the Italians.
We hope that we may be able to lessen their task and
enable them to hold their own. I ask, does any
responsible politician on the other side of the House
object to that policy ? Will they make it a ground
of additional criticism and complaint that in en-
deavouring, as we are, to secure the best interests
of Egypt, we are also at the same time helping our
Italian allies ? (Cheers.)
The other day, at a public dinner, Lord Rosebery
taunted the Government with the isolation in which
he said we were placed, and he attributed that
isolation to our policy. The present policy, at all
events, does not find us isolated in Europe. (Cheers.)
One of the members who spoke the other night said
that all Europe ' '\a against us. The right honourable
gentleman oppodite made a great point. He com-
plained that the leader of the House, in pointing out
that it was probable that the Triple Alliance, at all
events, would support us, and that he could see no
reason why the other two Powers should not support
us, had shown a want of foresight.
What is the case ? The case is that Germany has
supported us ; that Austria has warmly approved the
course we have taken ; and that Italy has thankfully
accepted it and cordially received the announcement.
(Cheers.) As to France and Russia, we wait.
(Ironical cheers and counter-cheers.) It would be as
unwise as it would be discourteous on my part, or on
£
66 ^gypt ^"^ t^^ Soudan
any one's, to anticipate what the ultimate decision of
those countries will be. We have no reason at
present to know or to suppose that it will not be
found in accordance with the views of the other
three Great Powers. (Cheers.) I say then that our
policy at the present moment is warmly supported by
three of the Great Powers of Europe, and it is no
longer, at any rate, a policy of isolation. (Cheers.)
I am convinced that Lord Rosebery, at least, will not
make it a charge against us that we have been able,
in pursuing the primary interests committed to our
charge, to show our sympathy and our goodwill to a
gallant and friendly nation. (Cheers.)
Thf3 advance which we have decided to make is to
Akasheh, some eighty miles from Wady Haifa. The
Under-Secretary, while of course declining to pledge
himself in regard to matters which must depend
largely upon military considerations, pointed out
that the advance might possibly extend to Dongola
— that is, as far as any present intention of the
Government is concerned. (Ironical cheers.) But I
will add to that. The advance, whatever it may be,
will be limited by two considerations. It will be
limited in the first place by our power to maintain
the security of the communications — (hear, hear) —
and it will be limited in the second place by the
nature and extent of the resistance we may find.
(Ironical cheers.) I was really under the impres-
sion that we were discussing a matter which the
Opposition thought to be of exceptional gravity —
Egypt and the Soudan 67
(Opposition cheers) — but I should not be in the least
aware of it from the interruptions of honourable
members opposite. With regard to the security of
the communications, the railway will follow the
troops to Akasheh, and it will provide for the commu-
nications with the troops, because it is not intended
to cut them off from their supplies and from Egypt.
Let me say one other word, and that is in answer
to something which fell from the leader of the
Opposition about the question of permanent occupa-
tion. The making of the railway may, I think, be
assumed to be a pledge that where we go we shall
remain. (Cheers.) We have no idea of handing
back to barbarism such territory — be it more or less
— as we may recover for civilisaiion. (Cheers.)
On the other hand, I desire to make clear another
point to which I have already referred. Her Majesty's
Government have no conception of such a policy of
reckless adventure as was indicated by the right hon-
ourable member for the Forest of Dean. We do not
count upon "incalculable expenditure" and " gigantic
military efforts," nor do we propose to "lock up
large masses of troops in the rainless deserts and
untravelled countries of the Soudan." Nothing of
the kind ever entered into our minds.
There is a contingency which appears to have
entered into the mind of the right honourable mem-
ber for Montrose, and which is worth while taking into
view. We have no doubt been told by authorities from
time to time, as he says, that the power of the Khalifa
68 Egypt and the Soudan
is waning ; that, owing to his extraordinary misgovern-
ment, he has no friends left him but the Bagara tribe ;
and that, the moment news arrived of the approach of
the Anglo-Eg3q)tian forces, his followers would leave
him, and his empire would totter to its fall. I admit
that when I was in Egypt I heard much conversation
to this effect, and received similar assurances from,
among others, some of the leaders and sheikhs of the
tribes in the Soudan ; but I think that it would be
dangerous to place upon these statements anything
like implicit reliance.
I do not think it is possible to predict the effect of
this advance. (Ironical cheers.) The advance itself will
make clear whether, as is affirmed in some quarters,
the Dervish power is hollow and a sham, or whether,
on the contrary, it still stands so firmly as to make
any assault upon it a dangerous and difficult opera-
tion. (Ironical cheers and laughter.) All I say is —
and I cannot conceive why it should be the cause of
merriment — that this distinctly is the policy of the
Government. If this Dervish power should prove to
be unbroken, if it is capable of what I have called
serious resistance, if to destroy it would put upon
the finances of Egypt a strain beyond the resources
of that country, and a strain beyond that which a
patriotic Eg3rptian statesman would himself be willmg
for the country to undergo, then there is no intention
whatever on the part of the Government to enter
upon such a policy. (Ironical cheers.)
On the other hand, if it were found true, as has
Egypt and the Soudan 69
been suggested, that the power of the Dervishes was
entirely broken, that the tribes, tired of the mis-
government which has prevailed, were willing to
welcome the advance of the force, then I think it
would be very unfair and very unwise to refuse, to
Egyptians at all events, the possibility of recovering
the position which they believe to be essential to their
security. (Cheers.)
I say again that that is the ideal which we keep in
view. The present policy of the Government is
confined to what we believe to be the immediate
needs of Egypt. We are not going to take the
extraordinary risks which have been depicted in such
glowing colours by right honourable gentlemen oppo-
"*te ; but we do ask that the House will meet the new
situation which has been created by recent events,
and that they will consent to make the demonstra-
tion which will anticipate, and, as we hope, may avert
the possibility of a revival of the Demsh power.
(Cheers.)
The Unity of the Empire
The Future of the British
Empire
Dinner given on the completion of the
Natal Railway, London, Nov. 6, 1895
On November 6', 1895, Mr. Chamberlain rcw* the prin-
e'lpal ffiie.si at a dinner f>'h'en in the Whitehall Roomtt
of the Hotel Mctropole, London, bij Mr. Walter Peace,
C.M.G. {the Agent-General Jor Natal), in eelebration
of the eompletion of tJw Natal-Tran.svaal Railway.
This was the Jirst public oreasion on whieh Mr.
Chamberlain appeared in hh official capacity as
Seeretary of State for tlw Colonies ; and, in replying
to the toast <7,"" The Right Hon. Joseph Chamberlain,
Seeretary of Jtate Jbr the Colonies^" whieh was pro-
posed by Sir Charles Tapper, High Commissioner of
Canada, Mr, Chamberlain said: —
I THANK you sincerely for the hearty reception you
have given to this toast. I appreciate very much
the warmth of your welcome, and I see in it con-
74 The Future of the British Empire
firmation of the evidence which is afforded by the
cordial and graceful telegram from the Premier of
Natal, which has been read by your chairman, and
by other public and private communications that I
have received, that any man who makes it his first
duty, as I do, to draw closer together the different
portions of the iiritish Empire — (hear, hear) — will
meet with hearty sympathy, encouragement, and
support. (Cheers.) I thank my old friend and
colleague, Sir Charles Tupper, for the kind manner
in which he has spoken of me. He has said much,
no doubt, that transcends my merits, but that is a
circumstance so unusual in the life of a politician —
(laughter) — that I do not feel it in my heart to com-
plain. (Laughter.) I remember that Dr. Oliver
Wendell Holmes, who was certainly one of the most
genial Americans who ever visited these shores, said
that when he was young he liked his praise in tea-
spoonfuls, that when he got older he preferred it in
table-spoonfuls, and that in advanced years he was con-
tent to receive it in ladles. (Laughter.) I confess that
I am arriving at the period when I sympathise with
Dr. Oliver Wendell Holmes. (Laughter and cheers.)
Gentlemen, the occasion which has brought us
together is an extremely interesting one. We are
here to congratulate Natal, its Government and its
people, and to congratulate ourselves on the comple-
tion of a great work of commercial enterprise and
civilisation, which one of our colonies, which happens
to be the last to have been included in the great circle
The Future of the British Empire 75
of self -go vera ing communities, has brought to a suc-
cessful conclusion, giving once more a proof of the
vigour and the resolution which have distinguished
all the nations that have sprung from the parent
British stock. (Cheers.)
This occasion has been honoured by the presence
of the representatives of sister colonies, who are here
to offer words of sympathy and encouragement ; and,
in view of the representative character of the gather-
ing, I think, perhaps, I may be permitted, especially
as this is the first occasion upon which I have publicly
appeared in my capacity as Minister for the colonies
— (cheers) — to offer a few words of a general appli-
cation. (Hear, hear.)
I think it will not be disputed that we are approach-
ing a critical stage in the history of the relations
between ourselves and the self-governing colonies.
We are entering ujwn a chapter of our colonial his-
tory, the whole of which will probably be written in
the next few years, certainly in the lifetime of the
next generation, and which will be one of the most
important in our colonial annals, since upon the events
and policy which it describes will depend the future
of the British Empire. That Empire, gentlemen,
that world-wide dominion to which no Englishman
can allude without a thrill of enthusiasm and
patriotism, which has been the admiration, and per-
haps the envy, of foreign nations, hangs together by
a thread so slender that it may well seem that even a
breath would sever it.
76 The Future of the British Empire
There have been periods in our history, not so very
i'ar distant, when leading statesmen, despairing of the
possibility of maintaining anything in the nature of
a permanent union, have looked forward to the
time when the vigorous communities to which they
rightly entrusted the control of their own destinies
would grow strong and independent, would assert
their independence, and would claim entire separa-
tion from the parent stem. The time to which they
looked forward has arrived sooner than they expected.
The conditions to which they referred have been more
than fulfilled; and now these great communities,
which have within them every element of national
life, have taken their rank amongst the nations of the
world ; and I do not suppose that any one would con-
sider the idea of compelling them to remain within
the empire as within the region of intelligent specu-
lation. Yet, although, as I have said, the time has
come, and the conditions have been fulfilled, the results
which these statesmen anticipated have not followed.
rCheers.) They felt, perhaps, overwhelmed by the
growing burdens of the vast dominions of the British
Crown. They may well have shrunk from the re-
sponsibilities and the obligations which they involve ;
and so it happened that some of them looked forward
not only without alarm, but with hopeful expectation,
to a severance of the union which now exists.
But if such feelings were ever entertained they are
entertained no longer. (Cheers.) As the possibility
of separation has become greater, the desire for
The Future of the British Empire jj
separation has become less. (Renewed cheers.)
While we on our part are prepared to take our share
of responsibility, and to do all that may fairly be
expected from the mother country, and while we
should look upon a separation as the greatest
calamity that could befall us — (hear, hear) — our
fellow-subjects on their part see to what a great
inheritance they have come by mere virtue of their
citizenship ; and they must feel that no separate
existence, however splendid, could compare with
that which they enjoy equally with ourselves as joint
heirs of all the traditions of the past, and as joint
partakers of all the influence, resources, and power
of the British Empire. (Cheers.)
I rejoice at the change that has taken place. I
rejoice at the wider patriotism, no longer confined
to this small island, which embraces the whole of
Greater Britain and which has carried to every
clime British institutions and the best characteristics
of the British race. (Renev;ed cheering.) How could
it be otherwise ? We have a common origin, we have
a common history, a common language, a common
literature, and a common love of liberty and law. W(^
have common principles to assert, we have common
interests to maintain. (Hear, hear, and cheers.) I
said it was a slender thread that binds us together.
I remember on one occasion having been shown a
wire so fine and delicate that a blow might break it ;
yet I was told that it was capable of transmitting
an electrical energy that would set powerful machinery
78 The Future of the British Empire
in motion. May it not be the same with the relations
which exist between the colonies and ourselves ; and
may not that thread of union be capable of carrying a
force of sentiment and of sympathy which will yet be a
potent factor in the history of the world ? (Hear, hear.)
Thjre is a word which I am almost afraid to
mention, lest at the very outset of my career I should
lose my character as a practical statesman. I am
told on every hand that Imperial Federation is a
vain and empty dream. (Cries of " No, no.") I
will not contest that judgment, but I will say this :
that that man must be blind indeed who does not
see that it is a dream which has vividly impressed
itself on the mind of the English-speaking race, and
who does not admit that dreams of that kind, which
have so powerful an influence upon the imagination
of men, have somehow or another an unaccoun' ble
way of being realised in their own time. (Hear,
hear.) If it be a dream, it is a dream that appeals
to the highest sentiments of patriotism, as well as to
our material interests. It is a dream which is calcu-
lated to stimulate and to inspire every one who cares
for the future of the Anglo-Saxon people. (Cheers.)
I think myself that the spirit of the time is, at all
events, in the direction of such a movement. How
far it will carry us no man can tell ; but, believe me,
upon the temper and the tone in which we approach
the solution of the problems which are now coming
upon us depend the security and the maintenance
of that world-wide dominion, that edifice of Imperial
The Future of the British Empire 79
rule, which has been so ably built for us by those
who have gone before. (Cheers.)
Gentlemen, I admit that I have strayed somewhat
widely from the toast which your chairman has
committed to my charge. (No.) That toast is " The
Prosperity of South Africa and the Natal and
Transvaal Railway." Ap to South Africa, there can
be no doubt as to its prosperity. We have witnessed
in our own time a development of natural and
mineral wealth in that country altogether beyond
precedent or human knowledge ; and what we have
seen in the past, and what we see in the present, is
bound to be far surpassed in the near future. (Hear,
hear.) The product of the mines, great as it is at
present, is certain to be multiplied many fold, and
before many years are over the mines of the Trans-
vaal may be rivalled by the mines of Mashonaland
or Matabeleland ; and in the train of this great,
exceptional, and wonderful prosperity, in the train
of the diamond-digger and of the miner, will come
a demand for labour which no man can measure —
a demand for all the products of agriculture aud of
manufacture, in which not South Africa alone, but
all the colonies and the mother country itself must
have a share. (Cheers.)
The climate and soil leave nothing to be desired,
and there is only one thing wanted — that is,
a complete union and identity of sentiment and
interest between the different States existing in
South Africa. (Cheers.) Gentlemen, I have no
8o The Future of th British Empire
doubt that that union will be forthcoming — (cheers)
— although it may not be immediately established. I
do not shut my eyes to differences amongst friends
which have unfortunately already arisen, and which
have not yet been arranged. I think these differences,
if you look below the surface, will be found to be due
principally to the fact that we have not yet achieved in
South Africa that local federation which is the
necessary preface to any serious consideration of the
question of Imperial federation. (Cheers.) But,
gentlemen, in these differences, my position, of
course, renders it absolutely necessary that I should
take no side. (Cheers.) I pronounce no opinion,
and it would not become me to offer any advice ;
although, if the good offices of my department were
at any time invoked by those who are now separated,
all I can say is that they would be heartily placed at
their service. (Cheers.)
Gentlemen, I wish success to the Natal Railway,
and to every railway in South Africa. (Cheers.)
There is room for all. (Cheers.) There is prosperity/
for all — (hear, hear) — enough to make the mouth of
an English director positively water. (Laughter.)
There is success for all, if only they will not waste
their resources in internecine conflict. (Hear, hear.)
I have seen with pleasure that a conference is being
held in order to discuss, and I hope to settle, these
differences. I trust that they may be satisfactorily
arranged. In the meantime I congratulate our
chairman, as representing this prosperous colony,
Th^ Future of the British Empire 8i
upon the enterprise they have displ^'^ed, upon the
difficulties they have surmounted, ana on the success
they have ah'eady achieved. (Cheers.) And I hope
for them — confidently hope — the fullest 'lare in
that prosperity which I predict without hesitation
for the whole of South Africa. (Cheers.)
F
A Young Nation
Imperial Institute, London, Novembep ii,
1895
On November 11, 1896, Mr. Chamberlain presided at
a banquet which was given at the Imperial Institute
in honour of Colonel Gerard Smith, the Governor-
Designate of Western Australia. After the usual
loyal toasts, Mr. Chamberlain proposed the health of
Colonel Gerard Smith, and said : —
I NOW propose the health of our gi est, Colonel
Gerard Smith, who has been appointed by her
Majesty Governor of Western Australia, in succes-
sion to Sir William Kobinson, who has retired, after
a long and most honourable career in the public
service. (Cheers.)
The choice of a governor is part of what is plea-
santly called the patronage of the Colonial Office.
(Laughter.) I am noi, fond of the word, and I
dislike excessively the impression which it appears
to produce upon certain of the public that the
Secretary of State for the Colonies has always in his
A Young Nation 83
gift a number of eligible and lucrative appointments
— (laughter) — which are at the disposal of any one
who has failed in other ./alks of life. (Laughter.)
Whenever a new Administration comes into power, I
am afraid, there are many expectations of this kind
which are inevitably doomed to disappointment ; and
even when they may be gratified without injury to
the public service, I think that sometimes there is
disappointment to the sanguine hopes which have
been formed by those who have solicited these
appointments. At all events, although I myself have
but a slight experience, I have come to the con-
clusion that a large portion of my time in future will
be devoted to explaining to a number of estimable
gentlemen why it is absolutely impossible for me to
appoint nine-tenths of them to positions in the
colonies, and that another large portion will be taken
up in explaining to the one-tenth who are successful
that I cannot immediately remove them to more
favourable situations and to healthier climes.
(Laughter.)
Gentlemen, I suppose there is no part of this
patronage which involves greater responsibility or
more anxious consideration than the selection for the
approval of her Majesty of gentlemen fitted to fill
the important and dignified office of her Majesty's
representatives in our self-governing colonies. (Hear,
hear.) Such a man, the occupant of such a position,
ought to have high character and good social stand-
ing. He should have a large experience of affairs.
84 A Young Nation
He should have tact and discretion, exceptional
intelligence and attractive personality ; and I regret
to say that, as day by day the requirements increase,
there is a tendency to diminish the emoluments.
(Laughter.) I cannot help saying that we may well
be proud of the fact that there is not, that there
never has been, any real difficulty in finding men
who are willing and anxious to accept positions
which certainly do not offer any great pecuniary
attractions, with the hope of being able to render
good service to the empire, and in so doing to earn
distinction and honour for themselves. (Cheers.)
Gentlemen, I think that the friends who have met
here to-night to wish God-speed to Colonel Gerard
Smith will hope with me that he will take a worthy
place in the illustrious roll of colonial Governors. He
is going to an interesting colony at an interesting
time. (Hear.) The history of Western Australia is
a singular one. It is said, I know not on what
authority, that it was the first of the Australian
colonies to be discovered by any European visitor,
and that in the early part of the fifteenth century it
was visited by the Portuguese, who called it at that
time "the land of parrots," in consequence of the
incredible bigness of those birds which they found
upon the shores. I do not know, as I have said,
whether that claim can be sustained; but, if the
colony be the first in Australasia to be discovered, I
think it will be admitted by its warmest friends that
it has been one of the latest to be developed. (Cheers.)
A Young Nation 85
It was only colonised by the English in 1829, and
for many years, in spite of its great advantages, in
spite of the well-known salubrity of its climate and
its great natural resources, it seems to have made
very little progress. But in the last few years a
change has come " o'er the spirit of its dream," and
this young nation has made strenuous and rapid
progress. In 1850 — that is to say, twenty years
after its colonisation — the white population was only
5800. At the last census it was 76,000. The revenue
in 1880, fifteen years ago, amounted to only £ 1 80,000
a year; in 1895 it has risen to ;^i, 125,000.
There are some persons, I believe, who attribute
this happy result to the concession of self-government
a few years ago. I myself am in favour of self-
government in the circumstances of the Australian
colonies, but I confess I have never ventured to
attribute such magical power to it. (Laughter.)
Possibly the gold discovered may have had some-
thing to do with the change which we are all glad to
chronicle. ("Hear, hear," and laughter.) At all
events, in 1 890 — that is to say, only five years ago —
the export of gold was ^86,000 ; in 1 894 it amounted
to ;£"9IOjOOO.
I think, then, we may say that the prospects of
this colony are indeed encouraging, and that it may
hope in a very short time to rival the prosperity and
population of the older settlements of Australia ; and
here, in the old country, we have nothing but good-
will and sympathy for this vigorous offshoot of the
86 A Young Nation
parent race. (Cheers.) We h.'.Nre, of course, relin-
quished absolutely all right to interfere. We have
hardly a claim, except perhaps the claim of kinship
and mutual interest, even to offer suggestions ; but 1
think we may venture to hope that this colony, while
profiting by the experience of other self-governing
communities, will not hesitate to strike out a line for
itself if its interests should dictate a separate course.
What are the interests of a colony in this condition?
What are the circumstances ? Here is a vast territory
eight times the area of the U jited Kingdom of Great
Britain and Ireland, with a white population which is
one five-hundredth part of the population of the
mother country. Of this area only a fraction is in
anything like profitable occupation. Does it not
stand to reason that the first need for many years to
come of any colony in this position must be labour —
labour to till the soil, labour to work the great natural
resources of the country ? (Hear, hear.) We may
say to Western Australia, and to every country in the
same position — Get population, and all else shall be
added unto you. (Cheers.) We hope, then — and
we are justified in hoping — that in order to induce
this immigration everything will be done to make life
desirable and ecoi}omical to the labourers, who are, as
I have said, the greatest need of the colony, and that
no obstacle will be placed in the way of the intro-
duction of the articles of necessity and of luxury
which this population will need. I know that there
is an idea prevalent in new communities, with which
A Young Nation 87
I have very great sympathy, that they should en-
courage a diversity of employment, that it would be
a mistake to commit as it were for all time the whole
of the population to a single industry ; but there
need be no fear of that in such a case as the one
which we are considering; for with the growth of
population there will necessarily come, naturally and
without artificial stimulus, a demand for local manu-
factures ; and it seems to me that the clear duty of
the colony, and the clear interest of the colony, is to
spend its whole energy in cultivating to the best
advantage the natural resources of the soil, with the
certainty that this will result in the development of
all the elements of a great nation. (Cheers.)
I look forward to a time, which I think is not very
distant, when our great colonies in Australasia will
imitate the wise example of Canada, and will agree
to unite — (cheers) — for the purposes which are
common to all. (Cheers.) I see with satisfaction
the great step in that direction which has just been
taken by the legislature of New South Wales, and
I feel confident that Western Australia will not be
behind the sister colony. Such a step as the federa-
tion of Australia will be the consummation of a great
idea, in which local jealousies and petty ambitions
will be buried in the foundation of a mighty common-
wealth, which — in a time that is, at all events,
historically visible — is destined to outstrip the waning
greatness and the lagging civilisation of the older
countries of Europe. (Cheers.) It will be a step in
88 A Young Nation
the direction of that Imperial unity which we cherish
as the ideal future of the British race. (Renewed
cheers.) And it will enable this old country of ours
to extend its fame and its history in the greatness of
its children across the sea. (Hear, hear.)
Gentlemen, whatever may be in store for us, I am
sure that to-night our hearts go out to this young
and fresh country of ours in Australasia, and that
with the good wishes which we offer for the success
of the government of our friend and guest, Colonel
Gerard Smith, we send also a message of sympathy
and goodwill to our fellow-subjects and fellow-citizens
in Western Australia. (Cheers.)
In responding' to the health of the Chairman, Mr.
Chamberlain said :
I am extremely obliged to you for the welcome
which you have given to me to-night. It is a
great pleasure to me to have these opportunities
of making the acquaintance of those who have
already distinguished themselves in connection with
our great colonies. Sir Robert Herbert has said
many kind things, but I am well aware of the
saying that no man should call himself happy
until he is dead — (laughter) — and there is another
statement which I like even better, which is, " Let
not him that girdeth on his harness boast himself
as he that putteth it off." My career as Secretary
of State for the Colonies is yet to be made ; but I
A Young Nation 89
will say this, that no one has ever been wafted into
office with more favourable gales. (Hear, hear.) It
is to me an encouragement and a great delight to
find that in the colonies and in the mother country
there is some conJSdence, at all events, in my desire
to bring them closer together. (Cheers.) I will
venture to claim two qualifications for the great office
which I hold, and which, to my mind, without making
invidious distinctions, is one of the most important
that can be held by any Englishman. These qualifi-
cations are that, in the first place. I believe in the
British Empire — (cheers) — and, in the second place,
I believe in the British race. (Renewed cheering.)
I believe that the British race is the greatest of
governing races that the world has ever seen. (More
cheering.) I say that not merely as an empty boast,
but as proved and evidenced by the success which
we have had in administering the vast dominions
which are connected with these small islands. (Cheers.)
I think a man who holds my office is bound to be
sanguine, is bound to be confident, and I have both
those qualifications. (Laughter, and cheers.) I wish
sometimes that the English people were not so apt to
indulge in self-criticism, which, although it does no
harm at home, is sometimes misinterpreted abroad.
(Hear, hear.) We are all prepared to admire the
great Englishmen of the past. We speak of the men
who made our Empire, and we speak of them as
heroes as great as any that have lived in the pages of
history ; but when we come to our own time we doubt
90 A Young Nation
JT
.#
and hesitate, and we seem to lose the confidence
which I think becomes a great nation such as ours ;
and yet, if we look even to such comparatively small
matters as the expeditions in which Englishmen have
recently been engaged, the administrations which
Englishmen have recently controlled, I see no reason
to doubt that the old British spirit still lives in the
Englishmen of to-day. (Cheers.) When I think of
the incidents of 3uch a campaign as that of Chitral,
when I think of the way in which in numerous pro-
vinces in India — and I might speak from my own
experience of the administration in Egypt — of the
way in which a number of young Englishmen, picked
as it were haphazard from the mass of our popula-
tion, having beforehand no special claims to our con-
fidence, have nevertheless controlled great affairs, and
with responsibility placed upon their shoulders have
shown a power, a courage, a resolution, and an intelli-
gence, which have carried them through extraordinary
difficulties — I say that he indeed is a craven and a
poor-spirited creature who despairs of the future of
the British race. (Cheers.) Gentlemen, I thank
you for the reception you have given me, and I hope
I may deserve your confidence. (Hear, hear.)
Splendid Isolation
Whitehall Rooms, London, January 21,
1896
The inciu'sion of Dr. Jameson into the Transvaal zvas
made on December ^9, 1895, and on January -7, 1896,
the Emperor of Germany sent a message to President
Krilger in terms which were considered to he nn-
friendly to Great Britain, and which were greatly
resented in this country. In view of the threatening
aspect of affairs the " Flying Squadron " of powerjul
ships was commissioned and made ready for sea in a
Jew days, and assurances of sympathy and support
were received from the principal Colonies of the
Empire.
These were the circumstances under which the follow-
ing speech w^ delivered on January ^1, 1896, when
Mr. Chamberlain presided at a complimentary banquet
ivhich was given to Lord Lamington, at the Whitehall
Rooms, Hotel Mttropole, on the occasion of his depar-
ture to take up his appointment as Governor of the
Colony of Queensland. In proposing the toast of the
evening the Secretary of State for tlie Colonies said : —
92 Splendid Isolation
I THINK that I see before me a representative
gathering of British subjects, whose principal in-
terests lie in that great group of Australian colonies,
whose present greatness and importance give us but
a faint indication of the splendid future which
awaits them (Cheers.) For of one thing I am
certain, whatever may be the fate of the old country
— and even as to that I have sufficient confidence —
(cheers) — no man can doubt that our vigorous off-
spring in the Southern Seas are bound at no distant
time to rival the older civilisation of the Continent of
Europe in wealth, in population, and in all the
attributes of a great nation. (Hear, hear.) But,
although, as I have said, your interests lie in this
direction, I have an instinctive feeling that to-night
you are thinking not so much of Australian politics
and of Australian progress as you are of events that
have recently occurred — (loud cheers) — in another
quarter of the globe and of their connection with
Imperial interests. If that be so, I hail the fact as
another proof of the solidarity of Imperial sentiment
in making it impossible that a blow can be struck, or
a chord sounded, in even the most distant portion of
the Queen's dominions, without an echo coming back
from every other part of the British empire. (Cheers.)
It would be inopportune in me, it would be im-
proper, if I were to dwell on the incidents which
have diverted attention to South Africa. Those
incidents will be the subject of judicial inquiry in
this country and in Africa, and I assume that, with the
Splendid Isolation 93
fair-mindedness which distinguishes them, my coun-
trymen will wait to hear both the indictment and
the defence before they pronounce a judgment.
(Cheers.) But, in tht xneantime, I will venture to
say that I think there is a tendency to attach too
much importance to sensational occarrences which
pass away and leave no trace behind, and not enough
to the general course of British policy and the
general current of colonial progress. I have heard
it said that we never have had a colonial policy, that
we have simply blundered into all the best places in
the earth. (Laughter.) I admit that we have made
mistakes. I have no doubt that we are answerable
for sins of commission a? well as for sins of omission ;
but, after all is said, this remains — that we alone
among the nations of the earth have been able to
establish and to maintain colonies under different
conditions in all parts of the world, that we have
maintained them to their own advantage and to ours,
and that we have secured, not only the loyal attach-
ment of all British subjects, but the general good-
will of the races, whether they be native or whether
they be European, that have thus come under the
British flag. (Cheers.) This may be a comforting
assurance when we think of occasional mistakes, and
when we are rebuked even for our misfortunes —
(laughter) — we may find some consolation in our
success. (Cheers.)
There is, gentlemen, another consideration which
I think is not inappropriate to such a gathering as
94 Splendid Isolation
this. A few weeks ago England appeared to stand
alone in the world, surrounded by jealous competitors
and by altogether unexpected hostility. Differences
between ourselves and other nations which were of
long standing appeared suddenly to come to a head
and to assume threatening proportions ; and from
quarters to which we might have looked for friend-
ship and consideration — (cheers) — having regard to
our traditions and to a certain community of interest
— we were confronted with suspicion, and even with
hate. We had to recognise that our success itself,
however legitimate, was imputed to us as a crime ;
that our love of peace was taken as a sign of w*?ak-
ness ; and that our indifference to foreign criticism
was construed into an invitation to insult us. (Loud
cheers.) The prospect of our discomfiture was
regarded with hardly disguised satisfaction by our
competitors, who, at the same time, must have been
forced to own that we alone held our possessions
throughout the world in trust for all — (cheers) — and
that we admit them to our markets as freely as we do
our own subjects. (Cheers.) I regret that such a
feeling should exist, and that we should be forced to
acknowledge its existence ; but, as it does exist, I re-
joice that it found expression. (Cheers.) No better
service was ever done to this nation, for it has enabled
us to show, in face of all, that while we are resolute
to fulfil our obligations we are equally determined
to maintain our rights. (Loud cheers.)
Three weeks ago, in the words of Mr. Foster, the
Splendid Isolation 95
leader of the House of Commons of the Dominion of
Canada, "the great mother-empire stood splendidly
isolated." And how does she stand to-day? She
stands secure in the strength of her own resources,
in the firm resolution of her people without respect
to party, and in fh . abundant loyalty of her children
from one end of the Empire to another. (Loud cheers.)
The resolution which was conveyed to the Prime
Minister on behalf of the Australian colonies, and the
display of patriotic enthusiasm on the part of the
Dominion of Canada, came to us as a natural response
to the outburst of national spirit in the United
Kingdom, and as a proof that British hearts beat in
unison throughout the world, whatever may be the
distances that separate us. (Cheers.)
Then let us cultivate those sentiments. Let us
do all in our power by improving our communica-
tions, by developing our commercial relations, by
co-operating in mutual defence — (cheers) — and none
of us then will ever feel isolated ; no part of the
empire will stand alone, so long as it can count upon
the common interest of all in its welfare and in its
security. (Cheers.) That is the moral I have derived
from recent events. That is the lesson I desire to
impress on my countrymen. In the words of Tenny-
son, let
" Britain's myriad voices call,
' Sons, be welded each and all,
Into one Imperial whole,
One with Britain, heart and soul I
One life, one flag, one fleet, one Throne ! ' "
96 Splendid Isolation
(Loud cheers.) And in the time to come, the time
that must come, when these colonies of ours have
grown in stature, in population, and in strength,
this league of kindred nations, this federation of
Greater Britain, will not only provide for its own
security, but will be a potent factor in maintaining
the peace of the world. (Cheers.)
Our guest to-night goes out to take his part in
this work of drawing tighter the bonds which unite
us to our children in the Antipodes. He goes to an
infant colony, an infant which is destined to become
a giant, and the future possibilities of which no man
can measure. Queensland has an area, which — shall
I say ? — is three times greater than the German
Empire. (Laughter and cheers.) It has a soil which
can produce anything. It has vast mineral resources.
In a generation its population has increased fifteen-
fold. It has already a revenue of three or four
millions sterling. It has completed 2500 miles of
railway. It has exports valued at ten millions
sterling, all of them, except a small fraction, coming
to the United Kingdom or to some of the British
possessions. Yet this colony of Queensland, great as
it is, is only one of seven, all equally important,
equally energetic, equally prosperous, equally loyal.
(Cheers.) I say that the relations between these
colonies and ourselves are questions of momentous
import to us both, and I hope that our rulers and
our people will leave no stone unturned to show the
store that we all set on the continued amity, the
Splendid Isolation 97
continued aflfection, of onr kindred beyond the sea.
That is the message we ask Lord Lamington to take
with him, and we wish him health and nrosreritv in
». ^ y
the colony over which he is about to preside. (Loud
cheers.)
Jn rcspntuJinff to the toast of " The Chairman,'"'
which 7cas proposed by Sir James Gar rick, Mr.
Chamberlain said :
Nothing could be more gratifying to me than
that this toast should have been proposed by the
eloquent representative of the colony which we
have met to honour as well as its future Governor,
and nothing could be more agreeable than the
kindly response which you have given to the
toast. It almost emboldens me to think that there
may yet be occasions upon which 1 shall venture
to address my fellow-countrymen — (laughter and
cheers) — a point on which, I admit, I have had grave
doubts since I have become acquainted with certain
criticisms of my recent performances. (Laughter.)
When I became Secretary of State for the Colonies I
accepted with that office certain duties, not the least
pleasant being that of presiding over gatherings
similar to this. I attended a meeting of the friends
of South Africa on an occasion interesting especially
to our colony of Natal, and I made a speech upon
that occasion in which, in my simple and ingenuous
way — (laughter) — I ventured to point out that this
(i
98 Splendid Isolation
was on the whole a considerable Empire, and that any
true view of its perspective would take into account
the greatness of the colonies, and the magnitude of
their resources, as well as the past history of the
mother country. And thereupon I was surprised to
read, in the report of a speech of a minor luminary of
the late Government — (laughter) — on the occasion of
the recent raid into the Transvaal, that that unfor-
tunate occurrence was entirely due to the " spread-
eagle speech " which I had made. (Laughter.) It
is extraordinary what great events spring from
trifling causes. I had no conception that my words
would travel so far or have so great an influence. To
the best of my knowledge and belief, 1 have never
made a " spread-eagle " speech in my life. (Hear,
hear.) I think I have bean able to distinguish
between patriotism and jingoism. (Cheers.) But
in order that there may be no mistake, I desire to say
now, in the most formal way, that the few remarks
which I have addressed to you to-night are not to be
taken as an intimation to any individual to carry on
war on his own account — (laughter) — or to make an
invasion upon a friendly nation with which we are at
present at peace. (More laughter.) But this is not
all, because this afternoon I read in an evening news-
paper that this same speech, which I thought so
natural and so innocent, was really the dictating
cause of our diflSculties in British Guiana, and of the
complications with our cousins across the Atlantic.
It appears that in speaking of Imperial unity, in
Splendid Isolation 99
endeavouring to popularise that idea among my
countrymen, I am giving offence to other nations.
Gentlemen, I cannot help thinking that Lord Rose-
bery was mistaken, when, a short time ago, he said that
the " Little Englanders " no longer existed among us.
(Cheers.) A pretty pass we must have come to if
the Minister who is responsible for the British colo-
nies is forbidden to speak of their future, of their
greatness — (loud cheers) — of the importance of main-
taining friendly relations with them, of the necessity
of promoting the unity of the British race, for fear
of giving offence. (Renewed cheers.) I remember
a story of a certain burgomaster in a continental
town to whom complaints were made that naughty
boys were accustomed to throw mud upon the passers-
by. He was asked to intervene, and he issued a
proclamation which was to the effect that all respect-
able inhabitants were requested to wear their second-
hand clothes in order not to give offence. (Loud
cheers.) I do not so understand the position which
I hold. (Loud cheers.) I decline to speak with
bated breath of our colonies for fear of giving offence
to foreign nations. We mean them no harm ; we hope
they mean us none. But not for any such considera-
tion will we be withheld from speaking of points
which have for us the greatest interest and upon
which the future of our Empire depends. (Cheers.)
Sir James Garrick has kindly attributed to me very
creditable motives in seeking the office which has been
conferred upon me. He is perhaps not far wrong in
loo splendid Isolation
thinking that I have long believed that the futare of
the colonies and the future of this country were inter-
dependent, and that this was a creative time, that
this was the opportunity which, once let slip, might
never recur, for bringing together all the people who
are under the JSritish flag, and for consolidating
them into a great self-sustaining and self- protecting
Empire whose future will be worthy of the traditions
of the race. (Loud cheers.)
A Noble Heritage
Congress of Chambers of Commerce of
THE Empire, London, June io, 1896
On Juiie 10^ 1806^ Mr. Chamhaiahi prcskhd at the
banquet luid at the Ilolhorn Restaurant in eonneetion
with the third Congress of the Chambers of Commeree
of the Empire. After propofiin^ the toa.sts of " The
Qiieen'''' and " The Prinee ami Prinecss of Wales atul
the Royal Family^ Mr, Chamberlain said : —
I HAVE now to propose to you the toast of the even-
ing, "Commerce and the Empire," and <jentlemen,
although this is a toast of infinite sc^pe which appeals
to our imagination as well as to our material intei est,
I hope to observe in my remarks upon it the brevity
of which the compounder of the toast list has set me
an example. He has found it possible to put before
you a toast of this magnitude in what practically
amounts to two words. Succinct as he has been, he
might have been still briefer, for I believe that the
toast of the Empire would have carried with it all
that is meant by commerce and the Empire, because,
102 A Noble Heritage
gentlemen, the Empire, to parody a celebrated ex-
pression, is commerce. It was created by commerce,
it is founded on commerce, and it could not exist a
day without commerce. (Cheers.) But this fact
does not derogate in the slightest degree from the
high ideal which we have formed of that world-wide
dominion, which covers so large a portion of the
earth's surface, and which to so many hundreds of
millions of persons has brought civilisation and
security and peace. (Cheers.) It is true that the
great Napoleon called us a nation of shopkeepers ;
but we may bear in mind that it was his ambition to
open shop himself — (cheers and laughter) — and I
think the taunt was born rather of jealousy than of
contempt. (Cheers.) The fact is history teaches us
that no nation has ever achieved real greatness with-
out the aid of commerce, and the greatness of no nation
has survived the decay of its trade. Well, then, gentle-
men, we have reason to be prcud of our commerce and
to be resolved to guard it from attack. (Cheers.)
If I were to ask myself the oft-repeated question,
whether this Empire is destined to follow the empires
of antiquity and to perish, and the memory of it to be
forgotten, or whether we are to sink like some of our
rivals into a condition of mediocrity or obscurity, I
confess my answer would depend not so much upon
what may be done or said by the population of these
small islands, but rather upon the eventual deter-
mination of that greater Britain which forms, in
space at any rate, the larger portion of the Empire —
A Noble Heritage 103
(cheers) — and upon the arrangements which they
may make to bind us together in closer union.
(Cheers.)
Gentlemen, the advantages of such a union are now
universally appreciated. They are becoming the
commonplaces of after-dinner oratory. No o-ie now
has to argue for the principle. We in this country
are, I think, pretty well convinced of the assured
future of our colonies and our dependencies. (Cheers.)
There may have been times, but it is long ago, when
these great countries, with their enormous poten-
tialities, were not appreciated in the United Kingdom.
We know now their capabilities for the production
of every article of general necessity or general use.
We know of their enormous mineral and natural
lesources. We know that they must inevitably grow
in wealth and in power and in intellectual strength.
We know that day by day they are attracting to
themijelves a vigorous and intelligent population.
(Cheers.) But knowing all that, is it wonderful that
we desire that the ties of blood and of language, of
laws and of religion, which now bind us so closely
together should never be loosened by selfish compe-
tition, by unworthy jealousy ? — which nevertheless
insensibly spring up even between kindred nations
unless their institutions are linked together by some-
thing more material than sympathy. (Cheers.) More
and more our sons leave our shores and go to distant
lands, and we desire that the lands to which they go
should be British like the land that they leave.
I04 A Noble Heritage
(Cheers.) We desire that if they leave us they
should continue to associate themselves with what
they leave behind, and should continue to cherish our
aspirations for the greatness of our common race.
(Cheers.)
That is our position, but am I wrong in thinking
that the colonies share our feelings and share them
to the full — that they have no idea of cutting them-
selves adrift from the great history of the mother
land, from the glorious traditions in which we find
the germs and origins of the ordered liberty which
they enjoy, from the history of the struggles in which
their ancestors took no mean part, and from all the
common pride in the glories of art and literature
which, perhaps, more even than our victories in arms,
have made the name of Britain illustrious ? (Cheers.)
No, gentlemen, I believ^e that our colonies recognise
the fact that the life of a great nation is fuller than
the life of a small one, and the life of an old nation
more instructive than the life of a new one; and
I am convinced that none of our colonies will be
backward in the effort to secure and maintain this
connection, nor ready to abandon its part in the
heritage which belongs to all of them. (Cheers.)
We ask you who come from the colonies to attach
yourselves closer to us. The benefit is not all on our
side. It is not to a decrepit ruin that you are asked
to cling. (Cheers.) You have come here, and I think
you will agree with me in saying that there are no
signs here of waning life or decaying greatness.
A Noble Heritage 105
(Cheers.) The continued growth of this country is
almost as remarkable as the growth of those sister
nations that we call our colonies. I could name large
cities in our midst the annual addition to whose popu-
, lation could furnish many townships even in most
vigorous communities. (Cheers.) Surely, then, it is
better to remain a valued associate in such an Empire
as this than to sink isolated and separate into a fifth-
rate Power. (Cheers.) It is better for your commerce
and for our commerce that we all alike should share
in the free interchange of commodities between
300 millions of people, than that we should be en-
gaged in setting up barriers, one against the other,
and in exciting a competition from which all will be
sufferers. The unity of the Empire is recommended
to us by sentiment, and sentiment is one of the
greatest forces in human affairs, but it is recom-
mended to us no less by our material interests ; and
it is, in my opinion, the duty of every statesman,
whether in this country or in the colonies, to make
permanent and to secure this union by basing it upon
material interests ; and, although I am ready enough
to admit that there is much that still remains to be
done — we are sowing the seed of which, it may be,
we shall not reap the harvest — yet I am optimist
enough to think that the forces of cohesion are
:, greater than the forces that tend to disruption.
' (Cheers.)
I rejoice in everything which tends to identify the
' ' commercial life of the colonies with that of the
1 06 A Noble Heritage
United Kingdom, and therefore I welcome sucli a
congress as this which is met in our metropolis to-day,
and I cannot doubt that its deliberations, with the
opportunity which it affords for personal intercourse
and communion, will be fruitful of future good. I
appeal to the representatives of the commerce of the
United Kingdom to facilitate our task, to make sacri-
fices, if need be, to secure this great object and ideal ;
and I appeal to the delegates from the colonies to
recognise and to reciprocate the spirit in which we bid
them welcome, and to recognise the pleasure with
which we see them once more "at home" — (loud
cheers) — and I ask them to carry back to all the
quarters of the globe where the Union Jack floats
over a British community the assurance of the affec-
tion, the pride, and the confidence with which the
mother country regards her distant children. (Loud
cheers.)
The Expansion of the
Empire
Pegging out Claims for
Posterity
House of Commons, March 20, 1893
In December 1890, Captain lAigard induced King"
Mwanga, of Uganda, to sign a treaty acknoxoledging
Jbr two years the supremacy of the British East
Africa Company. Oimng to tlie incessant intrigues
of the Catholic or French Party, Mwanga was en-
couraged to try to free himselfj'rom allegiance to the
Company, ami for some time the country was in a
state of anarchy, until Captain Lugard succeeded in
restoring peace. Meanwhile the Directors of the Com-
pany, with theh' comparatively small capital of half a
million, ami without the power to raise taxes, htul
beconw somewhat aj)f ailed at tlie vast responsibility
caM upon them., and in 1891 gave it to be umlerstood
that it zvas their intention to retire from Uganda.
Tliey were, however, induced to hold on, till in
September 189'2, a letter Jrom the Foreign Office was
sent to them accepting the principle of evacuation, but
offeriTig assistance to the Company to pi'olong the
I lo Pegging out Claims for Posterity
occupation to the end of March 1893. In January
1893^ Sir Gerald Portal^ Her Majedf/.H representative
at Zanzibar^ reus appointed to proceed to Uganda to
inquire into the position^ and to furnish information
to Mr. Glud.Hto^ne'fi Government to enable them to
decide us to the course to be ultimately adopted. It
was in connection with this Eapedition that Mr.
Labouchere moved a I'eduction of £5000 in tlie Esti-
mates^ and in speaking on this Motion on March fW,
1893, Mr. Chamberlain said : —
The discussion, opened by the honourable member
for Northampton (Mr. Labouchere), and carried on
by the honourable member for Sunderland (Mr.
Storey), has been an extremely interesting and im-
portant one, and many serious questions have been
raised in the course of the debate. I confess that
when I listened to my two honourable friends I
thought that their primary object was to show to the
Committee the difference between Liberals in office
and Liberals out of office — (laughter) — between
Liberals above the gangway and Liberals below the
gangway ; and I certainly think that they proved
that while Liberals above the gangway are extremely
latitudinarian in their acceptance of Liberal
principles, Liberals below the gangway remain
rigidly sectarian as long, at all events, as there is no
prospect of their being transferred to the bench
above the gangway. (Laughter.) That is no doubt
an extremely interesting question, but it is one on
Pegging out Claims for Posterity 1 1 1
which, [ think, that an outsider like rayeelf, who haa
been excommunicated from the congregation —
(laiighlei) — has reaiiy veiy little right to offer an
opinion. I do not like to interfere in domestic
squabbles. I know the proverb which says it is
wrong to put your (inger between the bark and the
tree, and therefore I shall leave my honourable
friends to settle this private question with my right
honourable friends upon the Government bench.
(Laughter.)
But there is another issue that has been raised
which perhaps has a greater, a more general, and
even a national interest, and it was put, to mj'^ mind,
extremely well by my honourable friend the member
for Sunderland. He said that he as a Radical — I
may perhaps in passing say that there are Radicals
and Radicals — (laughter) — and that, although 1 fully
admit his claim to be a Radical, I hope he will admit
that there are other Radicals who do not hold alto-
gether with his opinions — (bear, hear) — was opposed
to the expansion of the Empire, and that he would
not spend a penny for any such object so long as
there are poor and distressed and destitute persons
at home for whom the money which can be afforded
by the State might be expended with great advan-
tage. That is a very important statement, and I
should like to know how far it is likely to meet with
general concurrence. I wonder, in the first place, how
far my honourable friend's economy will carry him ?
Take, for instance, one of the subjects which we have
1 12 Pegging out Claims for Posterity
been discussing to-night. We are spontling at the
present time ^{^ 200,000 a year, which might be spent
on the poor anrl destitute at home, in the endeavour
to put down the slave trade. Is my honourable
friend prepared to move that that expenditure should
cease ?
Mr. Storey : Tliat is not a question of expenditure
for the expansion of the Empire.
Mr. Chamberlain : No, no. My honourable friend
made two statements. He said, in the first place, that
he was opposed to the expansion of the Empire. That
may stand by itself. But he said, also, that he was
opposed especially to the expenditure of money abroad
which might be laid out for the advantage of persons
at home who are poor and destitute ; and the infer-
ence every one who heard him would draw was that,
so long as there were poor and destitute persons in
the United Kingdom, they had the first claim upon
our consideration. Then, I ask him whether, for
himself and for those whom he professes to represent,
he considers that the ^200,000 a year now spent in
order to put down the slave trade might be better
spent on the poor and destitute at home ?
Mr. Storey explained that his statement was that
he was not prepared to spend money on these wild
expeditions for expanding the Empire in Africa or
elsewhere so long as so much was needed at home.
If he had to choose to-morrow in this House as to
whether he would spend ;^200,000 a year in improv-
ing the slums in London, or in putting an end to the
Pegging out Claims for Posterity 1 13
slave trade, he would speud it in attending to the
slums of London.
Mr. CiiAMUEKLAiN : I am much obliged to my
honourable friend. He conlirms my suspicion, lie
would to-morrow prefer to devote the j^200,ooo a
year, which this country spends in endeavouring to
put down the slave trade, on the improvement of the
position of persons in the slun^s. I am not sayiug
for a moment that it is not an arguable contention,
but I am curious to know how far my honourable
friend is consistent. We have it that the honourable
member thinks the hereditary duty and responsibility
which this country has taken on itself in regard to
the sUwe trade of less importance than the now duty
which "'e foresees in the future of dealing with the
slums. (Laughter.) I am tempted, however, by his
answer, to ask him how he reconciles this intense
sympathy with the poor with the vote which 1 under-
stand he is going to give on Friday night — to spend
something like ;^300,ooo a year in paying members
of Parliament — (much laughter and cheers) — who do
not live in slums — (laughter) — and who do not want
to be paid. (Renewed laughter.) Buu I must put
another question to my honourable friend, and I ask
it because I think he is the best representative of a
view which I regard as consistent, arguable, and as
well worthy of serious consideration. He is opposed
to all expansion of the Empire, on the ground, as I
understand, that we have enough to do at home.
Now, suppose this view, which he puts before the
H
114 Pegging out Claims for Posterity
Committee, and which will not be nccepted to-day by
the majority of the (Committee, had been put fifty
or one hundred years ago, and Huppose it had been
accepted by tlie Parliament of that day. I ank myself
what would now be the position of this country, what
would be the position of persons in the slums for
wlioiri my honourable friend has so much sympathy
and feeling? (Hear, hear) Does my honourable
friend believe, if it were not for the gigantic foreign
trade that has been created by this policy of expan-
sion, that we could subsist in this country in any
kind of way — I do not say in luxury, but in the con-
dition in which, at the present time, a great part of
our population lives ? Does he think that we could
support in these small islands forty millions of
people, without the trade by which a great part of
our population earns its living — a trade which has
been brought to us by the action of our ancestors,
who in centuries past did not shrink from making
sacrifices of blood and treasure, and who were not
ashamed — if I may borrow the expression which has
been referred to more than once to-night — to peg out
claims for posterity ? Are we, who enjoy the advan-
tages of the sacrifices which they made, to be meaner
than those who preceded us ? Are we to do nothing
for those who come after us ? Are we to sacrifice
that which those who went before have gained for
us ? If this idea of closing all the doors through
which all new trade is to come to us be accepted by
this House, at least we ought to adopt some means
Pegging out Cliiims for Posterity 1 15
by wliidi oiir ijopiilation can be kept statioiinry ; und
we mIiouM bear in iiiiiid that when our ancehtors
pegged out clainiH tor us in many partn of tin* world,
theHe were not, at the time, more promising tlian tho
claiuiH which we are now marking out. (('heers.)
What are we asked to do to-night? Tliia is not a
question ol' Uganda oidy ; but we are asked to reverse
the whole policy of this country — a policy undertaken,
I believe, with the consent of the vast majority of tho
people of this country — and to relinrpiish the vast
advantages which have accrued to us by the surrender
of Heligoland, and by the treaties and engagements
with foreign States, and to secure which our country
has made sacrifices, in the belief that we were, in
return, getting a (juid pro (juo. That quid pro quo we
are now asked to sacrifice, and are asked to give up
all share in what has been called the partition of
Africa. (Cheers.) JSJy honourable friend almo&t
always speaks in the first person singular, therefore
I do not suppose that he claims to speak for more
than himself, and I think that he will find himself
to-night in a nunority. In the country I believe that
he is in a still smaller minority. (Cheers.) I be-
lieve that the people oi' this counti-y have definitely
made up their minds on this question, ajid have
determined that tbcv will take their full share in dis-
posing of these new lands and in the work of civilisa-
tion they have to carry out there. (Cheers.) They
are justified in that determination — justified by the
spirit of the past, justified by that spirit of adventure
1 1 6 Pegging out Claims for Posterity
and enterprise wliicli lias rendered us, of all nations,
peculiarly fitted to carry out the work of colonisation.
(Cheers.) It is a curious fact, and one which I have
never been able to explain, that, of all the nations in
the world, we are the only one which has been able
to carry out this work of colonisation without great
cost to ourselves. Take, for instance, the case of
France, which has been ruling for so many years in
Algeria. Up to this moment, although French rule
there has been beneficent, Algeria costs to the French
exchequer large sums annually. The same is the case
with regard to Tunis, and, also of the foreign posses-
sions of Germany, and the possessions of Italy in
Abyssinia. It is likewise true of the foreign posses-
sions of Portugal. Except in the case of Spain, in
the discovery of America, and the early history of
Holland, up to comparatively recent times, this is the
case with the possessions of all foreign countries, which
have not been able to carry out their colonisation
permanently without expense to their subjects.
All these facts should lead us to be hopeful in
undertaking this new work of colonisation which does
not differ from what has been done in other directions
in the past. If we are not going to give up this
mission — I adopt the expression which has been em-
ployed — let us look the matter in the face and be
prepared, if need be, for some sacrifice of life and
money, which, in the first instance, we may have to
make. We have come to the point at which we
should not consider life so sacred that it may not be
Pegging out Claims for Posterity 1 17
sacrificed to save life. I hold that, both in matters
of life and money, we may sacrifice both, if we see
before ns a prospect of good, and a satisfaction for
the sacrifice we may have to make. (Cheers.) This
country has by large majorities declared its convic-
tion that it is our duty to take our share in the work
of civilisation in Africa. We are not, therefore,
prepared to sympathise with my honourable friend
below me, nor to count the cost which, in the long
run, will prove to be well expended. (Cheers.)
I leave the general question and come to the par-
ticular matter of Uganda. (Mr. Storey : " Hear,
hear.") My honourable friend is pleased to hear this,
but let me remark that he said nothing whatever
about it. (Laughter.) His observations were directed
to the general question of the expansion of the
empire. I say in the first place — and, after all, I do
not think that our divisions should make us indif-
ferent to national honour — (cheers) — I say our honour
is pledged; and whatever you may think of the
matter, it is too late to go back. (Cheers.) The
Government are in a state of suspense. They are
always in a state of suspense. (Laughter.) I respect
the honourable member for Sunderland for having a
definite policy. I, and those who agree with me, have
also a XDolicy, and I believe in the expansion of the
empire , and we are not ashamed to confess that we
have that belief. We are not at all troubled by
accusations of Jingoism. But the Government have,
on the other hand, no policy whatever. (Cheers.)
1 1 8 Pegging out Claims for Posterity
My profound sympathy is given to the Government,
who are endeavouring once again to do what no
Government has ever done with success — namely,
to ride two horses and to promote two different
policies at the same time. (Laughter.) Here is
my honourable friend below me, the member for
Leicester (Mr. Picton), the great opportunist of the
present Parliament. (Laughter.) He has an excuse
for the Government. I do not know whether the
Government approve of their defender — (renewed
laughter) — he says that he approves of their policy
of inquiry. This policy of inquiry? Is there any
man in this House who believes in it? (Cheers.)
The Government have plenty of information at their
disposal ; they know now all that they will know when
8ir Gerald Portal reports; but it is difficult to go
against old friends; it is better to appoint a commission
than to come to a decision. (Hear, hear.) I wonder
they did not send out a Judge of the High Court.
(Great laughter.) But they have sent a " commis-
sion of inquiry" to Uganda, and, of course, the
commission cannot report until very late in the
session ; and then, as my honourable friend, the
member for Leicester, says, the one supreme object of
the Government will have been accomplished, and
then, perhaps, he will support them in attending a
little to what he calls subsidiary questions.
It is a "Tiost convenient doctrine which my honour-
able friend, who is a leader among the new Radicals,
has now taken up. He never mentioned his new
Pegging out Claims for Posterity 119
convictions in the time of the late Government; I
never heard him explain then that the Government
might have in hand a supreme object which would
lead them to disregard all subsidiary ones. The only
things he cared about then were the subsidiary
questions. (Laughter and cheers.) I do not accuse
him of inconsistency ; it is delightful to note tho
growth of his mind. (Great laughter.)
I was saying thai in Uganda we cannot go back if
we would. What have we done there ? By a charter
we gave to a company certain powers. Not only was
the company intrusted with discretion, but distinct
and definite pressure was put upon it to go forward,
and to prevent other ccintries from coming in and
taking possession of territories which were within the
sphere of British influence. Rightly or wrongly, the
company yielded to that pressure of public opinion :
they went forward in Uganda ; they broke up such
government as there was in Uganda. I am told the
honourable member for Dumfries has said, in an
excellent and powerful speech, that the normal con-
dition there was one of massacre. Of course, there
was a Government there — such a Government as you
may expect in those countries ; and if we have no
business there whatever, and no responsibility, and
never intend to take any, we had better have left
those people to work out their own salvation for
themselves, be it by massacre or in any other way.
But, as a matter of fact, we did not do so. We broke
up the authority of those who were held to be chiefs
1 20 Pegging out Claims for Posterity
among the people. We came in at a cost which to
my mind was trifling in comparison with the results
achieved. We have secured for Uganda the pax
Britannica which has been so beneficial in India.
I heard the Prime Minister (Mr. Gladstone) to-night
speak about the sad and deplorable circumstances in
Uganda ; I think he spoke of those occurrences as
constituting a massacre. There was no massacre at
all. What existed in Uganda at that time were
anarchy and civil war of the worst kind. If we
had not been there, thousands, and perhaps hundreds
of thousands, of people would have been cruelly mas-
sacred; and, after the victory of one party, what re-
mained of the other would have been cruelly tortured.
Captain Lugard was on the spot. Let me say, in
passing, that I sometimes feel we do not do justice to
our bravest and noblest citizens. Of Captain Lugard
I know no more than any member of the House may
know — I know him only through reading his works.
He was, I believe, an Indian officer who was sent to
Uganda under the orders of the company ; he under-
took a work of the highest responsibility and the
greatest importance. Any one who reads his accounts
impartially will agree in this — that he was, at all
events, a man of extraordinary power and capacity,
tact, discretion, and courage. Courage is a common
virtue, but he has shown it in no common way, and
he has exhibited a modesty which is beyond all
praise. (Cheers.) It is something for England to
glory in that we can still boast such servants as these.
Pegging out Claims for Posterity 121
I was saying that he was present in Uganda when
this state of things arose. He took his measures.
In the confusion which followed, four hundred lives
at the outside were sacrificed. Captain Lugard him-
self puts the number at considerably less. It was
deplorable, no doubt; but that sacrifice cheaply pur-
chased the peace and temporary civilisation which
followed. Long before now the people would have
been at each other's throats but for the presence of
the English. You gave a charter to the company,
and through it have undertaken this responsibility ;
you have never disavowed them ; and now you cannot
leave that country whatever it may cost you. Even
if, as the honourable member for Northampton said,
it cost you another expedition, you are bound at all
hazards to fulfil the obligations of this country, to
maintain the faith of this country to the people to
whom it is pledged.
What would happen if you left ? Would not the
Protestants, Catholics, and Mahomedans be at one
another's throats, and would there not be a massacre
almost unparalleled in the history of Africa ? And who
would suffer most ? Those who have been our allies ;
they are the people whom we have disarmed, and who
would now fall an easy prey to their enemies. I do
not think my honourable friend contemplated sach
an abandonment as that. He was quite ready to
protest against any further extension of the empire.
But the extension has been accomplished, and we are
dealing now with what has taken place and cannot be
122 Pegging out Claims tor Posterity
recalled ; and I say it would be as great a disgrace as
ever befel England if you were to retire from a
country whose prosperity and the lives of whose
people depend absolutely upon your continuance of
the hold you have upon them.
The honourable member for Northampton has made
one of those speeches to which we are accustomed. It
was a very amusing speech on a very serious subject,
but I do not think that questions of international
policy ought to be determined by satire. (Cheers.)
The consequences of the decision at which this com-
mittee is about to arrive will extend to long years
after you have made it. (Cheers.) The decision at
which you are about to arrive involves the faith of
Great Britain, and the influence of Great Britain, not
only in Uganda, but in the whole of Africa, for news
travels fast even in that vast continent. (Cheers.)
The honourable member has talked about the cost
of an expedition to Uganda, but I do not understand
this measuring duty and honour by the money it
costs. (Cheers.) The honourable member for North-
ampton, however, is only following the example oi
the right honourable gentleman the Chief Secretary
for Ireland (Mr. Morley) in that respect. (Cheers.)
If we have to protect people who are in danger
of their lives we ought not to count the cost.
(Cheers.) According to the argument of the hon-
ourable member, if it will cost ;^io we may protect
their lives, but if it will cost a million we had better
keep the money in our pockets. (Hear, hear.) I
Pegging out Claims for Posterity 123
believe that the honourable member for Northampton
has ludicrously exaggerated the cost of this matter,
lie has told the committee that it will be necessary
to bring up the British troops in large numbers if we
are to have an expedition like that to the Soudan.
But Uganda is only six hundred miles from the coast,
while the Soudan is two thousand miles from the
coast.
Mr. LAnouCHERE ; I was referring to the expedition
to Suakin.
Mr. CiiAMHEKLAiN : The honourable member speaks
as if Suakin were really a serious part of our work in
connection with the Soudan. Our position in Suakin
was abandoned. The railway was abandoned. I
confess now that I wish it had not been abandoned.
(Cheers.) The heavy part of that expedition was the
cost incurred in the attempted rescue of Gordon.
(Cheers.) The two expeditions are absolutely in-
comparable. All the evidence — and I believe it to
be good evidence — goes to show that the peace of
Uganda and of the neighbouring countries can be
secured at a comparatively small expenditure. A
few English officers with a small body of Soudanese
troops will be able to keep the country quiet. The
honourable member for Northampton talks of the
cost of erecting forts, but all the forte that will be
necessarv are mere stockades, which can be erected
at the cost of a few shillings, and which will be
amply sufficient to withstand the assaults of savages.
(Hear, hear.) I do not see the slightest reason for
124 P^gg^^g out Claims for Posterity
believing that the cost of preserving the peace, and
of policing the country, need be anything more than
the taxation of the country itself will bear. We have
had this same ((uestion argued over and over again
with regard to other parts of Africa, and in every
case the discretion and the prudence of a few l*]nglish
officers has enabled the peace of the district to be
preserved without a single farthing of expense to the
English Exchequer.
The honourable member spoke of possible danger
that would arise from the attacks of the Mahdi and
Senoussi. As for the Mahdi, those who know best do
not fear him in any way. Mahdism is a periodic out-
burst of fanaticism which is nearly exhausted, and I
believe that in a very short time the Soudan will fall
like a ripe pear into the lap of Egypt. (Hear, hear.)
The Senoussi is a person of a very different character,
and it is very difficult to prophesy what will be the
future of the party he leads. Tradition and all in-
formation as to this sect are, however, entirely in a
different direction, and he is not at all likely to interfere
with the position we may acquire in Uganda. Putting
aside these two improbable hypotheses, there is no
reason to believe that the cost of our protectorate or
rule in Uganda is likely to be anything but moderate
in the first instance, and nothing at all in the course
of a very few years.
As to the commerce of Uganda, the late Mr.
Mackay, the African missionary, who was so univer-
sally respected, said that the climate of Uganda
Pegging out Claims for Posterity 125
is excellent, that the country can produce almost
anything, and that the only difliculty is the want of
transport and of British enterprise; but that when once
those two things were secured there was no reason
whatever why Uganda should not be a most pros-
perous, even a wealthy, country. Ilow can we expect
the commerce of Uganda to thrive when the cost of
traffic between that country and the coast amounts to
about ;{^200 per ton ? But what would the honour-
able member have said about the cost of carriage to
the North- West of Canada a hundred years ago ?
Until the Canadian Pacific Railway was constructed
there was scarcely any trade in those great dominions
of the British Crown. I maintain that the prospects
of Uganda are quite equal to those of the North-West
of Canada fifty years ago. This is what Lord Kose-
bery means by pegging out claims for posterity.
Lord liosebery knows that the returns from Uganda
cannot be immediate, but he knows that the returns
some time or another are certain.
This brings me to another point. I have quoted
the opinions of Mr. Mackay to the effect that you
cannot have a commerce in Uganda without a means
of transport. I call the policy of the Government
one of drifting. They might just as well take a bold
stand now, because the result will be the same. They
have committed themselves just as much by sending
this mission as they could have done by saying, *' We
are going to retain the country, and make the best of
it." (Hear, hear.) The question is, Are we going
126 Pegging out Claims for Posterity
to make the best ot* it, and how much time are we
going to waste before we make the best of it ? I
believe that nothing can be done in this territory
unless you are prepared t ^ 'nake the railway at a
cost of some two-and-a-haU" millions, or of three
millions, according to that groat financial authority,
the member for Northampton. (Ijaughter.) That
would be the cost if you made the whole six hundred
miles, but those who are best ac(|ujunted with the
country think that it would be sufficient at first to
carry the railway up to the mountains, a distance of
three hundred miles. If you made the line up to the
mountains you would get over all the country which
is difficult for animal porterage, and by animal
porterage you would be able to carry on the traffic
for the rest of the way. The cost of a railway for
three hundred miles would be a million and a half.
But whether the railway is to coat a million and a half
or three millions, you had better make up your minds
to-night that if you are going to stay in this territory
you will have to spend the money — that you will have
to guarantee some interest on the money in order
that the line may be made. I firmly believe that the
railway will be a good investment, and if you spend
this money the working classes of this country, and
the people in the slums, for whom the honourable
member for Sunderland is so anxious, will benefit,
for the whole of the work will, of course, be done in
this country, and the line will be engineered by
natives of this country. Even in the honourable
Pegging out Claims for Posterity 1 27
member's view, therefore, the money will not be
wholly thrown away. I believe that the chances of
this railway are just as good as were the chances of
the railways which were built in India thirty years
ago and which are now producing a large revenue.
This railway will bring you into coninumication with
twelve millions of people in the countries contermi-
nous with the Victoria Lake and the oth'^r great
lakes ; and, whatever may be said of Uganda, nobody
will deny that the neighbouring countries, like
Unyoro and Usoga, are countries of enormous natural
wealth. As soon as you make porterage possible we
shall have a large commerce.
We shall get from this country gum and rubber,
and perhaps even wheat, and in return we shall
send out large quantities of our manufactures. It
is a most remarkable fact that as soon as we
created this company, and this sphere of influence,
the British and indeed the general trade of Zanzibar
increased at a perfectly marvellous rate. In the last
year for which we have returns it nearly doubled,
increasing from 72,000 to 131,000 tons. If that is
done in the green tree what will be done in the dry ?
I think, therefore, that the investment is one which
a rich country can wisely undertake. (Hear, hear.)
With regard to the slave trade, the railway will
certainly do more than anything else could do to put
a stop to the abominable traffic in slaves. (Hear,
hear.) What is the slave trade and its cause?
People do not make slaves from mere love of cruelty
128 Pegging out Claims for Posterity
and mischief. Tliey carry on the blavo trade because
they get their livelihood by it, and the slave trade in
Africa is largely a matter of porterr,ge. Tribes are
enslaved in order to carry burdens down to the coast,
and then are sold for what they will fetch. If you
can give to the slave-raiding Arabs peaceful means of
making an honest livelihood, do you think that they
are so fond of war that they will not accept these
means ? Whenever it has been made profitable to a
nation or tribe to keep the peace they have always
done so. Take an illustration. In the old days we
had to fight with the people of the Punjab, and when
we had conquered them they supplied us with our best
native soldiers. But now that peace reigns, and the
country is prosperous, these people, who were once
the most warlike race in India, are confirmed agricul-
turists and peasants, and we cannot get from them
an adequate number of recruits for our army. What
happened in India will happen in Africa.
Make it the interest of the Arab slave traders to
give up the slave trade and you will see the end of
that traffic. Construct your railway, and thereby
increase the means of traffic, and you will take away
three-fourths if not the whole of the temptation to
carry on the slave trade.
I ask the Committee, Are they in earnest in this
matter of the slave trade ? Is the hereditary senti-
ment of the British people still alive ? Do we hold
it to be one of our prime duties, as Lord Rosebery
said, and great glories, to take a prominent part
Pegging out Claims for Posterity 129
in Buppressing thiH trade? If we do, let un look
l)oIdly in the face the necesHities of the Rituation, and
let us spend our money wisely. We spend j{^200,ooo
a year for a squadron on the East coast which, I
am afraid, has too often increased indirectly the
horrors and sufferings itailed by the slave traffic,
and now we are asked lO sanction an expenditure
which I believe will be much more fruitful of good
results.
I wish, in conclusion, to say that I do hope that
the Government will take to heart this debate. They
get no credit from either side by taking a middle
course. (Cheers.) I am uncertain, whether, if the
majority of them follow out their wishes, they would
not at once pronounce in favour of the absolute eva-
cuation of Uganda, and whether they would not be
prepared to take all the risks of such a course. At
all events that would be a bold course, and they
might make their own defence, and might go to the
country and see if they could get approval for it.
But, on the other hand, they may take the course I
urge most earnestly upon them. I do not care
whether they say that course was forced upon them
by the proceedings of the party opposite, or in obe-
dience to their own wishes ; but at least they could
say in the present situation, and with the responsi-
bilities which we have undertaken, and which are
incumbent upon them as much as they were upon
their predecessors, that they will face this problem and
that they will carry out the policy which of course will
I
1 30 Pegging out Claims for Posterity
result in the protectorate or the annexation which is
feared by the honourable member l;elow me, but
which I believe will do credit to the British name aad
will in the long run be in accordance both with our
interest and our honour. (Cheers.)
Want of Employment and the
Development of Free Markets
Birmingham, January 22, 1894
On January 22, 1894, M^- Chamberlain presided at
the third annual meetings of the West Birmingham
Relief Association. In dealing" with the question of
the unemployed he argued against proposals Jbr
municipal workshops and Jbr tlie limitation of the
hours of labour, and proceeded to urge that the only
real remedy was to develop and extend the free
markets Jbr British mamjactures. He said : —
We must look this matter in tne face, and must recog-
nise that in order that we may have more employment
to give we must create more demand. (Hear, hear.)
Give me the demand for more goods and then I will
undertake to give plenty of employment in making
the goods ; and the only thing, in my opinion, that
the Government can do in order to meet this great
difficulty that we are considering, is so to arrange its
policy that every inducement shall be given to the
132 Want of Employment and the
demand ; that new markets shall be created, and that
old markets shall be effectually developed. (Cheers.)
You are aware that some of my opponents please
themselves occasionally by finding names for me —
(laughter) — and among other names lately they have
been calling me a Jingo. (Laughter.) (Tam no more
a Jingo than you are. (Hear, hear.) But for the
reasons and arguments I have put before you to-
night I am convinced that it is a necessity as well as
a duty for us to uphold the dominion and empire
which we now possess. (Loud cheers.) For these
reasons, among others, I would never lose the hold
which we now have over our great Indian dependency
— (hear, hear) — by far the greatest and most valuable
of all the customers we have or ever shall have in this
country. For the same reasons I approve of the con-
tinued occupation of Egypt ; and for the same reasons
I have urged upon this Government, and upon pre-
vious Gov<imments, the necessity for using every
legitimate opportunity to extend our influence and
control in that great African continent which is now
being opened up to civilisation and to comme.'ce ;
and, lastly, it is for the same reasons that I hold that
our navy should be strengthened — (loud cheers) —
until its supremacy is so assured that we cannot be
shaken in any of the possessions which we hold or
may hold hereafter. *|
Believe me, if in 'any one of the places to which I
have referred any change took place which deprived
ns of that control and influence of which I have been
Development of Free Markets 133
speaking, the first to suffer would be the working-
men of this country. Then, indeed, we should see a
distress which would not be temporary, but which
would be chronic, and we should find that England
was entirely unable to support the enormous popula-
tion which is now maintained by the aid of her foreign
trade. If the working-men of this country under-
stand, as I believe they do — I am one of those who
have had good reason through my life to rely upon
their intelligence and shrewdness — if they understand
their own interests, they will never lend any counte-
nance to the doctrines of those politicians who never
lose an opportunity of pouring contempt and abuse
upon the brave Englishmen, who, even at this moment,
in all parts of the world are carving out new dominions
for Britain, and are opening up fresh markets for
British commerce, and laying out fresh fields for
British labour. (Applause.) If the Little Englanders
had their way, not only would they refrain from
taking the legitimate opportunities which offer for
extending the empire and for securing for us new
markets, but I doubt whether they would even take
the pains which are necessary to preserve the great
heritage which has come down to us from our
ancestors. (Applause.)
When you are told that the British pioneers of
civilisation in Africa are filibusters, and when you are
asked to call them back, and to leave this great con-
tinent to the barbarism and superstition in which it
has been steeped for centuries, or to hand over to
134 Want of Employment and the
foreign countries the duty which you are unwilling to
undertake, I ask you to consider what would have
happened if loo or 150 years ago your ancestors
had taken similar views of their responsibility ?
Where would be the empire on which now your
livelihood depends? We should have been the
United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland ; but
those vast dependencies, those hundreds of millions
with whom we keep up a mutually beneficial rela-
tionship and commerce would have been the subjects
of other nations, who would not have been slow to
profit by our neglect of our opportunities and obli-
gations. (Applause.)
Let me give you one practical illustration, in order
to show what ought to be done, and may be done, in
order to secure employment for our people. I will
take the case of a country called Uganda, of which,
perhaps, you have recently heard a good deal. A few
years ago Uganda was only known to us by the
reports of certain entei-prising and most venturesome
travellers, or by the accounts which were given by
those self - denying missionaries who have gone
through all these wild and savage lands, endeavouring
to carry to the people inhabiting them the blessings
of Christianity and civilisation. (Applause.) But
within very recent times English authority has been
established in Uganda, and an English sphere of in-
fluence has been declared. Uganda is a most fertile
country. It contains every variety of climate ; in a
large portion of it European colonisation is perfectly
Development of Free Markets 135
feasible ; the products are of the utmost richness ;
there is hardly anything which is of value or use to
us in our commerce which cannot be grown there ; but
in spite of these natural advantages, during the past
generation the country has been desolated by civil
strife and by the barbarities of its rulers, barbarities
so great that they would be almost incredible if they
did not come to us on the authority of thoroughly
trustworthy eye-witnesses.
All that is wanted to restore this country to a state
of prosperity, to a commercial position which it has
never attained before, is settled peace and order.
(Hear, hear.) That peace and order which we have
maintained for so long in India we could secure by a
comparatively slight exertion in Uganda, and, when
this is proposed to us, the politicians to whom I have
referred would repudiate responsibility and throw
back the country into the state of anarchy from
which it has only just emerged ; or they would allow
it to become an appanage or dependency of some
other European nation, which would at once step in
if we were to leave the ground free to them. I am
opposed to such a craven policy as this. (Applause.)
I do not believe it is right. I do not believe it is
worthy of Great Britain ; and, on the contrary, I
hold it to be our duty to the people for whom at all
events we have for the time accepted responsibility,
as well as to our own people, even at some cost of
life, some cost of treasure, to maintain our rule and
to establish settled order, which is the only founda-
136 Want of Employment and the
tion for permanent prosperity. When I talk of the
cost of life, bear in mind that any cost of life which
might result from undertaking this duty would be
a mere drop in the ocean to the bloodshed which has
gone on for generations in that country b':)fore we ever
took any interest in it.
But I will go further than that. This rich country
should be developed. It is at the prese it time 800
miles from the sea, and unless we can reach a country
by the sea we cannot obtain its products in a form or
at a cost which would be likely to be of any use to
us, nor can we get our products to them. Therefore
what is wanted for Uganda is what Birmingham has
got — an improvement scheme. (Laughter.) What
we want is to give to this country the means of com-
munication by a railway from the coast which would
bring to that population — which is more intelligent
than the ordinary populations in the heart of Africa
— our iron, and our cloths, and our cotton, and even
our jewellery, because I believe that savages are not
at all insensible to the delights of personal adorn-
ment. (Laughter.) It would bring to these people
the goods which they want and which they cannot
manufacture, and it would bring to us the raw
materials, of which we should be able to make
further use.
Now, it is said that this is the business of private
individuals. Private individuals will not make that
railway for fifty years to come, and for the good
reason that private individuals who go into invest-
Development of Free Markets 137
ments like railways want to see an immediate pros-
pect of a return. They cannot afTord to go for ten
or twenty years without interest on their money, and
accordingly you will find that in undeveloped coun-
tries no railway has ever been made by private exer-
tion, but has always been made by the prudence and
foresight and wisdom of a government.
If the Government choose to employ its credit in
order to make a railway from the coast to some point
of the country from which the goods of Uganda
could easily reach it, I venture to say that at once
would spring up a great industry, a great trade,
which would be beneficial to the people of this
country, and that, in the long run, it might be ten
years, it might be fifteen years, and it might even
be twenty years hence, not only would this indirect
advantage come to the country, but the railway
itself would more than pay its expenses. That has
always been the result of such expenditure. Take
the case of India. In India it was impossible to
make the railways in the first instance by private
capital and private enterprise. The Government
undertook them, and they did not pay their way for
some time, but now the whole of that vast network
of railways is paying fair interest upon the expendi-
ture which has been made. (Applause.) And, in
the meantime, the trade of India, the wealth of
India, the population of India, not to speak of the
wealth of this country, has increased enormously.
The fact is, that railroads are the very arteries which
138 Want of Employment and the
carry the life-blood of countries, that without them
the country languishes and dies, that with them it
springs up again into healthy life ; and I am con-
vinced that, when we ask the Government to give
employment to its people, we should not dwell upon
such proposals as those which I have ventured to
stigmatise as impracticable, we should not ask them
to establish municipal workshops, or to insist on an
eight hours day; but we should ask them to look
about in places like Uganda, in some of those vast
undeveloped possessions which own the sway of the
British Crown, and to see whether or not, by a
judicious investment of money, by a little looking
into the future, they might not only find present
employment for all the men in this country, who
would be engaged in making these railways, in
furnishing the plant, in supplying the things which
would be required by those who have to manage and
supervise them, but might also establish a foundation
for a trade which for generations yet to come may
find employment for the working population of this
country. (Applause.)
Ladies and gentlemen, I ought to make an apology
for having strayed so far from the direct object of
the meeting, but my excuse must be that I do not
see too much of my constituents, and that when I
have such an opportunity as this, I may be justified
in looking a little beyond the mere palliatives for
distress such as those which in this association we
Development of Free Markets 139
are to the best of our ability endeavouring to provide,
and may seek beyond tliem if haply we may trace
the causes for this distress, and if haply we may
find some permanent and effectual remedy. (Loud
applause.)
. t
British Trade and the Expan-
sion of the Empire
Birmingham Chamber of Commerce,
November 13, 1896
The ^ following .speech xoajt delivered in the Grand
Hotel, Birrningham, at a banquet given to Mr. Cham-
berlain by the Birmingham Chamber of Commerce, on
November 13, 189G. Mr. P. A. Mnntz, M.P., pre-
sided. The toast of' '■^ Her Majesty's Ministers''''
having been proposed by Councillor Tonks, Mr.
Chamberlain replied asjbllows : —
I THANK you moet heartily on behalf of my col-
leagues and myself for the cordial reception which you
have given to this toast ; and I can assure you that
we value very highly the support of the representa-
tives of commerce irrespective altogether of party
considerations. (Hear, hear.) The present Govern-
ment, like all the Governments that I have known in
our constitutional system, came into office in conse-
/
British Trade, ^c. 141
queuce of a party victory. It is, therefore, in a sense,
a party Government ; but, from the moment that we
accepted and entered upon the duties of office, our
most important duty, our most absorbing care, has
been not the party legislation which occupies prob-
ably the largest part of our public discussions,
but the development and the maintenance of that
vast agricultural, manufacturing, and commercial
enterprise upon which the welfare and even the
existence of our great population depends. (Hear,
hear.)
Now, I think, gentlemen, that you may safely give
the widest interpretation to the statement that I have
just made.
All the great offices of State are occupied with
commercial affairs. The Foreign Office and the
Colonial Office are chiefly engaged in finding new
markets and in defending old ones. (Hear, hear.)
The War Office and Admiralty are mostly occupied
in preparations for the defence of these markets, and
for the protection of our commerce. (Hear, hear.)
The Boards of Agriculture and of Trade are entirely
concerned with those two great branches of industry.
Even the Education Department bases its claims to
the public money upon the necessity of keeping our
people well to the front in the commercial competition
which they have to sustain ; and the Home Office
finds thb largest scope for its activity in the protec-
tion of the life and the health, and in the promotion
of the comfort, of the vast army of manual labourers
142 British Trade and the
who are engaged in those indimtries. Therefore, it is
not too much to say that commerce is the greatest of
all political interests — (hear, hear) — and that that
Government deserves most the popular approval
which does most to increase our trade and to settle
it on a firm foundation.
I think the time has come when I may put in a
modest claim on behalf of the Government which I
represent. (Cheers.) I will not dwell upon the re-
covery of trade to which Mr. Tonks has referred,
which undoubtedly was coincident with our accession
to office — (hear, hear, and laughter) — and which has
continued, I am happy to say, down to the present
time. But it may be said that that was only a
coincidence, and that it was due to circuiTistances
over which we had no control. I have observed that
Sir William Ilarcourt stated on one occasion that
this improvement in trade began to manifest itself
during the discussions upon his Budget — (laughter)
— from which I imagine that he would like you to
infer that it is due entirely to the increase of the
death duties. (Laughter and cheers.) That is a
matter of controversy which it would not be proper
for me to discuss more fully on the present occasion.
(Laughter.) Neither will I claim credit, although I
think I might, for the fact that we have, by giving
relief in taxation to the greatest and the most dis-
tressed of all our industries, done somethic^ to
brighten the prospects of agriculture — (cheers) —
upon which the manufactures of our towns and so
Expansion of the Empire 143
many other interests largely, if not entirely, depend.
(Cheers.)
But I think — although I do not n^ake a party claim,
and although I am not here to-night to make a party
speech — I think I may claim, perhaps with the assent
of some of my poluical opponents, credit to the
Government for doing all in their power to increase
and to develop those great free markets in the world
to which we look now, to which we shall have in
future to look still more, for outlets for British trade
— for the trade which, I am sorry to say, foreign
nations, and even some of our own colonies, are
threatening by hostile and restrictive tariffs. (Hear,
hear.) Attention was called the other day, in a very
able and a very powerful speech delivered by Lord
Rosebery in Edinburgh, to the fact that during the
last few years we have added 2,600,000 square miles
to the territories which are either dominions of the
Queen or over which the Queen exercises her influence.
I am not quite certain that the orator was not him-
self a little alarmed at this vast development, although
I think that he has in some sort contributed to it by
speeches of a stimulating character on previous
occasions. (Laughter.)
I should be perfectly prepared to admit that, if
other nations would only stand aside, it might have
been wiser that we should have proceeded more
gradually, and that we should have developed the
countries that we already possessed before seeking
this vast extension. But there was no appearance
144 British Trade and the
of such an inclination on the part of other nation?.
(Laughter.) I can truly say that we were not the
first or the most eager to move; but, if we had
remained passive, what would have happened ? {'Is it
not as certain as that we are sitting here that the
greater part of the continent of Africa would have
been occupied by our commercial rivals, who would
have proceeded, as the first act of their policy, to
close this great potential market to British trade?
(Cheers.)
Let me make one remark here, the proper con-
sideration of which would, I think, do very much to
modify that jealousy with which undoubtedly foreign
nations regard our extension. fMy remark is this —
that we, in our colonial policy, as fast as we acquire
new territory and develop it, develop it as trustees
of civilisation for the commerce of the world. (Cheers.)
We offer in all these markets over which our flag
floats the same opportunities, the same open field to
foreigners that we offer to our own subjects, and
upon the same terms. (Hear, hear.) In that policy
we stand alone, because all other nations, as fast
as they acquire new territory — acting, as I believe,
most mistakenly in their own interests, and, above
all, in the interests of the countries that they ad-
minister — all other nations seek at once to secure
the monopoly for their own products by preferential
and artificial methods.
Under those circumstances, I say, it was a matter
of life and death to us that we should not be fore-
Expansion of the Empire 145
stalled in these markets of the future to which we
have learned to look for the extension of our
trade, ard even for the subsistence of our people —
(hear, hear) — and in considering the results of our
policy I think we Britons — I must not say English-
men, because my Scotch friends — (hear, hear) —
would think I was excluding them from a field in
which, indeed, they have taken even more than their
fair share — (laughter) — but I say that the results of
our policy are results upon which we Britons can
look back with satisfaction. (Hear, hear.)
It is interesting to notice that we alone have been
successful, astonishingly successful, in making these
acquisitions profitable. (Hear, hear.) Every addition
to the colonial possessions of France, or of Germany,
adds immediately, and continues to add, to the latest
date, a heavy burden upon the taxpayers of the
mother country. Whereas, in our case, all our colonies
and territories are either self-supporting from the
first, or become so in a very short space of time,
the French colonies and the German colonies seem
somehow or other to fail to att* act anv commercial
«
and civilian population. I think the recent official
returns of the German Empire show that in their
colonies, which extend over more than a million square
miles, there are less than seven hundred civilian
Germans — less, in fact, than there are of that nation-
ality in many of our own colonies. (Laughter.)
While in the foreign colonies no population from the
mother country is attracted, in our colonies we find
K
146 British Trade and the
that settlement proceeds gaily, and they take off our
most adventurous spirits and relieve us of some of our
surplus population. (Cheers.)
I think I may go further and say that this system,
while it is certainly satisfactory to ourselves, is pro-
ductive of advantages to the people over whom we
exercise control. (Hear, hear.) It is said that you
cannot make omelettes without breaking eggs. You
cannot exercise control over barbarous countries,
which previous to your arrival have been in a state of
constant anarchy and disorder, without occasionally
coming into conflict with their savage rulers and
having to shed some blood ; but I say that univers-
ally it has proved to be the case that after a time we
have secured the pacification of the country, we have
put an end to the tribal conflict which has previously
interfered with progress, we have stopped those
slave-raiding expeditions which have been fatal to
commerce, and we have secured the permanent im-
provement of the country and the increase of the
population. (Cheers.) Now that is a statement
which I believe applies universally to all the new
acquisitions which we have made on the continent of
Africa, and I cannot help thinking that it justifies
even that large extension of territory which has been
forced upon us. (Cheers.)
I said I was going to make a claim for the Govern-
ment. I have been describing to you that policy
which commends itself to our minds, and which
hitherto has been so successful. I go on to say that
Expansion of the Empire 147
during the last twelve months, we, the present
Government, have redeemed from barbarism in
Ashanti and in the Soudan, with a small expenditure
of life and treasure, by expeditions which have been
admirably planned— (hear, hear) — splendidly led —
(hear, hear) — and successfully prosecuted — (cheers) —
two provinces, where previously trade was impossible,
because no man could call his life or his property his
own, or consider himself to be safe from the tyranny
and cruelty of his native rulers. (Hear, hear.)
I note here a certain inconsistency in l . i of
those men of light and leading who profess to in-
struct and to guide public opinion. In Dongola, and
in Ashanti, the country was ruled by two princes,
whom I think I may describe as "great assassins."
(Hear, hear.) In these two countries the number of
the victims was tenfold the number of all that have
suffered by Turkish tyranny and Turkish cruelty in
the last few years, and the kind of cruelty that was
practised upon them was, if possible, even more
horrible than that which struck so deep a chord of
indignation and sympathy in regard to the Armenian
massacres. We all sympathise, I am sure, with the
people who in Asia Minor have suffered from the
cruelty of the Turk, and from the anarchy which
has prevailed in their land. We sympathise with
those who desire by every practical means to come to
their aid and to prevent the continuance of these
cruelties ; but is the fact that the Armenians are of
the same colour as ourselves, or that they profess the
148 British Trade and the
Christian religion, a reason why the sympathy which
we feel for them should not be extended to still
larger populations in Africa and elsewhere who are
suffering from at least equal tyranny ? (Cheers.)
Yet I find that those who have been preachmg a
crusade for the Armenians, in spite of the knowledge
that such a crusade might easily produce even
greater evils than those which we seek to avoid,
have said not one word of sympathy, one word of
approval, for a policy which at comparatively small
sacrifice has, I believe, diminished the sum of
human misery by a greater amount than would have
been the case even if we had secured the destruc-
tion of the Turkish Empire. (Cheers.)
I say that to my mind this inconsistency needs to
be explained, and I want to know how one and the
same man can preach a crusade and encourage this
country to take risks on behalf of the Armenians,
whom I admit to be well worthy of your sympathy,
and then can describe the expedition in Egypt —
which has rescued a whole province from the greatest
possible suffering, and has restored it to civilisation
and to peaceful industry — as ** wanton folly " and an
** infatuated policy." (Cheers.) It is not only in the
Soudan, or in Ashanti, that this policy has been
pursued. Two other expeditions, which seem almost
to have escaped public attention although their
resnlts are of the utmost importance to humanity
at large, have also been successfully conducted, one
in East Africa, the other in Nyassaland, under Sir
Expansion of the Empire 149
Harry Jolmatoii. Both these expeditions have been
successful, and have struck a heavy blow at that
system of slave-raiding which has been probably for
centuries the curse of Central Africa, and has pre-
vented the civilisation and the improvement of that
vast continent.
I would not like you, however, to suppose that it is
only on military expeditions that I base my claims to
your support for the policy of the Government.
After conquest must come development — (hear, hear)
— and by the railways in the Soudan, by the railway
to Uganda, the railways which are being planned or
are already in progress on the West Coast of Africa,
and by other railways which we are stimulating and
encouraging by every means in our power in all the
dominions of the Crown, by furthering the means of
communication in all parts of the world, and especially
those between our own colonies and ourselves, by
endeavouring to bring out the latent resources of
our territories,/we are actively pursuing that policy
of developing the Imperial estate which I ventured
to recommend to the House of Commons as the true,
the wise, and the economical policy for this country
to pursue. (Cheers.) If we pursue it, and if, like
that of so many great empires that have passed away,
our great dominion comes to an end, we shall at least
have left behind us the material monument of our
progress through the world. Just as the Romans
left their roads which remain to this day to speak for
their intelligence and their courage, so we shall leave
150 British Trade and the
railroads and means of communication which we
have provided as permanent benefits to the country
over which we have exercised Imperial sway.
(Cheers.)
(That is part of our business ; we have to find new
markets, and we have to develop old ones. But there
is something else to be done, something in which your
co-operation and the co-operation of the commercial
classes is absolutely necessary, and that is to see that
this country retains at least its fair share of trade in the
markets we have provided. That is a question which
has created a good deal of interest, and as to which the
impression appears to prevail, encouraged, I think, by
the speeches of some very prominent personages
indeed, that British trade is being undermined by
foreign competition, that British manufacturers have
lost all their old energy and enterprise, and that
British workmen have lost their cunning. If the object
of statements of that kind is merely to stimulate you
to further exertions, if these bogeys are dressed up
in order to frighten you into an unwonted activity,
perhaps they may prove to have their advantages ;
but believe me, I think it would be a great mistake
that we should be too much discouraged, that we
should begin to despair, either of our country or of
ourselves.
These extremely pessimistic statements will not
bear a moment's serious examination.
What is the charge made against British industry ?
I wish to confine it as far as possible to its prominent
Expansion of the Empire 151
characteri8tic, in order that I ,may deal with it in a
few words. Germany is the countiy which we are to
fear. (Laughter.) Gemiany is the country which
is to undermine our industry, and which Las made
this astonishing progress. Germany, we are told, ia
making inroads upon our trade as the sea encroaches
upon our shores. (Laughter.) Well, I am not certain
that the sea does encroach upon our shores. (Laugh-
ter.) At least I am certain of this, that if it makes
inroads on some portions, for instance, of the east
coast, there are other portions of the country in
which the sea is retiring, and in which laud is being
reclaimed for profitable cultivation.
But I would prefer to reply to charges of this
kind by facts and figures rather than by rhetorical
ornament. Let us look, then, at the course of trade
as between Germany and this country, and when wo
do so I think we shall find that, although there is
reason for WAtchfulness, there is no reason at all for
despairing — (no, and hear, hear) — and there is hardly
reason for serious alarm — certainly nothing of a
kind which would make Mr. Chantrill's hair stand
upon end. (Loud laughter.) I do not want, at a
meeting of this kind, to burden you with many
statistics, but I will ask you to follow me in one or
two figures so plain and so simple that I think they
will be sufficient to prove my case. If Germany is
encroaching in this terrible way upon the trade of
the United Kingdom, of course we should expect to
find that the exports from the United Kingdom
152 British Trade and the
would materially have diminished, and the exports
from Germany have materially increased. What are
the facts ? The last year for which I have complete
returns is 1894, and I take a period of ten years
backwards from 1894. In 1885 the total export of
domestic produce from the United Kingdom — that is,
leaving out of count altogether the foreign and
colonial produce which comes to this country, and
which is re-exported at a profit, and taking only
things of our own manufacture and production — was
213 millions. In 1894 i^ ^^^ 216 millions, an
increase of three millions. The total exports of
domestic produce from Germany were 143 millions
in 1885, and 148 millions in 1894 — that is to say,
they had increased five millions, while ours had
increased three millions.
Then, what has been the course of trade between
Germany and this country? Here I have the
returns down to last year, 1895. The exports of
produce from the United Kingdom to Germany have
risen in the ten years from twenty-six millions to
thirty-three millions, an addition of seven millions.
The exports in the other direction, from Germany to
the United Kingdom, have risen in the same time
from twenty-one millions to twenty-seven millions,
or an increase of six millions. That is to say, the
trade of both States has increased in practically the
same proportion, but the increase of British trade
has been seven millions while the increase in German
trade has been six millions. (Cheers.)
Expansion of the Empire 153
Now is it not perfectly clear, whatever special
changes may have taken place, that the general
movement of trade has not been of material import-
ance ? There have been considerable fluctuations in
the course of the ten ytars which I have taken
for the purpose of examination, sometimes in favour
of Germany, sometimes in favour of this country, but
on the whole, and taking the whole period, the
result shows that there is substantially no change of
importance in the relative proportion of German and
of British trade.
There is only one other branch of inquiry to which
I would direct your attention, and that is the exporti.
of the two countries to our colonies and possessions.
The returns are again for different periods, but they
are substantially the same period. 1 find that the
exports from the United Kingdom to the principal
colonies and dependencies of the British Crown
averaged 105 millions in 1884-85. They rose to
113 millions in 1893 to 1895 — that is to say, a
rise of eight millions. The exports from Germany
at the beginning of the period were only one and a
half million, and they rose to four and a half
millions, which is an increase of three millions. In
this case you will see that the percentage of increase
of the German exports is very large, but the actual
amount of increase is only about one-third of the
amount of increase of British products ; and I may
add that that increase, although it appears very
large as between 1884 and 1893-95, ^^^ ^^ok place in
154 British Trade and the
the first five or six years of the period, and there
has been no increase in the lust five years. I say,
then, that, on the whole, 1 think 1 have justified my
position. While it is most important that this ques-
tion should have your careful and continu'^ us atten-
tion, there is no reason whatever for putting forward
alarmist views of our position, which are greedily
accepted abroad, and which lead our foreign friends
and competitors to take altogether an erroneous view
of the commercial power and the commercial influence
of Great Britain. (Loud cheers.)
But I have not been satisfied to rest entirely upon
official statistics, which deal with only the general
movement of trade. Mr. Tonks referred to the cir-
cular, which, after consultation with this and with
many other chambers of commerce in the United
Kingdom, I issued to all the Governors of the
colonies of the Empire. The returns to that circular
have already to a great extent been received, and the
remainder are still coming in. Undoubtedly they
contain an immense amount of most valuable and
most interesting information, and, when they are
coupled with the samples of foreign goods which
have found a sale in those countries, I think they
will give to every manufacturer and to every working
man an opportunity of estimating the character and
the importance of the competition with which he is
threatened. (Cheers.)
When these returns are complete, I intend that
they shall be published in a Blue-book, with a com-
Expansion of the Empire 155
plete aurnmary of the whole of the results ; but, in
the meantime, 1 may say this, that, while they give
to us no reason for excessive alarm, they do show
that, in certain branches of our trade, in particular
industries, and particular classes of goods, we have
been outstripped by our competitors, and have lost
trade which we ought to have retained. (Hear, hear.)
What is the reason of that ? The reasons, no doubt,
are multifarious, but the principal reason undoubtedly
is to be found in what 1 must call the too great
independence of our manufacturing population,
and by manufacturing population I include all
classes, the manufacturers as well as their work-
people — and it is unfortunately true that in late
years our competitors abroad, and especially our
German competitors, have shown a greater willing-
ness than we have — (hear, hear) — to consult the
wishes, and, if you like, the prejudices of their
customers. It seems to be a theory with certain of
our manufacturers that consumers were sent into
the world by Providence in order to take the things
which they (the manufacturers) make — (laughter) —
and that there is no corresponding obligation at all
upon the manufacturers to make the goods that the
consumers want. (Laughter and cheers.) I have
been very much struck by the interest which has
already been taken in these exhibits, which have
hitherto been confined to the City of London ; and
the number of manufacturers and working people
who have visited them makes me sanguine that whe ;
156 British Trade and the \
the exhibit8 have been through the cuuutry, as they
are now to go — (cheers) — and have been seen in each
district by the people wlio are siHJcially concerned in
them, we shall find that our manufacturing people,
whether employers or employed, will be perfectly
prepared to profit by the object-lesson which they
afford. (Cheers.)
I do not believe that it is necessary for us, in order
to maintain our position, to copy slavishly the methods
of our foreign competitors. (Hear, hear.) I do not
believe in adopting in this country the bureaucratic
and almost military organisation by which they
attempt to discipline their trades and industries.
(Cheers.) I do not believe in adopting foreign rates
of wages or foreign hours of labour. (Cheers.) But
I do believe in stimulating the invention of our
people, in maintaining that originality on the part
of our manufacturers and merchants, which, after all,
has given to us our great character for enterprise and
individuality. (Cheers.) I believe in maintaining
the high standard of technical and scientific instruc-
tion, and I believe generally in keeping abreast with
the current of industrial progress — (cheers) — and [
think we have good reason to believe that this is in
effect what we are striving to do. If I look to the
question of invention, which, after all, is one of the
most important factors in the increase of our trade
— (hear, hear) — I find that since the change in the
Patents Act which I was able to inaugurate in 1 883
— (cheers) — the number of patents annually taken
Expansion of the Empire 157
oat in the United Kin^lorn alone has risen from
something like 6000 to nearly 30,000. (Cheers.) It
is a curious and a most interesting and a most en-
couraging fact that some of the greatest inventions
that have recently been made — inventions which have
led, like the cycle industry, to the employment of an
enormous number of people in this country, and I
hope to corresponding profits — (laughter and hear,
hear) — at all events, to the original owners — (renewed
laughter and cheers) — I say it is an encouraging fact
that these inventions have almost invariably been
English inventions. (Cheers.) We are making great
progress also in connection with our technical instruc-
tion, although it is still in its infancy, and for my
part, I see no reason upon this review to doubt for
a moment that we shall be able, with a continuance
of the efforts which we are now making, to hold our
own against all competitors. (Cheers.)
Mr. President, I have been permitted before I sit
down to propose what I think is the toast of the
evening, " Prosperity to the Birmingham Chamber
of Commerce and its officers," and I have pleasure in
connecting the toast with the name of Mr. Albert
Muntz, M.P., the president of the chamber, and Mr.
J. B. Chantrill, the acting chairman. (Cheers.) I
have the greatest pleasure in proposing this toast
because my oflBce has brought me into close com-
munication with the chambers of commerce, and I
have received from them most valuable advice and
assistance. I want to take this, which is the first
15^ British Trade, &c.
opportunity I have had, to express especially my
thanks to the London Chamber, which has most
actively co-operated with me, and which has con-
tributed very largely to the success of those colonial
exhibitions to which I have referred. But the fact
is that, whenever I have had occasion to apply to
any chamber of commerce throughout the United
Kingdom, I have always received the most hearty
support, for which I desire to express my sincere
gratitude.
If I may, in conclusion, make a statement of the
result of my experience, without being thought to be
in any way a critic, I would say that that experience
seems to show that it is by practical methods of this
kind, by assisting in the work of education, by dis-
seminating information, by giving that expert advice
which you are so well entitled to offer, and not by
academic discussion upon highly controversial points
of i'igislation and policy, that chambers of commerce
will best serve the important interests which they
specially represent. (Cheers.) We all pride ourselves
upon being practical men in Birmingham, and I
have no doubt the Birmingham Chamber will show
a good example in this respect to all the chambers of
the Empire. I have, therefore, very much pleasure
in proposing " Prosperity to the Chamber and the
Health of its IVesident." (Loud cheers.)
Imperial Trade
The First Step to Federation
Canada Club Dinner, London,
March 25, 1896
Mr. Chamherlam was the principal g\test at a iVmner
of the Canada, Club held on March ,?«7, 1890, at the
Albion Tavern y Aldersgate Street, London. The
Preifident of tlw Club, Sir Robert Gillespie, occupied
the Chah; and in proposing the toast oj' " 'The
Governor-General (the Earl of Aberdeen) and the
Dominion of Canada^'' associated with H the names oJ'
Mr. Chamberlain and tfw Hon. Dr. Montague^
Minister of Agriculture in the Canadian Cabinet. In
responding Mr. Chamberlain said: —
*
Mr. President and Gentlemen, — I feel honoured in
being associated in this toast with Dr. Montapue, a
member of the Ministry and of the Parliam»)nt of
Canada, and I have much pleasure in meeting so
many representatives of that gi'eat Dominion, which,
whether we have regard to the area of its territory,
to its population, to its natural resources, or to any
other test by which we gauge the greatness of a
L
1 62 The First Step to Federation
people, stands tc-day first among the group of
kindred nationp, which, together with the United
Kingdom, form the British Empire. (Cheers.) 1
have on two occasions had the pleasure of visiting
Canada, and I have had the opportunity of making
the accpiaintance of many of her leading statesmen,
and notably of the late Sir John Macdonald, that
most Imperially-minded man — (cheers) — whose guid-
ing idea throughout his long political life was to
maintain intact the local independence of Canada in
close alliance with the mother country. (Cheers.) I
think that at times he had no easy task. (Hear,
hear.) There were prominent men on both sides of
the Atlantic who at one time assumed that the
manifest destiny of Canada was to be absorbed into
the f^reat Republic on its southern frontier. (" No,
no " ; " Never.") That was the opinion. (Hear,
hear.) It is an ancient controversy, and I do not
think it necessary to refer to it to-night except to
mark the contrast between the doubt and hesitation
of those days and the determination now of every son
of Canada to maintain his local institutions, his
separate identity, and at the same time to draw closer
the bonds which unite him to the great parent State.
(Hear, hear, and cheers.)
The recent isolation of the United Kingdom, the
dangers which seemed to threaten us, have evoked
from all our colonies, and especially from Canada, an
outburst of loyalty and affection which has reverber-
ated throughout the world, which has had a great
The First Step to Federation 163
effect, and which testifies to a sentiment that is
deeper than words can express. (Cheers.) We
have been told by cynics that these expressions of
loyalty and affection arc superfluous — that they are
the ornaments of after-dinner oratory — (No, no) —
but that they would not bear the test and trial of
serious conflict, that if a war should ever arise the
mother country would be left to her fate — (No, no)
— and that the colonies would take care of them-
selves. That idea, at any rate, must have been
dispelled by what has recently happened. (Hear,
hear.) The shadow of war did darken the horizon,
and to none of her Majesty's subjects was that
shadow more ominous than it was to our fellow-
citizens in Canada; but there was no hesitation,
although, if that had happened which would have
been abhorrent to all of us, the brunt in the first
instance would have fallen on Canada. A unanimous
voice went up from the people and Parliament of
Canada to say that this matter, although it did not
directly affecc their interests, yet affected the honour
of the British Empire, and they made common cause
with us. (Cheers.) They were prepared to stand
shoulder to shoulder and to bear their share in all
the evils that might come upon us. Their decision
was emphasised in the debate to which you, Mr.
President, have referred, which took place recently
in the Dominion Parliament, and the moral of which
was summed up in the conclusion of the eloquent
speech of Mr. M'Neill, the mover of a luyal and
164 The First Step to Federation
patriotic resolution, when he said, " The British
people are one people, animated by one spirit, and
determined to stand together as one man in defence
of their common rights and in the maintenance of
their common interests." (Hear, hear, and cheers.)
"We desire peace before all, we regard war with
horror, but we are prepared to accept it with all its
consequences, come from what quarter it may, if it
be necessary to do so in order to defend the honour
and the integrity of our own Empire." (Cheers.) I
call your attention to the last words of the orator.
He speaks of " our own Empire," and he struck the
right chord, for the Empire of Great Britain is the
common heritage of all her sons, and is not the
appanage of the United Kingdom alone. (Cheers.)
Now in the course of that debate many speeches
were made all to the same effect, and the resolution
was unanimously passed with acclamation.
But again and again allusion was made to the
opportunity, to the occasion, which every well-wisher
to the unity of the empire was bound to seize, and a
hope was expressed that something might be done to
bring us nearer together. Sir, we share that hope —
(hear, hear, and cheers) — and I ask you now, gentle-
men, is this demonstration, this almost universal
expression of loyalty from all our Colonies, to pass
away without a serious effort upon the part both of
colonial and Imperial statesmen to transform these
high sentiments into practical results ? (Cheers.)
I have, at any rate, thought that it was my duty, the
The First Step to Federation 165
first time I had the opportunity of speaking, at least
to call attention to the position of this great ques-
tion, which has been before us now for a good
number of years, which has appealed strongly to the
sentiments of the people, but which has not up to
the present time resulted in anything like a practical
scheme. In the year 1884 a league was formed —
the Imperial Federation League — under the most
favourable auspices. The late Mr. Forster was its
president, and it afterwards enjoyed the assistance of
a long series of distinguished statesmen and promi-
nent personages ; but two years ago it was dissolved
without having accomplished its object, unless,
indeed, its chief object was the education of public
opinion to the importance of the subject. Sir, I think
that we may, at all events, learn from its experience
that the complete realisation of our hopes, if they
are in the direction of a federation of the empire —
their final realisation — is a matter of such vast
magnitude and such great complication that it
cannot be accomplished immediately.
But it does not follow that on that account we
should give up our aspirations. (Hear, hoar.) It is
only a proof that we must approach the goal in a
different way, that we must not try to do everything
all at once, that we must seek the line of least
resistance. To create a new government for the
British Empire — a new government with large
powers of taxation and legislation over countries
separated by thousands of miles of sea, in conditions
1 66 The First Step to Federation
as various as those which prevail in our several
dependencies and colonies — that, indeed would be a
duty from which the boldest statesman might shrink
appalled. We may, however, approach this desirable
consummation by a process of gradual development.
(Hear, hear.) We may bear in mind the words of
the poet that
" A great Design is seldom snatch'd at once ;
'Tis Patience heaves it on."
We may endeavour to establish common interests
and common obligations. When we have done that
it will be natural that some sort of representative
authority should grow up to deal with the interests
and the obligations we have created. What is the
greatest of our common obligations ? It is Imperial
defence. What is the greatest of our common in-
terests ? It is Imperial trade. (Hear, hear.) And those
two are very closely connected. It is very difficult to
see how you can pretend to deal with the great question
of Imperial defence without having first dealt with the
question of Im perial trade. Imperial defence is largely
a matter of ways and means, and ways and means are
dependent upon the fiscal and other commercial ar-
rangements you may make ; and, therefore, the conclu-
sion to which I arrive is this — that if the people of
this country and the people of the colonies mean what
they have been saying, and if they intend to approach
this question of Imperial unity in a practical spirit,
they must approach it on its commercial Mde.
The First Step to Federation 167
We have a great example before us in the creation
of the German Empire. How was that brought
about ? You all recollect that, in the first instance,
it commenced with tlio union of two of the States
which now form that great empire in a commercial
Zollverein. They attracted the other States grndnally
— were joined by them for commercial purposes. A
council, a lleichsrath, was formed to deal with
those commercial questions. Gradually in their
discussions national objects and political interests
were introduced, and so, from starting as it did on a
purely commercial basis and for commercial interests,
it developed until it became a bond of unity and the
foundation of the German Empire.
We have another reason wliy we should approach
this subject from its commercial side; and that is, that
in regard to this the colonies, to whose feelings we must
pay tlie utmost deference, who must, in fact, in one
sense at any rate, take the initiative in any movement,
have clearly pointed, by their action, to commercial
union as the point upon which, as they consider, the
whole subject is most ripe. Let me remind you of what
happened at the great conference at Ottawa which
was held in 1 894 ? The principal resolution — prin-
cipal, at all events, in regard to its importance — which
was passed at that conference, was in the following
terms : — " That this conference records its belief in
the advisability of a Customs arrangement between
Great Britain and her colonies, by which trade withiu
the Empire may be placed upon a more favourable
1 68 The First Step to Federation
footing than that which is carried on with foreign
countries." (Cheers.) It is quite true that that was
the declaration of a general principle, and that no
definite plan was submitted to or adopted by the
conference, but we have other means of information.
We are acquainted with the speeches that were made
there, and we know what was in the minds of the
delegates. I observed in the Times this morning a
telegram from Canada which tells us that Mr. M'Neill,
the gentleman who moved the patriotic resolution to
which I have already referred, has moved another
resolution in the House of Commons of Canada, by
which he proposes to declare that it is desirable in
the interests of Great Britain and of the colonies
that a moderate nd valorem duty, independent of any
existin^r duty, should be imposed both by the colonies
and by the mother country upon all imports from
foreign countries. (Cheers.)
That, therefore, is the suggestion — for I will call
it no more — it is not a formal proposition, but it is
the suggestion that has been made to us by our
colonies for carrying out a system of commercial
union. At any rat« a proposition of that kind is
entitled to respectful consideration, and if we object
to it, we ought, I think, to propose an alternative, or
we ought — and this is the only other thing for us to do
— to say at once that all that we have said, all that
we have done, all that we have thought about Imperial
unity, has been thrown away, and that that idea must
be abandoned as an empty dream.
The First Step to Federation 169
Now, Sir, do not let us minimise the proposition
we are asked to consider. It would involve in the
case of the United Kingdom a most serious disturb-
ance of our trade ; it would be a great change in the
principles which for many years past have guided our
commercial policy. It involves the imposition of a
duty, it may be a small one, but it is a duty upon
food and upon raw material, and whatever may be the
result of imposing such a duty as to which, if I had
time, I could discourse for many minutes — whatever
may be the actual result — the tendency is to increase
the cost of living which would intensify the pressure
upon the working classes of this country — (No, no
and hear, hear) — and it would also have a tendency to
increase the cost of production, which would put us,
of course, in a worse position than now in competi-
tion with foreign countries in neutral markets.
I see no use in shutting my eyes to the consequences
of the proposition — (cheers) — which I desire to con-
sider with an impartial mind. The first thing is to
establish the facts, and the facts are as I have stated.
In retum, under this proposal we should get a
small, and a very small, consideration in the shape of
a preference of, it may be 2 per cent., it might be
even 5 per cent., in our competition with foreign
manufacturers in the colonial market.
What, then, is the proposal we are asked to con-
sider ? It is a very startling proposal for a free trade
country — (hear, hear) — and I say that in its present
form it is a proposal which it is impossible for us to
170 The First Step to Federation
adopt. (Cheers.) I do not say that merely because
a proposal of this kind is contrary to free-trade prin-
ciples ; because, although i am myself a convinced
free-trader in the sense of believing that the theory
is undoubtedly the theory on which the world would
become most prosperous, yet I have not such a
pedantic admiration for it that, if sufficient advantage
were offered to me, I would not consider a deviation
from the strict doctrine. (Hear, hear.) Mr. Cobden
himself took this view, and compromised his prin-
ciples in making the French treaty ; and it cannot be
expected that we, his disciples, should be more ortho-
dox than the apostle of free trade himself. (Hear,
hear and laughter.)
But my first point is that in the proposal and the
suggestion which has hitherto been made there is no
sufficient quid pro qico, the advantage offered is not
enough to induce this country to take the certain loss
and the possible risk which would be involved in
revising altogether its present commercial policy.
Having regard to the amount of the colonial duties
which are at the present time levied upon British
produce, it is evident that a fixed addition such as is
suggested would be a much smaller preference in the
case of goods going to the colonies than it would be
in the case of goods coming from the colonies to this
country. In the case of this country the preference
would be given on the present cost price of the
goods, but in the colonies the preference would only
be reckoned on the cost of the goods plus the heavy
The First Step to Federation 171
duties now imposed. The percentage therefore would
be much more in favour of the colonies than it
would be in favour of the United Kingdom. (Hear,
hear.)
The second point, which is much more important,
is that our foreign trade is so gigantic in proportion
to the foreign trade of the colonies that the burden
of an arrangement of this kind would fall with much
greater weight on the United Kingdom than upon
our fellow-subjects in the colonies.
I therefore think we may very fairly ask them
to better their offer if, as I believe, the}^ desire to
proceed upon those lines, and if those lines do really
offer the best direction in which we can proceed.
The arguments I have used, and a good number of
others with which I should not think of wearying
you, have been very ably stated in an important
despatch which was addressed by my predecessor.
Lord Ripon, in 1895, to the Governors of all the
colonies, and that despatch has been generally assumed
to be an absolute negative to the proposals of the
colonies. That is a mistake. That despatch is con-
clusive, in my opinion, as to the particular proposal
which has up to the present time been suggested for
our consideration, but it does not bar the door to
other proposals, which, being more favourable, might
receive a more favourable consideration. There is one
passage in Lord Ripon's despatch, most important in
my eyes, which somehow or other seems to have
escaped general attention. It is a paragraph to this
172 The First Step to Federation
efEect : — " The resolution " — that is, the resolution of
the Ottawa Conference — " does not advocate the estab-
lishment of a Customs union comprising the whole
Empire, whereby all the existing barriers to free
commercial intercourse between the various members
would be removed, and the aggregate Customs revenue
equitably apportioned among the different communi-
ties. Such an arrangement," says Lord Kipon,
" would be free in principle from objection, and, if it
were practicable, would certainly prove effective in
cementing the unity of the Em.pire and promoting
its progress and stability."
Now that is another suggestion. That is a sug-
gestion of an alternative to the proposition which I
have been considering ; and I would like to be allowed,
in order to make the course of my a^'gument per-
fectly clear, to summarise what I have said to you
upon this point.
I have laid down four propositions which I think
cannot be controverted. The first is that there is a
universal desire among all the members of the Empire
for a closer union between the several branches, and
that, in their opinion as in ours, this is desirable —
nay, it is essential for the existence of the Empire
as such. My second proposition is that experience
has taught us that this closer union can be most
hopefully approached in the first instance from its
commercial side. My third proposition is that the
suggestions which have hitherto been made to us,
although we know them to have been made in good
The First Step to Federation 173
part, are, when considered from the point of view of
British interests, not suflSciently favourable to be
considered by this country. My fourth proposition
is that a true Zollverein for the Empire, that a free
trade established throughout the Empire, although it
would involve the imposition of duties against foreign
countries, and vrould be in that respect a derogation
from the high principles of free trade and from the
practice of the United Kingdom up to the present
time, would still be a proper subject for discussion
and might probably lead to a satisfactory arrangement
if the colonies on their part were willing to consider
it. (" Hear, hear," and cheers.)
It has been assumed, in Lord Kipon's despatch and
in many other documents, that the colonies must
necessarily refuse to consider a proposition of this
kind because it would interfere with the necessities of
their revenue, that they are obliged to rely upon in-
d^'-ect taxation for the funds by which their adminis-
tration is carried on, and that they could not enter
on such an agreement as this without providing ways
and means by methods which, at present at any rate,
are altogether unpopular in many of our colonies. I
am not convinced of the truth of that statement, and
I want especially to point out that the advantages
of such a proposal are so great to the colonies, as it
would undoubtedly lead to the earliest possible
development of their great natural resources, would
bring to them population, would open to them the
enormous market of the United Kingdom for their
174 The Fii.t Step to Federation
products, their food, their timber, their sugar — the
advantages, I say, are so important that it appears to
me that the colonies themselves would be bound to
give to any suggestion, of this kind at all events, a
careful reconsideration.
My second point is that we are dealing with an
entirely exceptional state of things, and that we can-
not, even if we wished, imitate exactly the German
ZoUverein. We are not conterminous countries ; we
are countries, as I have said, separated by thousands
of miles, in some cases, and the circumstances of our
different countries vary so considerably that it is
evident that in any arrangement as to general free
trade within the Empire exceptions must be made in
the case of articles that are chieSy taxed for revenue
purposes. For instance, we cannot admit free trade
in spirits or in tobacco, and to any gentleman who
has any experience other articles will suggest them-
selves, which, in one part of the empire or another,
are the subject of strictly revenue duties, an''"' might,
by common agreement, be excluded from any such
arrangement. But the principle which I claim must
be accepted, if we are to make any, even the slightest,
progress, is that within the different parts of the
empire protection must disappear, and that the duties
must be revenue duties, and not protective duties in
the sense of protecting the products of one part of
the empire against those of another part.
It seems to me that if that principle were adopted
there would be reason for calling a council of the
The First Step to Federation 175
Empire, for calling representatives from the different
States forming the Empire ; ar ' although the subject
would be one of enormous difficulty and the greatest
complication, still, with the good-will that exists and
the ultimate goal in view, I cannot but think that
something like a satisfactory and a workable arrange-
ment might be arrived at. (Cheers.) And although
in such a case the principles of free trade would lose
something in their application to the dealings be-
tween ourselves and foreign countries, advocates of
free trade must remember how much they would gain
by its extension to all the States which form the
British Empire, States which are after all, whatever
may be said of their present position, more likely to
develop and increase in prosperity and population and
wealth and power and commerce than any of the
foreign States with which we have relations.
Mr. President, I feel that I owe you some apology
for dealing at such length with a subject which might
be thought to be too serious for after-dinner oratory,
but there is no doubt that we all feel that it is a
subject of enormous importance, and I desire very
much to call attention to it. I speak on this occasion
for myself only. I want, not to lay down a course of
policy which must be followed, but I want to provoke
discussion — to provoke discussion in this country and
to provoke discussion, above all, in the colonies ; and
if the details of such a subject as this are prosaic, at
all events the ultimate aim that we have in view
appeals to our highest sentiments of patriotism. To
176 The First Step to Federation
organise an empire — one may almost say to create nn
empire — greater and more potent for p'^ace and the
civilisation of the world than any that history has
ever known — (cheers) — that is a dream if you like,
but a dream of which no man need be ashamed.
(Loud cheers.) We appreciate and we cordially
respond to the notes, the stirring notes, of loyalty
and affection that have been evoked from our colonies
when the great mother country has appeared to be in
danger. We look forward with hope and with con-
fidence to the development of those countries which
are populated by our children and our kinsmen, but
these sentiments alone will never make an empire
unless they are confirmed by bonds of material
interest, and we can only found Imperial unity upon
a common weal. (Cheers.) And so, if you will per-
mit me, I will conclude in the words of a Canadian
poet who, addressing the statesmen of the Dominion,
said :
" Unite the Empire — make it stand compact.
Shoulder to shoulder let its members feel
The touch of British brotherhood ; and act
As one i^reat nation — strong and true as steel."
(Loud cheers.)
Commercial Union of the
Empire
Congress of Chambers of Commerce of
THE Empire, London, June 9, 1896
On June 9, 1896, Mr. Chamberlain, aw Honorary
President, took the Chair at the opening meeting of
the Congress of Chambers of Commerce of the Empire,
which was held in the Hall of the Grocers'' Company,
Prince's Street, E.C. There was a large attendance
of delegates Jrom all parts of the Empii'e.
My Lords and Gentlemen, — In opening the pro-
ceedings at this, the third Congress of the Chambers
of Commerce of the Empire, it is a great pleasure to
me, both as your honorary president and as a member
of the Government, to bid you all — and especially
those who come from a distance — a heartv welcome.
As Secretary of State for the Colonies I rejoice in
every fresh indication of the essential unity of the
Empire-T-(hear, hear) — and of that community of
M
178 Commercial Union of the Empire
interest upon which we found all our hopes of main-
taining and strengthening the relations between the
mother country and her colonies and dependencies.
(Hear, hear.) I think we may say that the omens
were never more favourable, and I am encouraged to
hope from your deliberations that you will make an
important advance towards the goal to which all our
patriotic aspirations and our mutual interests are
steadily tending. The very existence of such a
congress as this — the fact that to-day the represen-
tatives of the commerce of the Dominion of Canada
and of the West Indies, of Australasia, of South
Africa, and of our great Indian dependencies, should
meet in London the delegates of the commerce of the
United Kingdom — is evidence that we have to a great
extent annihilated space, and that the distance which
separates us is no longer any barrier to those free
communications and that personal intercourse which
are the conditions of national unity. Insensibly the
bonds between us are strengthening and multiplying.
You have for a long time — you gentlemen who come
from the colonies — been in our thoughts; you are
now actually in our sight. Your claims, your wishes,
the resources of your separate countries, your political
conditions — all these are becoming as familiar to us
as if we were all provinces in one great kingdom or
States in a true Imperial federation. (Cheers.) I
think that further knowledge must tend to complete
the agreement between us, and that it will bring
within the range of practical politics that splendid
Commercial Union of the Empire 179
^rearn which has been cheribhed by all the greatest
and most patriotic statesmen, both at home and in
the colonies, when we may reach a union in which
free States, all of them enjoying their independent
institutions, will yet be inseparably united in defence
of common interests, and in the observance of mutual
obligations. (Cheers.)
My lords and gentlemen, I have studied the long
and multifarious list of proposals which will be laid
before you, and I can assure you that your decisions
will be carefully noted by Her Majesty's Government.
One thing I observe with great satisfaction, and that
is that the same note rings throughout the whole of
them. There is one guiding principle, and I think it
is a significant fact, that, almost without exception,
all these resolutions, whether they are propounded by
the colonial or by the home Chambers, tend in the
direction of greater uniformity and of closer union
between the colonies and ourselves. (Cheers.) I find
that you are called upon to consider the necessity for
improved communications within the limits of the
Empire ; that you are asked also to consider the
possibility of greater and cheaper facilities of inter-
Imperial postage ; that you are asked to see whether
some approach may not be made to greater uniform-
ity in commercial law — in the laws regulating inter-
Imperial commerce; and I note one resolution —
which I think comes from my own city of Birmingham
— in favour of the creation of an Imperial council for
consultation and advice. (Cheers.)
i8o Commercial Union of the Empire
All these proposals are of great and of pressing
importance, but they are, I was going to say, dwarfed
into insignificance in comparison with other proposals
which will also be put before you and which are in-
tended to secure the commercial union of the Empire.
(Cheers.) It is, I c^mnot help thinking, to your
deliberations and your discussions on this question
that the public will look with the greatest interest
and the greatest expectation, because it must be
evident to you that if this question could once be
satisfactorily settled, all the other things to which I
have referred would follow as a matter of course in its
train. If we had a commercial union throughout the
Empire, of course there would have to be a council of
the Empire, and that council would be called upon to
watch over the execution of the arrangements which
might be made, and to consider and make amend-
ments in them from time to time ; and, whenever such
a council is established, surely there will naturally be
remitted to it all those questions of communication
and of commercial law in which the whole of the
Empire is mutually interested. (Hear, hear.) Even
Imperial defence could not be excluded from its
deliberations, for Imperial defence is only another
name for the protection o'.' Imperial commerce, and
to such a council as I have imagined to be possible
the details of such defence, the method of carrying it
out, the provision to be made for it, would naturally
be remitted. Gradually, therefore, by that prudent
and experimental process by which all our greatest
Commercial Union of the Empire 1 8 1
institutions have slowly been built up we should, I
believe, approach to a result which would be little, if
at all, distinguished from a real federation of the
Empire. In my personal opinion this is a question
which dominates all other Imperial interests, to which
everything else is secondary, and which is at the root
of the problem with which we have now to deal.
The establishment of commercial union throughout
the Empire would not only be the first step, but the
main step, the decisive step towards the realisation
of the most inspiring idea that has ever entered into
the minds of British statesmen. (Cheers.)
I shall not venture to anticipate the discussion in
which you will shortly engage, but perhaps you will
permit me very briefly to lay before you the conditions
of the problem with which you must deal. There is one
advantage which we must recognise at the outset —
that is, that I believe we are absolutely unanimous as
to the object which we desire to attain. (Cheers.)
No one nowadays, in this country or outside of it,
denies the enormous benefit it would be to the
British race throughout the Empire if we could
arrange some union which would lead to closer re-
lations, and which would retain within the Empire,
and for the benefit of the Empire, the trade and the
subjects now diverted to foreign lands — (cheers) —
but up to the present time we have not been
agreed as to the methods by which this object may
be reached.
It appears to me that there are only three lines
1 82 Commercial Union of the Empire
of progress which have been siiggesteJ, or which
can be suggested, to accomplish this great object.
The first of them is a proposal that the colonies
should abandon their own fiscal system, and should
adopt ours, that they should carry out fully the
doctrires of free trade, that they should open their
markets not only to us, but to all the world, and that
they should abandon entirely the protective duties
upon which now they rest very largely for the
revenues they collect. That is a proposal which is
supported by the Cobden Club, by extreme, or, per-
haps, I ought to say, by orthodox free traders ; and
there is no doubt a great deal to be said for it. I do
not deny that possibly it might be for all concerned
the best solution. At the same time I am bound to
poij3t out that that would not bring about commercial
union in the sense in which we have generally under-
stood the word — (hear, hear) — because that would
be in the direction of cosmopolitan union, but would
offer no particular advantage to the trade of the
Empire as such. But what is to my mind a much
more fatal objection, is the fact that, speaking
generally, the colonies will not adopt this proposal.
We must consider it, therefore, as a counsel of per-
fection, and if we are to wait until the colonies
generally are converted to our views in regard to the
advantages of free trade, let us recognise the fact
that in that case we must postpone the hope of com-
mercial union to the Greek kalends. (Hear, hear.)
Free trade in this country has been developed, no
Commercial Union of the Empire 183
donbt, to the great advantage of this country, for a
period of half a century, but in spite of that it has
made no converts. We do not find — again I am
speaking generally, because I know there are excep-
tions — but we do not find that there is any consider-
able approach to our system on the part of the
colonies, and there is no approach at all t'^ it on the
part of foreign countries.
I pass on, then, to the second proposal, which has
been laid before a similar congress to this, and which
found expression at the great conference at Ottawa a
year or two ago — that is, a proposal which has been
favoured by some of our principal colonies, and which
has been advocated with great force and eloquence by
leading colonists. It is the very reverse, in spirit at
any rate, of the proposal I have just been considering,
for whereas the first proposal requires that the
colonies should abandon their system in favour of
curs, this proposal requires that we should abandon
cur system in favour of theirs, and it is in effect that,
while the colonies should be left absolutely free to
impose what protective duties they please both on
foreign countries and upon British commerce, they
should be required to make a small discrimination in
favour of British trade, in return for which we are
expected to change our whole system, and impose
duties on food and raw material. Well, I express
again my own opinion when I say that there is not
the slightest chance that in any reasonable time this
country, or the Parliament of this country, would
: . T' "
184 Commercial Union of the Empire
adopt so one-sided an agreement. (Cheers.) The
foreign trade of this country is so large, and the
foreign trade of the colonies is comparatively so
small, that a small preference given to us upon that
foreign trade by the colonies would make so trifling
a difference — would be so small a benefit to the total
volume of our trade — that I do not believe the
working classes of this country would consent to
make a revolutionary change for what they would
think to be an infinitesimal gain.
You will, then, see that so far we have only arrived
at a deadlock. We have a proposal by British free-
traders which is rejected by the British colonies ; we
have a proposal by colonial protectionists which is
rejected by Great Britain. We have, therefore, if we
are to make any progress at all, to seek a third course
— a course in which there shall be give and take on
both sides, in which neither side will pedantically
adhere to preconceived conclusions, and in which the
separate interests of the parts shall be subordinated
to the good of the whole.
I admit that, if I understand it correctly, I find
the germs of such a proposal in a resolution which is
to be submitted to you on behalf of the Toronto Board
of Trade. (Hear, hear.) What is that resolution ?
Again I say I hope that I am correctly explaining it.
That resolution I understand to be one for the crea-
tion of a British Zollverein or Customs Union, and
would establish at once practically free trade through-
out the British Empire, but would leave the separate
"N
Commercial Union of the Empire 185
contracting parties free to make their own arrange-
ments with regard to duties on foreign goods, except
that this is an essential condition of the proposal —
that Great Britain shall consent to place moderate
duties upon certain articles which are of large pro-
duction in the colonies. Now, if I have rightly
understood it, these articles would comprise corn,
meat, wool, and sugar, and perhaps other articles of
enormous consumption in this country, which are at
present largely produced in the colonies and which
might, under such ai- arrangement, be wholly pro-
duced in the colonies and wholly produced by British
labour. (Cheers.) On the other hand, as I have
said, the colonies, while maintaining their duties upon
foreign importations, would agree to a free inter-
change of commodities with the rest of the Empire,
and would cease to place protective duties on any
product of British labour. That is the principle of
the German ZoDverein, that is the principle which
underlies federation in the United States of America ;
and I do not doubt for a moment that if it were
adopted it would be the strongest bond of union
between the British race throughout the world.
(Cheers.) I say that such a proposal as that might
commend itself even to an orthodox free trader. It
would be the greatest advance that free trade has
ever made since it was first advocated by Mr. Cobden,
since it would extend its doctrines permanently to
more than 300,000,000 of the human race, and to
communities many of which are the most prosperous.
1 86 Commercial Union of the Empire
the most thriving, and the most rapidly increasinj^ in
the world ; and, on the other hand, it would open up
to the colonies an almost unlimited market for their
agricaltural and other productions. (Cheers.)
Of course, the details of such a scheme would require
the most careful examination. There may have to be
exceptions made to the principle, although I believe
the principle itself must be adopted if any progress
is to be made at all ; but I am not going to discuss
these exceptions on the present occasion. I only
want to impress on you my personal conviction that
if a proposal of this kind came to us from the colonies,
backed by any considerable support on their part, it
would not be met with a blank refusal by the people
of this country. (Cheers.) I say, gentlemen, if it
were proposed to us by the colonies, because I do not
consider it would be either wise or practical that a
proposal of this kind should come in the first instance
from the United Kingdom. We know how strenuously
the colonies cling to their own independence, and their
own initiative. If they desire, as we believe they do,
this closer union, if they are willing to make some
sacrifice of their present arrangem^enta and convic-
tions in order to secure it, let them say so. Let the
offer come voluntarily from them, and I believe it
will be considered in this country not in any huckster-
ing spirit, but will be entertained as part of a greater
policy that is intended to unite in the closest bonds
of affection and of interest all the communities which
are under the British flag, and all the subjects of Her
Commercial Union of the Empire 187
Majesty throughout the Empire. (Cheers.) I hope
you will not consider that 1 have gone beyond ray
duty in making these observations to you. (Hear,
hear.) Believe me that I am actuated solely by the
strong desire I entertain that your deliberations,
which in any case will be most useful, should have
some practical result in bringing us nearer to the
object which we all have in view, and which I do not
hesitate to say is the greatest object which Britons
can pursue in what I believe to be a critical stage in
Imperial history. (Loud and prolonged cheers.)
South Africa
British Interests in South
Africa
London Chamber of Commerce,
May 14, 1888
On May 14, 1888, Mr. Chamberlain presided at a.
meeting" which teas held in the Cannon Street Hotel,
hy the London Chamber of Commerce, at which the
Rev. John Mackenzie delivered an address on South
African questions. In opening the proceedings Mr.
Chamberlaiti said : —
I HAVE accepted with very great pleasure the invita-
tion to preside at this meeting on two grounds — in
the first place, that the question which we are met to
discuss is one of the very greatest importance and
interest, well worthy of the consideration of this
representative body in the greatest commercial capital
in the world, and, in the second place, because the
lecturer has peculiar qualifications for the work that
he has undertaken. (Hear, hear.) Mr. Mackenzie has
192 British Interests in South Africa
spent a great part of his life in Sonth Africa ; he has
occupied a high and important official position ; he is
intimately acquainted with the chiefs and tribes of
that part of Africa, and he is hardly less versed in
the complications of colonial politics, and the charac-
teristics of colonial officials and statesmen. Under
these circumstances, whatever he may have to say to
us will be well worthy of our consideration ; and,
whether we agree with him or not, at all events it
will be most valuable at a time like the present,
which I venture to say is a critical time in the
history of our relations with this portion of our
dominions, to have the information and the sugges-
tions that can be afforded by so competent an
observer.
I have said that t^e question is one of great im-
portance to the representatives of a commercial
community. The trade of South Africa has suffered
from even greater fluctuations than that of the rest
of the world. It has been unduly inflated owing to
the wave of speculation which passed over the
country, and recently it has been as unduly depressed
in sympathy with the falling off which we have
witnessed everywhere else. But, referring only to
the trade with the United Kingdom, I find from the
latest official returns that the total exports of mer-
chandise to the Cape and Natal reached more than
;^8,ooo,ooo in 1882, and that they fell to something
over ;^3, 500,000 in 1886, which is the last date to
which the official returns extend. During the same
British Interests in South Africa 193
time the imports from the Cape and Natal to the
United Kingdom were ;^6,25o,ooo in 1882, and they
were more than ,6^4,500,000 in 1886. But these
figures refer to merchandise alone, and they are
altogether exclusive of the exports of gold and of the
exports of diamonds, which in the last year reached
a declared value of something like ;^3, 500,000.
I think you will agree with me that these figures,
taken as they stand, and without allowing for the
increase which undoubtedly has since taken place in
1887 and 1888, are not contemptible figures, and
that they cannot be properly disregarded even by
the greatest commercial nation in the world. And
you must bear in mind that they give no idea at
all of the probable future development of the
countiy. The great staples of South African trade,
its wool, and its ostrich feathers, and its wine, and
to a small extent its corn, gave at one time no
promise of anything like a great or rapid expansion ;
but recently, the extraordinary productiveness of the
mining industry, and the existence of great auri-
ferous deposits, not only in British territory, but in
the independent territories which are to the north-
ward, all promise an increase in the prosperity of
the country which must have very considerable effect
upon all its other productions.
Now, at this stage, I would like to guard myself
against a suspicion that I should be inclined to put
forward our material interests in this great present
and probable future trade as a reason or an excuse
194 British Interests in South Africa
for unnecessary extension of territory, or for wrongful
invasion of the rights of any other people whatsoever.
(Hear, hear.) But you must remember that, so far
as the unoccupied territories between our present
colonial possessions and the Zambesi are concerned,
they can hardly be said to be practically in the
possession of any nation. The tribes and chiefs that
exercise dominion in them cannot possibly occupy
the land or develop its capacity, and it is as certain
as destiny that, sooner or later, these countries will
afford an outlet for European enterprise and European
colonisation. (Cheers.) And in considering what
part this countiy is to take in this great movement,
it is worth while to look to both sides of the account,
and to see the profit that may be in store for us,
when we are also reckoning the sacrifices and the
risks that we may have to encounter.
What is the problem for which we have to seek a
solution ? It is undoubtedly the most difficult one
with which we have to deal in connection with any of
the vast dominions of th3 Queen. We can get very
little assistance from our experience in othar cases.
When we talk of the practically independeijit colony
of the Cape, we are apt to think of those other great
self-governing colonies in Australia and in the
Dominion of Canada. When we speak of the ad-
ministration of native territories, we are inclined to
assume some resemblance to the conditions with
which we have had to deal in our East Indian
dependency. But those who know the country will,
British Interests in South Africa 195
1 am sure, confirui nie wlieu I say that there is no
analogy whatever between these cases, aud that there
is nothing in the experience of the past which can
safely guide us in dealing with the difficulties wiiich
South Africa presents.
Look at the facts of the case. We have, in the
first histance, as the principal feature in the condi-
tions of South Africa, the Cape Colony with a popu-
lation of 340,000 whites and 760,000 natives ; but the
whites of the Cape Colony are not homogeneous ;
they are not of the same blood and of the same race.
A majority of them, probably 180,000, are of foreign
origin, either Dutch or French ; and although i am
glad to think, and to know, that they are as loyal as
any other subjects of the Queen, and as well inten-
tioned towards the British connection, yet the facts
of their history, and their traditions, and, above all,
their methods of administration of native affairs, are,
in some sort, antagonistic to — at all events they are
different from — those which are pursued in accord-
ance with the philanthropy, cr what some people
would call the sentimentalism, of British adminis-
tration.
Then there is the Crown Colony of Natal, with a
population of 30,000 whites and of 400,000 natives.
Lastly, there are the native territories, in which,
here and there throughout the country, are scattered
something like 3000 whites, while there are 500,000
natives.
Altogether we have 370,000 whites and 1,750,000
196 British Interests in South Africa
of natives ; and, besides these, there are, in the vast
territories of which I have spoken, which lie between
our colonies and the Zambesi, probably another
population amounting to nearly 1,000,000 natives.
Nothing we can do, nothing that our legislation can
devise, will prevent the white population from
spreading into these unoccupied territories — (hear,
hear) — and the questions that we have to consider
are, first, who is to direct this necessary and certain
movement, who is to determine its limitations, who
is to prepcriuo the conditions under which the work
of colonisation is to go on ; and, in the second place,
we have to determine who is to protect that great
population of natives forming the vast majority of
those wlio now inhabit this portion of South Africa,
who is to undertake their protection, and to secure
that they peacefully continue their progress in civil-
isation and in orderly government. In other words,
who is to be the dominant power in South Africa ?
(Cheers.)
Now, before we attempt to answer this question,
let us consider for a moment what has been the
past policy of the British Government. I am not
speaking of any particular Government ; I am speak-
ing of all Governments. Fortunately, the questions
affecting South Africa have not hitherto been made
party questions, and we at least have been spared
this difficulty in dealing with the subject. All
Governments and both parties are equally responsi-
ble for the policy, or the want of policy, which has
\
British Interests in South Africa 197
hitherto prevailed — (hear, hear) — and if I ask you to
review it now, I beg you to believe that I am not
casting any blame upon any one, and if I were
inclined to do so — if blame, indeed, does attach — I
am here frankly to admit that, so far as mv limited
Parliamentary life is concerned, I am, perhaps, as
great an offender as any.
The policy of successive Governments for a long
period of time has been the policy of shirking.
(Cheers.) There is no doubt about that. It has been
the avowed policy, and, considering the difficulties
that we have had to encounter, and the small profit
that we have ever derived, it is not, perhaps, wonder-
ful that there should have been an attempt to get rid
of responsibilities and burdensome obligations, and
that everything that we have done has been directed to
this end. The concession of self-government to the
Cape Colony, the premature and ill-advised attempt
to secure confederation, the war with the Transvaal
and the subsequent retirement from that country, the
transfer of the Basuto people to the Cape Colony, the
indifference to the recent acquisitions on the West
Coast by Germany, every one of those things, and
many other parts of our policy to which I might
refer, are all dictated by the. same desire on the
part of successive Ministries and successive Govern-
ments to wash their hands of the whole business.
(Cheers.)
I think it must be apparent that this policy of
shirking has not been consistently and logically
198 British Interests in South Africa
carried out, and it will also be admitted that it has
been a most conspicuous failure. (Cheers.) We
have tried to avoid complications and native wars,
and in the short period which has elapsed since
full self-government was conferred upon the Cape
Colony, we have been engaged in no fewer than six
serious struggles, which have involved not only a
deplorable loss of human life, but a loss to the British
taxpayer of something between ;^ 7,000,000 and
;^8, 000,000 sterling. (Hear, hear,) What has
happened in every case has been this : When diffi-
culties — difficulties that might, perhaps, have been
foreseen, and might, perhaps, have been prevented —
have come upon us, we have endeavoured to put
them off from us as long and as far as we could, and
then, when at last they culminated in open disturb-
ance, we have reluctantly undertaken the duty of
settling matters, and we have settled them with more
or less discredit, and then we have hastened to shake
ourselves free from the whole question, and to retire
into fancied security until we have once more been
roughly awakened. (Cheers.)
If this policy of shirking is to be continued, do let
us understand what it means, and do let us carry it out
to the end. If the British public have made up their
minds that they have no interest in South Africa
beyond their interest in maintaining a naval station
at the Cape, if they think that they can honourably
throw off all the obligations which they have con-
tracted to the great populations that have trusted to
British Interests in South Africa 199
us, if they think they can afford to give up the large
trade that wq enjoy, and the prospect of larger trade
in the future, then let us squarely face the issue. Let
us say to all the world that we intend to retire ; that
we intend to leave Boers and British and natives to
fight out their quarrels as best they may, and that
whatever happens, whatever bloodshed and turmoil
may be the result, that we will not move a British
soldier nor spend one farthing of British money in
order to put things straight. That at all events
would be a consistent policy. It would not be a very
noble policy. (Cheers.) It might, however, find
defenders, although I confess that I should be very
sorry to argue for it myself.
What would happen in such an event ? The Cape
Colony, flourishing as it undoubtedly is, enterprising
and ambitious as its statesmen have shown its
Government to be, would be altogether unable to step
into our vacant places. It would be quite impos-
sible that 180,000 Dutchmen who, being in the
majority, would control the government of the
colony, would be able, according to their principles,
to deal satisfactorily with the affairs of something
like, roughly speaking, 3,000,000 of natives, and
sooner or later, with the sympathy and, perhaps, at
the suggestion of the Dutch in the Transvaal and of
the Orange Free State, they would stretch out their
hands to the kindred nation which is already estab-
lished on the West Coast of Africa, and I venture to
say that Prince Bismarck and the German Empire
200 British Interests in South Africa
would not shrink from a responsibility which would
give them a colony better than anything they have
hitherto dreamt of possessing, and would give them
access to those vast auriferous and fertile regions
which stretch almost into the very heart of the
African continent. (Cheers.)
Speaking for myself personally, I say reject a
policy which will lead to such results. (Renewed
cheers.) Now, what is the alternative? There is
only one alternative, and that is that we should
frankly accept our obligations and responsibilities.
(Cheers.) We should maintain firmly and resolutely
our hold over the territories that we have already
acquired, and we should offer freely our protectorate
to those friendly chiefs and people that are stretch-
ing out their hands towards us and seeking our
protection and our interference. (Cheers.) I have
no doubt that a policy of this kind would enable us,
with much less risk than has attended the policy we
have hitherto pursued, to prescribe the conditions
under whiv^h in the future this necessary work of
colonisation and civilisation shall go forward. I
believe that by such a policy alone can we secure the
interests of the great majority of the population, and
can we justify our position as a nation.
If it be adopted, it will raise, no doubt, one or
two questions for discussion, and prominently among
them the question of the continued retention in
the same hands of the two great offices of High
Commissioner and of Governor of the Cape Colony.
British Interests in South Africa 201
It appears to me that this is a question which
depends very much upon the personal qualities
and characteristics of the man who may be chosen
to fill these two offices. If he is an able and
discreet and, above all, a firm and resolute man,
it is quite possible that he may be able to main-
tain an Imperial policy in South Africa in the
territories under the protection of the Crown, and
at the same time he may be able to impress this
policy upon the Government of the Cape Colony ;
but, if he should ever be weak or incompetent, it
is probable that the Government of the day, the
Government of the majority at the Cape Colony,
would impress him, and that they would secure the
adoption of their policy in the administration of these
trans-colonial territories, and once more we should be
called upon to pay the piper without setting the tune.
(Hear, hear.) I will not venture myself to offer any
final judgment upon this question. It is a matter
which must be left to the responsible advisers of the
Queen, who have much better opportunities of know-
ledge than any that I can possess ; but one thing I
do say, that, if we are once for all to recognise our
obligations in regard to this great continent, we must
do so in pursuance of an Imperial policy, and not of
a colonial policy, if in any respect their policy differs
from ours. (Cheers.) It is only upon those terms that
the people of this country can be asked to take the
risk, can be asked to make the possible sacrifices
which will be called for from them, and it is only in
202 British Interests in South Africa
that way that we can justify the additional liabilities
that we assume.
I have endeavoured to state very briefly and
succinctly the conditions of the problem, the facts of
the case, and the alternative policies from which we
have to choose. Undoubtedly the question for our
decision is one of the very greatest importance. We
have suffered much in this country from depres-
sion of trade. We know how many of our fellow-
subjects are at this moment unemployed. Is there
any man in his senses who believes that the crowded
population of these islands could exist for a single
day if we were to cut adrift from as the great
dependencies which now look to us for protection
and assistance, and which are the natural markets
for our trade ? (Cheers.) The area of the United
Kingdom is only 1 20,000 miles ; the area of the
British Empire is over 9,000,000 square miles, of
which nearly 500,000 are to be found in the portion
of Africa with which we have been dealing. If to-
morrow it were possible, as some people apparently
desire, to reduce by a stroke of the pen the British
Empire to the dimensions of the United Kingdom,
half at least of our population would be starved —
(cheers) — and at a time when a policy of disintegra-
tion is openly preached by high authorities — (renewed
cheers) — it is well to look the consequences in the
face. No doubt the burden of this great Empire is
tremendous, and the responsibilities and the obliga-
tions which fall upon us are greater than those which
British Interests in South Africa 203
have weighed upon any other nation in the history
of the world. It is true, as was so well said by the
poet whose loss we are all deploring, that ** the weary
Titan staggers under the too vast orb of his fate."
But if we face our obligations, if we perform our
duties well and faithfully, the honour and the credit
will be proportioned to the sacrificfss that we may
make ; while the abandonment of those duties would
be as fatal to our material prosperity as it would
be discreditable to our national character and our
national honour. (Cheers.)
/
South African Affairs
Constitutional Club, London,
April 22, 1896
On April 22, 1896, Mr. Chamberlain wm entertained
by the Constitutional Club at a complimentary dinner,
presided over by the Earlqf' Kintore, G.C.M.G. Afier
referring to tlie Unionist victory at the recent General
Ekction, aiid the Government programme, Mr. Cham-
berlain proceeded to deal with Colonial ajfairs.
In my own department I gladly recognise the support
and the assistance which I have received from oppo-
nents as well as from friends in the very difficult
situation with which I have had to deal. I think you
will perhaps expect that I should say something
about that matter. You will, however, understand
that anything like an exhaustive discussion of it is
impossible at the present time. But the policy of
Her Majesty's Government is a policy about which I
venture to say there is no obscurity, and the objects
we seek are open to all the world. I think I can
make that clear to you in a few sentences.
South African Affairs 205
There are two governing factors in the South
African question : the first is that Great Britain is,
has been, and must continue to be — (loud cheers) —
the paramount Power in those regions. (Cheers.)
Our interests there are superior to those of every one
else, and I believe I speak the opinion of the nation
when I say that, at all risks and at all costs — (cheers)
— we will resist any foreign interference. (Loud and
prolonged cheers, many of the guests rising and
waving their handkerchiefs.)
That is the first condition. But the second con-
dition arises out of the peculiar situation of our
own possessions in South Africa. In South Africa
two races — the English and the Dutch — have to
live together. At the present time the Dutch are
in a majority; and it is therefore the duty of
every statesman, of every well-wisher of South
Africa, to do all in his power to maintain amicable
relations between the two races. (Cheers.) In
our own Cape Colony the Dutch are in a majority.
There are tens of thousands of Dutchmen in the
Cape Colony who are just as loyal to the Throne
and to the British connection as, let me say, our
French-Canadian fellow-subjects in the Dominion
of Canada. But, at the same time, these Dutch
fellow-subjects of ours very naturally feel that
they are of the same blood as the Dutchmen
in the two neighbouring Republics; and they
sympathise with their compatriots whenever they
think that they are subject, or are likely to be
2o6 South African Affairs
subject, to any injustice, or to the arbitrary exercise
of force.
Gentlemen, these are the two propositions which
I hope will be universally accepted : that we are, and
will remain, the paramount I^ower — (hear, hear) — and
that, at the same time, we will use every exertion,
and exhaust every means, to secure a good feeling
between the Dutch and the English. (Cheers.)
Let us apply these conditions to the situation in
the Transvaal. What are the facts ? The South
African Republic, at the present time, stands alone
among civilised nations in refusing to the majority of
its population, the majority to which it owes all its
prosperity, the commonest rights of citizenship ; and,
because it refuses those rights, this majority is subject
to injustice and to abuse. The administration is
defective. The preservation of order, the administra-
tion of the police, and the departments of State are
subject to just criticism. These are real grievances ;
they are admitted to be so by everybody who has
impartially considered the subject. The contemptuous
rejection of the reasonable claims of the majority has
been the cause of difficulties in the past, and, if it is
persisted in, it must of necessity be the cause of
further difficulties in the future.
Now, as the paramount Power, we cannot be in-
different to a state of things which involves injustice
to our own subjects, and which involves danger to
the peace of South Africa ; but, as a Dutch Govern-
ment ourselves, as well as an English Government, it
South African Affairs 207
ought to be our object, in endeavouring to secure
the redress of these grievances, to carry with us our
Dutch fellow-subjects. (Cheers.) Up to a recent
date, the sympathy of the Dutch population at the
Cape, in the Orange Free State, and even of pro-
gressive Dutchmen in the South African Republic
itself — the sympathy of all three was with the
Imperial Government and with the Uitlanders in
endeavouring to secure the redress of grievances.
(Hear, hear.) There has been a revulsion of feeling
since from causes which are well known ; but I do
not despair — in fact, I have a confident hope — that we
shall be able, in the course of no lengthened time, to
restore the situation as it was before the invasion of
the Transvaal, and to have at our backs the sympathy
and support of the majority of the Dutch population
in Africa. If we have that united opinion, it will
constitute a force which no power in Africa can
resist. (Cheers.)
That is the policy — the South African policy — of
Her Majesty's Government. (Cheers.) It requires,
believe me, the exhibition of patience as well as
of firmness. (Hear, hear.) There are some of our
friends in the Press, and soL.e hot-headed and
enthusiastic persons in the House of Commons, who
seem to imagine that a state of things which is the
result of long years of past administration can be set
right in a few days or a few weeks. I do not believe
that even a Heaven-born Minister could secure such
a result. (Laughter and " Hear, hear.") We have
2o8 South African Affairs
to look beyond the immediate present. We have to
look, not to a temporary success, but to the future of
South Africa as a whole ; and, convinced as I am
that the happiness and the well-being of all the
people of South Africa depend on the removal of the
race prejudices which have hitherto existed, I am
determined, so long as I have the honour to hold my
present position, to exhaust all the forces of per-
suasion, of argument, and of negotiation, in order to
bring about an object which I firmly believe is as
desirable in the interests of the South African
Republic itself as it is important to the peace and
welfare of the whole of South Africa. (Cheers.)
My lords and gentlemen, before sitting down I
should like to say a word or two about another
matter which naturally occupies public attention and
has caused a great deal oi public anxiety — I refer to
the rising in Matabeleland of the native tribes in
that country. Of course, it is a matter which is
entirely distinct and which must be kejit entirely
separate from the question of the Transvaal. Her
Majesty's Government are alive to the serious
character of this insurrection, and they have taken,
and are taking, every step which local experience,
local authority, local knowledge can suggest for the
purpose of repressing this revolt. At the same time
we believe that the repression of a rebellion of this
kind is a matter mainly, and, in the first instance, for
local resources. We do not intend, therefore, unless
some quite unexpected emergency should arise, to
South African Affairs 209
Bentl large detachments of the British Army to South
Africa iu order to put down the Matabeleland rising.
Experience shows that the British Army is not by
its organisation, by its system, by its economical
arrangements, the best suited for work of tliis kind ;
and we hold that it is altogether inconsistent with
the principles upon which the British Empire has
been created and maintained to employ the British
Army for such a purpose. What is the history of
the British Empire ? Upon my word, I sometimes
think there must be a degeneration of the British
character when I find people shrieking out almost in
hysterics because a rising has taken place in some
distant part of our dominions. Our Empire was
created by the enterprise and resource of pioneers,
who trusted to their own strong arms and brave
hearts, and never thought of calling for a coi'ps iVarm6c
every time they were threatened with danger from
the savages into whose regions they had penetrated.
And, bear in mind, it is not our fellow-subjects in
danger who are making this claim; it is made for
them by friends, who, very badly, as we think, repre-
sent their feelings and their interests, and who
exhibit fears to which those who are in danger are
strangers. There is no part of the world in which
this feeling of self-reliance is stronger than it is in
our South African dominions ; and, while our fellow-
subjects expect, and rightly expect, that we shall
defend them against any civilised foreign foe, I
think they will resent the imputation that they are
2IO South African Affairs
unable to take care of themselves in the presence of
a native rising. (Cheers.)
The only difficulties are the difficulties of transport
and of distance. The letters which I receive cause
me to believe that there are people who think that
troops can be sent to Matabeleland as quickly as we
send a telegraphic message. They do not know,
apparently, that it takes probably two months to go
from Capetown to Bulawayo — I do not mean by the
mail, and by day and night relays, but two months
for an organised military force. I believe, however,
that at the present moment our brave fellow-subjects
in Bulawayo are holding their own, and will hold
their own. In the meantime there are thousands of
men in South Africa who are ready and willing to go
to their assistance as fast as transport can be pro-
vided for them. (Cheers.) I ask from you, and
from the country at large, that you will show, in
the presence of difficulties and even of dangers,
which are necessary incidents in a world-wide
dominion such as ours, that calmness, that reserve,
which are evidence of conscious strength, and which
I believe we rightly consider as among the best
characteristics of the British race. (Prolonged
cheers.)
The Progress of South
Africa
South African Dinner, London,
May 21, 1896
On May ^1, 1896, Mr. Chambeiiain presided at the
South African Dinner which was held in the White-
hall Rooms, Hotel Metropole. The gathering is an
annual one of gentlemen connected zvith South Africa,
ami this year, in consequence of recent events, more than
usual interest was taken in the reunion. The morn-
ing newspapers of this date contained hiformation of
the commutation oftlie death sentence which had been
parsed on four of the Johannesburg Reform leaders,
and the imposition cf terms of imjmsonment andjines
on tJiem and their fellow-prisoners which were con-
sidered to he altogether excesmve. Mr. Chamberlain,
on rising to propose " Prosperity to South Africa,''''
was 7'ece'ived with loud and prolonged cJieering.
My Lords and Gentlemen, — I have now to propose
to you what is called the toast of the evening, " Pros-
212 The Progress of South Africa
perity to South Africa." (Hear, hear.) I believe
that this task has fallen on several cocasions to my
predecessors in the office that I now hold, and I con-
fess that I am inclined to envy those who spoke under
happier circumstances, and probably with less re-
straint and reserve than I think is indicated for me
under present circumstances. (Hear, hear.) When
I accepted the invitation of your committee some
months ago the position was one of considerable
anxiety ; but, at the same time, I hoped that long
before this banquet the clouds might have rolled
away, and South Africa be once more basking in the
sunshine of its extraordinary prosperity. (Hear, hear.)
Unfortunately this is not the case. The causes of
discontent and of unrest in South Africa still remain,
and very little progress, I am sorry to say, has been
made towards that reconciliation of the two great
races, the Dutch and the English, which I am assured
is felt to be of as great importance in Pretoria as it is
known to be in London. (Cheers.)
I cannot pretend that I regard the information
which was published in the papers this morning as
entirely satisfactory. (Loud cheers.) I fear that it
may not tend to the speedy realisation of our objects.
I regret it, and I confess that I am the more dis-
appointed because I have expressed my belief in the
magnanimity of President Kruger. (Hear, hear.)
I have believed that with him " the quality of mercy
wap not strained," and that he would be the last per-
son to be animated by anything like vindictive feel-
The Progress of South Africa 213
ing towards the men, who, whatever mistakes they
may have committed — and we all think that they
have committed grievous errors — (hear, hear) — are
nevertheless the men who have created, by their
energy and their enterprise, the prosperity of the
State over which the President presides. (Cheers.)
You will understand that I do not think c.-at this
is the time or the occasion for public discussion of
the present situation. (Hear, hear.) There is the
less necessity for that, because, at all events, the
policy of Her Majesty's Government has been clearly
and definitely expressed, ai;id will not be changed.
(Prolonged cheers.) We intend strictly to fulfil our
legal obligations (Hear, hear.) We intend also
strictly to maintain our legal rights. (Cheers and
" Bravo.") We do not at all abandon the hope that
we may be able to do something to bring together the
two races that have been temporarily separated by
recent events, and to secure a complete and satisfac-
tory understanding; but I cannot conceal from
myself that the prosperity of South Africa depends
to-day less upon its marvellous natural resources,
upon its agriculture, and its mining industry, than it
does upon the statesmanship, the wisdom, and the
moderation of the men who are mainly responsible for
its political destinies. (Cheers.)
Gentlemen, political disturbances are not the only
misfortune which we have had to regret recently in
connection with South Africa, We have to lament
that aggravated outbreak of rinderpest, which is
214 T^G Progress of South Africa
really a most serious event, threatening the prosperity
of large districts, especially those inhabited by our
native allies and subjects ; and we have also to regret
the rising in Rhodesia, which I cannot help thinking
was connected with the slaughter of the cattle which
took place in consequence of the outbreak of disease.
As regards the first of these two misfortunes, the
Government are doing what they can to prevent the
worst results. We have given authority to take any
steps which may be necessary to preserve the people
who are suffering from starvation, and, if possible, to
give them the opportuni|;iy of employment, and you
may rest assured that this matter will be most care-
fully watched during the next few months.
As regards the rising in Rhodesia, I think we may
congratulate ourselves that this outbreak, in resisting
which I know the Dutch and the English, forgetting
all their differences, have been fighting side by side
with equal bravery — (cheers) — I say that we may
congratulate ourselves that this outbreak has been
successfully suppressed ; for, indeed, I think we may
feel assured that the back of the rebellion has been
broken ; and, although there has been a lamentable
loss of life and a great loss of property, still it is some
compensation to us to find that the »ettlers in that
remote region, left as they have been to their own
resources, without any organised military force, and
without the hope of succour for many weeks, have
risen to the occasion, and have, without assistance,
dealt with the matter with signal success. (Cheers.)
The Progress of South Africa 2 1 5
We shall not forget in this connection the names of
Clifford, of Duncan, of Selous, of Napier — (cheers) —
and of all the others who have accepted the respon-
sibility, and have behaved as Englishmen always do
under similar circumstances, who have justified our
faith in our fellow countrymen whenever they are
exposed to danger and peril, and are thrown in this
way upon their own resources. (Cheers.)
I think now that we may hope that peace will
speedily be restored, and that then the active develop-
ment of the country may once more proceed. (Hear,
hear.) What has happened in the past in this vast
new territory is sufficiently striking. Twenty years
ago — I might almost say ten years ago — the country
was practically unknown. It was known only to be
inhabited by a savage tribe, and to be governed by a
cruel and barbarous ruler, and it seemed to be entirely
removed from civilisation ; and yet now Bulawayo is
in daily and hourly communication by telegraph with
London. The capital has its churches, its chapels,
its schools^ its banks, its clubs, and, of course, its
newspapers — (cheers) — and all the incidents of a
great and organised community. (Hear, hear.) In
a very short time two great main lines of railway
will connect it, one with Capetown and the other
with Beira ; and really Bulawayo and Salisbury will
be as near to us as Scotland, for instance, was to our
ancestors. Well, this is a wonderful result, anu now
that naturally so much ill is thought and so much ill
is spoken of chartered companies, I think we ought
2i6 The Progress of South Africa
in common fairness to remember to their credit this
extraordinary proof of their energy and enterprise.
(Cheers.)
My lords and gentlemen, on occasions of this kind
it is, I believe, customary to quote an encyclopedia of
statistics. I cannot help thinking that it is a prac-
tice which is more honoured in the breach than the
observance. (Hear, hear, and laughter.) Statistics
have always seemed to me to be a somewhat indi-
gestible dessert to a good dinner — (laughter) — but,
although I will not trouble you with many figures, I
will call your attention to one or two facts which,
after all, are based upon figures. I find, for instance,
that in the last ten years, between 1884 and 1894,
which is the last period for which I have the oflficial
statistics, that the trade — the export and import
trade — of Cape Colony has a great deal more than
doubled — (cheers) — while the export and import
trade of Natal has increased by over one-third;
and this progress is still going on. (Renewed
cheers.) I think there are very few markets, espe-
cially the large markets, of which anything like that
increase can at the present time be predicated. (Hear,
hear.) I find that in 1 894 the total imports of South
Africa were over fourteen millions sterling, which, of
course, is no small fraction of the total of our export
trade, and to this, also, I desire to call your attention.
Of the fourteen millions, more than twelve millions
come from the United Kingdom and from the British
possessions. (Cheers.) . :" "^ .
The Progress of South Africa 217
Gentlemen, I do not think that we grudge our
foreign competitors the two millions which remain
to them — (laughter and cheers) — and I do not think
that the progress of this colony, or of any of the
great dominions of the Crown, ought to excite their
jealousy and their hostility. What they sometimes
seem to forget is that every colony of the British
Empire, and every new countiy which is brought
under civilisation and under the British flag, are open
to them, and open to all foreigners, just as freely,
and with as little restriction, as they are to our own
subjects. (Cheers.) Is there any one of them that
can say the same ? (No.) Under these circumstances
I confess I cannot understand the feeling with which
the spread of British influence is in some quarters
regarded, because I maintain that the spread of
British influence is a gain not merely to Great Britain,
but to the whole of the civilised world. (Cheers.)
In any case, gentlemen, whatever may be the diffi-
culties, and even the dangers of the present, I have not
lost confidence in the future. (Cheers.) I believe in
the determination of the people of this country to
maintain at all risks that position which they have
earned with so a great an expenditure of blood and
treasure. (Cheers.) At the same time, I believe in
their desire to stand well with all men, and to adopt
a conciliatory policy, especially with regard to our
Dutch fellow-subjects. (Cheers.) I have received
this morning a copy of an address *^^o Sir Hercules
Kobinson on the day, I think, that he left Capetown,
2i8 The Progress of South Africa
from which I will venture to read you a passage or
two. It is signed by sixty-five members of the Cape
Parliament, all of whom are either Africanders or
represent Africander constituencies; and after
acknowledging, as they deserve, and in the highest
terms, the services which Sir Hercules Robinson has
recently rendered to South Africa and the empire —
(hear, hear) — they go on to say : ** It would be super-
fluous to give your Excellency the assurance that
there need be no apprehension whatever on the part
of Her Majesty's Government of any spirit of hostility
in the minds of ourselves, the Africander people,
against England. If South Africa be left to work
out its own destiny, we feel convinced that such a
course must at no distant date result in the complete
restoration of the good understanding between the
great European races who have adopted Africa as
their home, which to a marked extent was disturbed
by recent lamentable events. We would further
avail ourselves of your Excellency's visit to England
to request you to kindly inform the Secretary of
State for the Colonies that, while we are convinced
that he will continue to guard the interests of the
empire in South Africa, and to uphold the reputation
of British statesmen for high-mindedness and fear-
lessness in the execution of their duty without regard
to persons or classes, we at the same time humbly
hope that he will with unabated energy continue to
resist all efforts which may be made to induce Her
Majesty's Government to depart from that policy of
The Progress of South Africa 219
moderation and conciliation which can alone secure
the real progress and true happiness of South Africa
and its people." (Cheers.)
Gentlemen, those are wise and moderate and
patriotic words. I do not doubt that the great
majority, at any rate, of the people of this country
are impressed by similar sentiments. (Hear, hear.)
We must have patience — we can afford to wait.
(Hear, hear.) Time is on our side, and I do not
doubt that its healing hand will close the wounds
that have been so brutally opened, and will remove
all the obstacles in the way of the prosperity of
South Africa.
Our Rights and Obligations
in South Africa
Cafe Monico, London, March 27, 1897
On March ^7, 1897, Sir Alfred Mihier, Governor-
Designate of the Cape Colony and High Commissioner
Jor South Africa, was entertained by his Jriends ^at a
farewell dinner at tlie Cafe Monico. In proposing
the health of the chairman {Mr. Asquith), the Secre-
tary of State for the Colonies said : —
My Lords and Gentlemen, — I have been permitted
to propose to you the next toast, the only other toast
upon our list this evening. It is, of course, the
health of our chairman, Mr. Asquith. (Cheers.) I
cannot doubt that it has been to him a great pleasure
to preside over such a meeting as this, the like of
which, I believe, could not have been held in any
other country, and which, as he has told us, is, even
in our own, exceptional in its character and its
composition. (Hear, hear.) We fight our political
battles in this country with great energy, and some-
Our Rights and Obligations, ^c. 221
times, perhaps, with too much vehemence ; but,
fortunately, there is a large space in the field of
politics, and a still greater space in our social life,
which is altogether free from any taint of party
bitterness. Foreigners tell me that what has struck
them most in their experience of this country is the
fact that political opponents, even in the midst of the
bitterest controversy, can still remain firm personal
friends.
To-night we have an example of what I have been
saying. Here are all shades of opinion, animated, for
this occasion at any rate, by a common sentiment ;
and I think that Sir Alfred Milner may well be
proud, as he has told us he is proud, to go to the
most diflBcult task to which the command of the
Queen has called him, and to which, I may say, he
has also been called by the almost unanimous opinion
of his fellow citizens, with the assurance of the
hearty good-will of all sections of his fellow country-
men. (Cheers.) I am to be asked shortly in the
House of Commons to lay upon the table such
written instructions as I may have given to Sir
Alfred Milner. (Laughter.) I will not anticipate
the secrets which I may have to disclose in answer to
that novel request — (more laughter) — but I am con-
fident that, independently of all instructions, Sir
Alfred Milner has imposed upon himself, and carries
within his breast, the duty of maintaining the rights,
the interests, the obligations, and the honour of
Great Britain. (Cheers.)
222 Our Rights and Obligations
He goes, as I have said, to the performance of a
difficult task. We will not condole with him ; for a
man of resolution, of resource, and of ability, finds
his best opportunities in tlie difficulties which he has
to encounter. Although the situation which is present
to our minds is not free from anjjiety, or even from
danger, yet I am sanguine enough to believe that the
problem before us, and before Sir Alfred Milner, is
not an insolvable problem. For what is it ? It is to
reconcile, and to persuade to live together in peace
and goodwill, two races whose common interests are
immeasurably greater than any differences which may
unfortunately exist. (Cheers.)
This is a question which has been presented more
than once in the history of this country. Sir Alfred
Milner has alluded to the case of Canada. In
Canada, in some of the West Indian islands, and in
the Mauritius, we have seen the question solved in
the most satisfactory manner, and the Queen has no
more loyal subjects than the French population in the
Dominion of Canada, and in the islands to which I
have referred. (Cheers.)
In South Africa, at first sight, at all events, it
would appear that the question is encompassed with
even fewer difficulties than those which have arisen
in other parts of the world ; for here the differences
of manners, of customs, of blood, and, what is, perhaps,
more serious than all, of religion, are much less than
in the cases which I have recalled. I say, then, under
these circumstances, we have reason to hope. In the
in South Africa 223
Cape Colony, in Natal, and in the Orange Free State,
we find that these differf-nces have been no bar to
Bocial intercourse, to intermarriage, and to co-opera-
tion in all good work. On many occasions, and
notably in the case of the recent insurrection in
Khodesia, the burgher of the Transvaal and the
British citizen have fought side by side, and shed
their blood upon tht, same field, in the same cause
and against the same foe. (Cheers.)
In these circumstances, what has been proved to be
possible in so many cases must surely be possible in
all. As we, on our part, are ready, at all times, to
extend to our Dutch fellow-subjects, with open hands,
all the privileges which we enjoy ourselves, and, as we
have shown again and again by our declarations and
by our actions, that we have no intention and no desire
to interfere with the independence of neighbouring
States, we may entertain the hope that the Govern-
ment of the Transvaal will come to see that it is its
duty to fulfil to the letter the obligations which it has
voluntarily assumed in connection with the London
Convention, and that it will, in time, extend the hand
of fellowship to the large number of foreigners who
have contributed so largely to the success and to the
prosperity of the State. (Cheers.)
There is, however, one other condition which has
to be fulfilled. I mistake very much the mind of my
countrymen if they are not, at this moment, deter-
mined to support the present Government, or any
Government which may be in its place, in maintain-
224 ^"^ Rights and Obligations
ing in their integrity the rights which we have under
the Convention, and our position as the paramount
Power i . South Africa. (Loud cheers.) It may be
true, as we have recently had it suggested to us, that
there are eminent persons in South Africa who have
aspirations for an independent federation of States,
in which Dutch influence would be predominant, and
which would look for sympathy and support rather
to the Continent of Europe than to this country. If
such an aspiration exists, in my opinion it is incom-
patible with the highest British interests — (cheers) —
it is incompatible with our position at the Cape
itself, one of the most important strategic points in
the Empire, the possession of which is absolutely
necessary to us as a great Eastern Power. (Renewed
cheers.) It is an aspiration which cannot be accepted
by the people of this country, and until it is frankly
abandoned there cannot be a final and satisfactory
settlement. (Cheers.) But, short of this, we are
ready now and at all times to give the fullest and
most favourable consideration to the wishes and
sentiments, even to the prejudices of all parties in
South Africa, and to co-operate with them in all
measures for the good of the whole community.
My Lords and Gentlemen, — I know that I have
wandered from the subject of the toast. It is a habit
contracted in the House of Commons — (laughter) —
but I am quite sure that you will to-night gladly
recognise the ability with which Mr. Asquith has
presided over these proceedings, and the grace with
in South Africa 225
which he has proposed the toast of the evening, and
has expressed our sentiments towards our distin-
guished guest. We are met here united by the
common desire to do that guest honour, and it would
be altogether out of place if I were to dwell upon the
differences which separate us elsewhere ; but this, at
least, I may say, that while we know that any party
is fully justified in regarding Mr. Asquith as a most
brilliant and powerful leader, we, his opponents, are
also glad to recognise in him an honourable, although
a formidable, foe. (Cheers.) We all, to whatever
party we belong, rejoice in the position which he hat?
achieved for himself, and which his attainments and
character fully deserve. (Cheers.)
Imperial Policy
A Year's Work
Birmingham, January 30, 1897
Mr. Chamberlain attended the ninth annual dinner of
the Birmingham Jewellers^ and Silversmiths' Associa-
tion, on January 30, 1897, and responded to tfw toast
of " Her Majesty's Ministers.''''
On behalf of my colleagues and of myself, I thank you
for the way in which you have received the toast
which has been so sympathetically proposed by my
friend Mr. Lord. I have often attended your gather-
ings — ("Hear, hear," and applause) — since this
association was first formed. I begin to think that
you may consider that it is degenerating into a habit
— (laughter) — but the fact is that I look upon this
annual banquet as an institution which I should
greatly regret to miss, since it gives mo the oppor-
tunity, not only to exchange greetings with my
friendis and constituents, but also of saying some-
thing upon the political situation, in which we all
have a common interest. (Applause.) I do not
know that it adds to the interest of what I have to
230 A Year's Work
say that upon such occasions as this I am not
tempted to make a party speech. I address those
who differ from me in politics as well as those who
agree, and I am led into that portion of the political
field which is common irround for the moderate men
of all parties. (Hear, hear.) I think I may, how-
ever, be justified in the belief, after your cordial
reception of the toast, that you consider that Her
Majesty's present Ministers are earnestly desirous of
upholding the honour and the interests of this
country — (applause) — and that these have not suf-
fered in our hands. (Hear, hear.)
Mr. Lord referred to the twelve months that have
past since I last addressed you. As he says, it has
been a time of great anxiety, and even danger.
There have been on more than one occasion periods
when a false step might have led to a collision, and
might have brought this country into a conflict the
issue of which no man could foresee. It is something
to be able to say that the danger, if it has not entirely
disappeared, has at all events receded, and that the
result has been accomplished without any loss of our
proper influence, and without any derogation of the
great primary objects which the Government and
which the country have had in view. (Applause.) Mr.
Lord has referred in feeding terms to the universal
sentiment which was aroused in this country on the
occasion of the massacres of Christians in the Turkish
Empire. Lord Salisbury, by his patience, his firm-
ness, his resolution, has convinced the Powers of
A Year's Work 231
Europe — always, I am sorry to say, inclined to sus-
picion where England is concerned — lie has convinced
them of our disinterested desire for peace, and at the
same time of our determination, as far as our power
and our influence extend, that the misgovernment of
which we complain, and which has been a scandal to
Europe, shall be brought to an end. (Applause.)
It is difficult to be sanguine of the future in a case
like this, where there are so many conflicting inter-
ests ; but I think that we may now entertain some-
thing like a sanguine hope that the concert of
Europe has been re-established, and that it will be
effective to prevent the recurrence of anything like
those outrages which have shocked the conscience of
the civilised world. (Cheers.)
Mr. Lord referred to another matter, which is one
for unmitigated congratulation. That cloud of which
I remember speaking when I last addressed you,
which overshadowed our relations with the United
States of America, has been dispelled — (cheers) —
dispelled by mutual concessions which are honourable
alike to the statesmen of both these great countries ;
and now, for the first time in the history of the world,
a treaty of arbitration has been signed between two
great Powers, each of them proud, each of them
sensitive, each of them properly confident in their
own strength and resources — (hear, hear) — by which
it is sought at any rate to make war in future abso-
lutely impossible between them. (Loud cheering.)
Gentlemen, that is an achievement worthy of the
232 A Year's Work
Jubilee of the Queen ! (Cheers.) For while I believe
that we all desire to be on the best terms with all the
Powers, it is something more than a desire, it is
almost a religion, with us to preserve constantly
feelings and relations of the most friendly and cordial
character with our kinsmen on the other side of the
Atlantic. (Cheers.) It is not for me to predict the
fate of that treaty. I do not know what course may
be taken by that distinguished body, the Senate of
the United States, in whose hands its confirmation
rests. I have had some experience. Nine years ago
I was myself instrumental in making a treaty by
which the then Government of President Cleveland,
and the then Government of Lord Salisbury, agreed
upon terms by which a long-standing fishery dispute
was settled. (Cheers.) But that treaty, as you know,
was rejected by the then Senate of the United States.
But, although the treaty was rejected, the negotiations
were not fruitless, for the modus vivcndi which accom-
panied that treaty, which was intende^d only to occupy
a temporary place until the treaty was ratified, has
since been renewed again and again, so that the
quarrel, which at one time threatened to embitter our
relations, has been allowed peacefully to slumber ever
since. (Cheers.) And so I am encouraged to believe
that even if the Senate should reject this latest
treaty, which I hope they will not do — (hear, hear) —
still these negotiations also will have their effect, and
the common sense, and the sense of justice, and the
Christian sentiment of the people of the United
A Yearns Work 233
States will support that efiPoi't for peace which we, at
all events, have shown our earnest desire to maintain.
(Cheers.)
Sir, there is another event which has taken place
in the past twelve months, and to which I refer with
satisfaction. I allude to the brilliantly led, and the
splendidly successful, expedition to Dongola — (cheers)
— by which a great fertile province has been rescued
from a barbarous tyranny, and has been restored to
prosperity and to civilisation. That is something of
which we as a country may be proud, in spite of the
sneers of our foreign critics — (cheers) — and I hope
that this policy, which I believe has the support of
the vast majority of Englishmen, may be carried to
its legitimate conclusion — (cheers) — and that before
very long we may see the tyranny of the Khalifa
destroyed, and the security of Egypt established by
giving to that country the practical and substantial
control of the great river upon which its existence
depends. (Cheers.) We have heard much of the
moral obligations of this country in regard to
Armenia. We have been told that it was our duty
to protect this unfortunate population. There is a
school amongst us — not, indeed, a very numerous or
a very influential one — which calls itself the " For-
ward Party," and which is, in my opinion, so retro-
grade in its policy that it would carry us back to a
period of universal war in pursuit of its views and its
theories ; but I am ready to go so far with them as to
admit the existence of this moral obligation, although
2 34 A Year's Work
I must add that it is limited by our power and by
our resources, and by the probability of useful inter-
ference. (Hear, hear.) But we have a moral obliga-
tion which is equally incumbent upon us in regard to
the Soudan, and that is an obligation which is well
within our power and our resources. (Hear, hear.)
We have an opportunity, if we seize it, which comes
seldom to any civilised nation, of reducing in an
almost incalculable degi'ee the sum of human misery
and human suffering in the world. (Cheers.) I do
not believe that the Government will be backward in
fulfilling this obligation, and I do not believe that
our countrymen will be backward in their support.
(Cheers.)
I say, then, that the three events to which I have
referred — the establishment of the concert of Europe
in order to put an end to misgovernment in Turkey ;
the treaty of peace and arbitration with the United
States; and the expedition to Dongola — form alto-
gether a record of which no Government need be
ashamed ; and I admit I was a little surprised,
although, I perhaps more than most people, should
make allowance for election speeches — (laughter) —
because I have made more than most people — (re-
newed laughter) — I was a little surprised to find that
a very distinguished friend of mine — Mr. John
Morley — the other day took a general view of what
he called the political drama, and found every-
thing bad — everything without a redeeming feature.
(Laughter.) Now, speaking in that spirit which I
A Year's Work 235
desire to preserve on such an occasion as this, and
speaking to reasonable men, does not that appear to
be rather a dyspeptic view of affairs? (Laughter.)
I dare say that Mr. Morley was thinking chiefly of
our domestic controversies ; and, if I might venture
to say so, I would add that this is a mistake which
the leaders of the lladical party are constantly
making. They forget, in the attention which they
give to these domestic controversies, which, after all,
whichever way they are settled, are of minor import-
ance — they forget the great part which the country
has played, and is called upon to play, in the history
of the world. I say that this is the fatal mistake
which alienates from men, otherwise influential and
worthy of admiration, the sympathies of the great
masses of their countrymen. (Hear, hear.) Because,
let the little Englanders say what they like, we are a
great governing race, predestined by our defects, as
well as by our virtues, to spread over the habitable
globe, and to enter into relations with all the countries
of the earth. Our trade, the employment of our
people, our very existence, depend upon it. We cannot
occupy an insular position, and we cannot occupy
ourselves entirely with domestic matters — (hear, hear)
— and therefore foreign affairs and colonial affairs
will continue, as long as our country exists, to be the
greatest and the pre-eminent interest to the people of
the United Kingdom. (Applause.)
236 A Year's Work
A/ler (kaliufr with varhu.s fjiu'-ttiom of domestic
policy, Mr. Chamberlain proceeded as Jollowa :
I do not want to make any invidious comparisons,
but is there any Government of recent time— the late
Government for instance — which has done so much in
so short a time ? I put this before you in all humility,
but at the same time with a certain inner conscious-
ness that when the balance is struck it will be on the
right side. (Hear, hear.) But whatever may be the
opinion formed of our policy and of our programme,
there is one thing which must not be left out of view.
What is the alternative ? It is not enough to criti-
cise ; it is not enough to destroy. You must be
prepared to offer a substitute for the policy which you
condemn ; you must be able to construct a programme
of your own. Now it seems to me that the policy of
the Opposition would be to leave undone all those
things which we have done, or proposed to do, and to
do many things which we have not the slightest in-
tention of doing. They would, for instance — and I
am taking my opinion entirely from their own
speeches — they would abandon Cyprus, which we
intend to develop and to make a prosperous possession
of this country. (Applause.) They would retire
from Egypt, which we intend to restore and make
secure. (Applause.) They would cut down our
Imperial dominion in proportion to tae smallness of
our army. We propose to increase our army in
proportion to the greatness of our empire. (Cheers.)
A Year's Work 237
They would destroy the union of the United King-
dom, which we are pledged to maintain — (hear, hear)
— and I gather that they would lay additional taxa-
tion upon the people of England to the extent of two
millions and a half per annum, in order to start
Ireland fairly as an independent country — as what
they call a separate entity. Gentlemen, if these be
the two policies, and I think I have stated them
fairly — I am perfectly content to leave the choice to
you and to the people of the United Kingdom.
Now, before I sit down, there is one other matter
which is connected indirectly, at any rate — directly,
I think I may say — with my own department.
(Applause.) The present year is the sixtieth year of
the reign of the Queen — (applause) — and you will
agree with me that the date marks an absolutely
unparalleled chapter in the history of our country.
(Hear, hear.) No monarch in England has reigned
so long; no monarch has reigned s*^ well and so
wisely. (Loud applause.) None have enjoyed so
continuously and so rncreasingly the love and the
respect of their subjects. In no previous reign has
there been such progress, especially in all that con-
duces to the prosperity and the happiness of the
masses of the population. (Hear, hear.) In no
period of like extent has there ever been so great an
extension of this empire of ours. Gentlemen, a
commemoration of a reign so remarkable should
surely be exceptional also. (Hear, hear.) We have
had commemorations, we have had loyal demonstra-
238 A Year's Work
tions on previous occasions. On previous occasions,
as no doubt now, representatives of foreign countries
have come here to testify to the feeling of respect
which is entertained for the personal qualities of our
Queen. Our great dependency of India on previous
occasions, and again now, will give evidence of the
loyalty of its population to the Empress, who has
always shown such a marked interest in their welfare
and happiness. But those things have happened
before. But what has not happened before, what
has neve:: happened in the history of this country,
has been to secure a personal representation of the
empire as a whole — (applause) — of that great empire
with its more than eleven millions of square miles of
territory, with its three hundred and fifty millions of
people, with their different religions, their different
constitutions, their separate manners and customs,
all united solely by the bond of allegiance to the
Queen of these realms. (Applause.)
You will have seen, gentlemen, the proposal that
has been made, and is being carried out, to secure
such a demonstration, and that an invitation has
been addressed to the Prime Ministers of all the self-
governing colonies of the empire to come to England
and to take part in this unique ceremonial. I have
every reason, from the replies I have already received,
to believe that the invitation has been gratifying to
the colonies, and that it will be received in the spirit
in which it has been tendered. These gentlemen will
come here as the guests of the nation. (Applause.)
A Year's Work 239
And who are they ? They are the rulers of kingdoms,
almost all of which are manifold larger than the
United Kingdom itself, and all of them inhabited by
considerable populations, that are destined to become
at no distant date great nations, animated, as I hope
and believe, by affection and regard for the great
motherland that has given them birth, and that has
instilled into their hearts those sentiments of equal
justice and ordered liberty which have hitherto
accompanied their progress as independent and self-
governing States. (Applause.) Gentlemen, I hope
that we shall have the opportunity, not merely in
London, but in our great provincial centres — (hear,
hear) — of welcoming these rulers of States beyond
the sea, these men who, under the Queen, are the
constitutional heads of the communities, which, by
a fr9« choice, have selected them to preside over
the destinies of these provinces of a great empire.
We shall have them ; we shall have at the same time
a representation of the great Crown colonies, with
their infinite variety of climate and of production ;
and in this way we shall secure a demonstration that
00 other country can make — (cheers) — a demonstra-
tion of power, of influence, and of beneficent work,
which will be a fitting tribute to the best and the
most revered of English Sovereigns. (Cheers.)
It is my belief that great good will result from this
gathering, that a meeting between those who repre-
sent in so marked a degree the interests of the great
colonies and the members of Her Majesty's Govern-
240 A Year's Work
ment, will lead to an interchange of ideas about
matters of common and material interest, about
closer commercial union — (hear, hear) — about the
representation of the colonies, about common defence,
about legislation, about other questions of equal im-
portance, which cannot but be productive of the best
results. (Hear, hear.)
But, after all, this is the great motive which
influences the Government. We want to show to
these gentlemen, we want to show to the colonies
that they worthily represent, that the days of
apathy and indifiEerence have long ago passed away.
(Cheers.) We want to prove to them that we are as
proud of them as we believe that they are proud of
us. (Cheers.) We want to show them that we have
confidence in their future, and hope in their closer
union with ourselves, so that in the time to come the
British Empire, founded upon freedom, buttressed by
the affection of its several members, fortified by
mutual interest, shall stand impregnable and un-
assailable " four-square to all the winds that blow."
(Loud and prolonged cheering, amid which the right
honourable gentleman resumed his seat.)
The True Conception of
Empire
Royal Colonial Institute Dinner,
March 31, 1897
The Jolloxoinff speech zcas delivered on March ol,
1897, at the Hotel Metropok\ when Mr. Chamberlain
presided at the annual dinner oj' the Royal Colonial
Institute : —
I HAVE now the honour to propose to you the toast
of "Prosperity to the Royal Colonial Institute."
(Cheers.) The Institute was founded in 1868, almost
exactly a generation ago, and I confess that I admire
the faith of its promoterg, who, in a time not alto-
gether favourable to their opinions, sowed the seeds
of Imperial patriotism — (hear, hear) — although they
must have known that few of them could live to
gather the fruit and to reap the harvest. (Cheers.)
But their faith has been justified by the result of
their labours, and their foresight must be recognised
in the light of car present experience.
Q
242 The True Conception of Empire
It seems to me that there are three distinct stages
in our Imperial history. We began to be, and we
ultimately became, a great Imperial Power in the
/'eighteenth century, but, during the greater part of
that time, the colonies were regarded, not only by us,
but by every European Power that possessed them,
as possessions valuable in proportion to the pecuniary
advantage which they brought to the mother country,
which, under that order of ideas, was not truly a
mother at all, but appeared rather in the light of a
grasping and absentee landlord desiring to take from
his tenants the utmost rents he could exact. The
colonies were valued and maintained because it was
thought that they would be a source of profit — of
direct profit — to the mother country.
That was the first stage, and when we were rudely
awakened by the War of Independence in America
from this dream, that the colonies could be held for
our profit alone, the second chapter was entered
upon, and public opinion seems then to have drifted
to the opposite extreme ; and, because the colonies
were no longer a source of revenue, it seems to have
been believed and argued by many people that thair
separation from us was only a matter of time, and
that that separation should be desired and encouraged
lest haply they might prove an encumbrance and a
source of weakness.
It was while those views were still entertained,
while the little Englanders — (laughter) — were in their
full career, that this Institute was founded to protest
The True Conception of Empire 243
against doctrines so injurious to our interests —
(cheers) — and so derogatory to our honour ; and I
rejoice that what was then, as it were, " a voice crying
in the wilderness " is now the expressed and deter-
mined will of the overwhelming majority of the British
people. (Loud cheers.) Partly by the efforts of
this Institute and similar organisations, partly by the
writings of such men as Froude and Seeley — (hear,
hear) — but mainly by the instinctive good sense and
patriotism of the people at large, we have now reached
the third stage in our history, and the true con-
ception of our Empire. (Cheers.)
What is that conception ? As regards the self-
governing colonies we no longer talk of them as
dependencies. The sense of possession has given
place to the sentiment of kinship. We think and
speak of them as part of ourselves — (cheers) — as part
of the British Empire, united to us, although they
may be dispersed throughout the world, by ties of
kindred, of religion, of history, and of language, and
joined to us by the seas that formerly seemed to
divide us. (Cheers.)
But the British Empire is not confined to the self-
governing colonies and the United Kingdom. It
includes a much greater area, a much more numerous
population in tropical climes, where no considerable
European settlement is possible, and where the native
population must always vastly outnumber the white
inhabitants ; and in these cases also the same change
has come over the Imperial idea. Here also the
244 The True Conception of Empire
sense of possession has given place to a different
*/^ sentiment — the sense of obligation. fWe feel now
that our rule over these territories can only be justified
if we can show that it adds to the happiness and
prosperity of tLe people — (cheers) — and I maintain
that our rule does, and has, brought security and
peace and comparative prosperity to countries that
never knew these blessings before. (Cheers.)
In carrying out this work of civilisation we are
fulfilling what I believe to be our national mission,
and we are finding scope for the exercise of those
faculties and qualities which have made of us a great
governing race. (Cheers.) I do not say that our
success has been perfect in every case, I do not say
that all our methods have been beyond reproach ; put I
do say that in almost every instance in which the rule
of the Queen has been established and the great Pax
Britannica has been enforced, there has come with it
\ greater security to life and property, and a material
^ improvement in the condition of the bulk of the
populationj (Cheers.) No doubt, in the first instance,
when these conquests have been made, there has been
bloodshed, there has been loss of life among the
native populations, loss of still more precious lives
among those who have been sent out to bring these
countries into some kind of disciplined order, but it
must be remembered that that is the condition of the
mission we have to fulfil. There are, of course,
among us — there always are among us, I think — a
very small minority of men who are ready to be the
The True Conception of Empire 245
advocates of the most detestable tyrants, provided
their skin is black — men who sympathise with the
sorrows of Prempeh and Lobengula, and who de-
nounce as murderers those of their countrymen who
have gone forth at the command of the Queen, and
who have redeemed districts as large as Europe from
the barbarism and the superstition in which they had
been steeped for centuries. I remember a picture by
Mr. Selous of a philanthropist — an imaginary philan-
thropist, I will hope — sitting cosily by his fireside
and denouncing the methods by which British civili-
sation was promoted. This philanthropist complained
of the use of Maxim guns and other instruments of
warfare, and asked why we could not proceed by
more conciliatory methods, and why the impis of
Lobengula could not be brought before a magistrate,
fined five shillings, and bound over to keep the peace.
(Loud laughter.)
No doubt there is humorous exaggeration in this
picture, but there is gross exaggeration in the frame
of mind against which it was directed. You cannot
have omelettes without breaking eggs; you cannot
destroy the practices of barbarism, of slavery, of
superstition, which for centuries have desolated the
interior of Africa, without the use of force ; but if
you will fairly contrast the gain to humanity with
the price which we are bound to pay for it, I think
you may well rejoice in the result of such expeditions
OS those wnich have recently been conducted with such
signal success — (cheers) — in Nyassaland, Ashanti,
246 The True Conception of Empire
Benin, and Nup6 — expeditions which may have, and
indeed have, cost valuable lives, but as to which we
may rest assured that for one life lost a hundred will be
gained, and the cause of civilisation and the prosperity
of the people will in the long run be eminently ad-
vanced. (Cheers.) But no doubt such a state of things,
such a mission as I have described, involve heavy
responsibility. In the wide dominions of the Queen the
doors of the temple of Janus are never closed — (hear,
hear) — and it is a gigantic task that we have under-
v* taken when we have determined to wield the sceptre
of empire. Great is the task, great is the responsi-
t bility, but great is the honour — (cheers) ; and I am
convinced that the conscience and the spirit of the
countr)'^ will rise to the height of its obligations, and
that we shall have the strength to fulfil the mission
-i which our history and our national character have
imposed upon us. (Cheers.)
In regard to the self-governing colonies our task is
much lighter. We have undertaken, it is true, to pro-
tect them with all the strength at our command against
foreign aggression, although I hope that the need
for our intervention may never arise. (Hear, hear.)
But there remains what then will be our chief duty
— that is, to give effect to that sentiment of kinship
to which I have referred and which I believe is deep
in the heart of every Briton. We want to promote
, a closer and a firmer union between all members of
the great British race, and in this respect we have in
recent yeare made great progress — so great that I
The True Conception of Empire 247
think sometimes some of our friends are apt to be a
little hasty, and to expect even a miracle to be accom-
plished. 1 would like to ask them to remember that
time and patience are essential elements in the de-
velopment of all great ideas. (Cheers.) Let us,
gentlemen, keep our ideal always before us. For my •
own part, I believe in the practical possibility of a *
federation of the British race — (loud cheers) — but I
know that it will come, if it does come, not by pres-
sure, not by anything in the nature of dictation from
this country, but it will come as the realisation of a
universal desire, as the expression of the dearest wish
of our colonial fellow-subjects themselves. (Hear,
'tv^rir. J
That such a result would be desirable, would be in
the interest of all of our colonies as well as of our-
selves, I do not believe any sensible man will doubt.
It seems to me that the tendency of the time is to
throw all power into the hands of the greater Empires,
and the minor kingdoms — those which are non-pro-
gressive — seem to be destined to fall into a secondary
and subordinate place. But, if Greater Britain
remains united, no empire in the world can ever sur- )
pass it in area, in population, in wealth, or in the *
diversity of its resources. (Cheers.)
Let us, then, have confidence in the future. (Hear,
hear.) I do not ask you to anticipate with Lord
Macaulay the time when the New Zealander will
come here to gaze upon the ruins of a great dead
city. There are in our present condition no visible
248 The True Conception of Empire
signs of decrepitude and decay. (Cheers.) The
mother country is still vigorous and fruitful, is still
able to send forth troops of stalwart sons to people
and to occupy the waste spaces of the earth ; but yet
it may well be that some of these sister nations whose
love and affection we eagerly desire may in the future
equal and even surpass our greatness. A trans-
oceanic capital may arise across the seas, which will
throw into shade the glories of London itself ; but in
I the years that must intervene let it be our endeavour,
^ let it be our task, to keep alight the torch of Imperial
patriotism, to hold fast the affection and the confi-
dence of our kinsmen across the seas, that so in every
vicissitude of fortune the British Empire may present
an unbroken front to all her foes, and may carry on
^1 even to distant ages the glorious traditions of the
British flag. (Loud cheers.) It is because I believe
that the Royal Colonial Institute is contributing to
this result that with all sincerity I propose the toast
of the evening.
Index
Index
Abkrdbkn, The Earl of, i6i
Abyssinia, The Italians in, ii6
Admiralty, The, and its duties in relation to Trade, 141
Africa, The Civilisation of, 13J
British trade with, 1 32
The partition of, 115, 144
See also under " South Africa," " Cape Colony," " Natal," &c.
Agriculture, The relief of, 142
Algeria, 116
Anglo-Saxon Race, The, its destiny, 6, 235
its branches have common interests, 7
the privileges and obligations of relationship, 7, 13
all disputes should be capable of satisfactory adjustment,
8,25
the problem of federal government, 1 1
its characteristics are found in America, 1 5
no policy admissible that will tend to weaken the ties
between its different branches, 25
its vigour and resolution, 74
the greatest of governing races, 89, 93, 244
unity of, 103, 104
characteristics of, 210
Armenian massacres, 147, 148, 230, 231, 233
Army, The British, 236
Ashanti expedition, 147, 245
Asquith, Mr., 220, 225
Australia —
the splendid future of the Australian colonies, 87, 92
loyalty of, 95
252 Index
Australia, federation of, 87
Auatria and the Doogola Expedition, 65
Barinu, Sir Evelyn, and Egypt, 42, 49
Basutos, their transfer to the Cape Colony, 197
Bayard, Mr., and the Fishery Commission, 24, 25
Beaumarchais and the journal inutile, 21
Benin Expedition, 246
Birmingham Chamber of Commerce, 140, 157
Birmingham Jewellers' and Silversmiths' Association, 229
Birmingham, Speeches at, 31, 131, 140, 229
Birmingham, West, Relief Association, 131, 138
Board of Agriculture, 141
Board of Trade, 141
" British American," what is involved in the appellation, 15, 18
>9
British East Africa Company, 109, 119
British Empire, The, its magnitude, 12, 13, 75, 78, 98, 238, 247
the burden of its obligations, 13, 76, 203, 246
dismemberment and disintegration are not results of true
democracy, 13
bangs together by a slender thread, 75
the pioneers of, 89, 133, 209
solidarity of Imperial sentiment, 92, 95
secure in the strength of its own resources, 95, 240, 248
founded on commerce and exists by commerce, 102
its future depends ..pon the colonies, 102
the Little Englanders and its expansion, iii, 133, 202
a matter of existence to retain the dominion which we now
possess, 114, 132, 145
our ancestors did not shirk tlieir responsibilities, 134
vast development during the last few years. 143
the extension of the Empire forced upon us by the action of
other nations, 144
advantages of British rule to the native races, 146, 244, 24C
development of the Imperial estate, 149
railroads the monument of British progress through the
world, 149
area of, 202
its army, 236
Index 253
British Empire, The, its extension dnring the Queen's reign, 237
See also under " Great Britain," " Imperial Federation,"
" Imperial Trade," " Colonies," Sec.
British Guiana, 98
British South Africa Company, its energy and enterprise, 216
Canada, visits of Mr. Chamberlain to, 3, 162
importance of friendly relations with the United States of
America, 8
the advantage of developing commercial intercour»c with
the United States, 9
the tariffs of the United States, 9
the development of her resources her most pressing need, 9
the effect of high tariffs npon agriculture, 10
commercial union with the United States, 10
political union with the United States, 11, 162
her interests maintained and rights respected by Great
Britain, 12
the confederation of, 12, 13
misconceptions about, 12
her loyalty will never lack a warm response, 12
opinion with regard to the Fishery Commission, 25
her expressions of loyalty at the time of the message of the
Emperor of Germany to President Kriiger, 95
railways, 125
population and resources, 161
her alliance with the Mother Country, 162
prepared to stand shoulder to shoulder with Great Britain
at the time of the Venezuelan crisis, 163, 164
Ottawa Conference and an Imperial Customs Union, 167
Mr. M'Neill's resolution on Imperial trade, 168
loyalty of the French Canadians, 205
amicable relations of the two races, 222
See also under " Fishery Commission "
Canada Club, 161
Cape Colony, trade with Great Britain, 192, 193
concession of self-government, 197
transfer uf the Basutos to, 197
a naval station, 198
duties ot the Governor, 200, 201
254 Index
Cape Colony, loyalty of the Cape Dutch, 205
its mixed population, 195, 205
sympathy of the Dutch with the Boers, 205
its growing trade, 216
relations of the two races, 223
the possession of the Cape absolutely necessary to Qreat
Britain as a great Eastern Power, 224
Chamberlain, Mr., friendly reception in America, 17
pained by expressions in the American press concerning
Great Britain, 17
former colleagues, 20, 21
mission to America, 5, 21
willing to submit to the charge of being a sentimentalist,
25
rr.latioDs with his constituents, 31
visit to Egypt, 32
makes a confession with regard to the occupation of Egypt,
41,42
speech delivered in 1884 on the Egyptian Question, 50
protests against Sir William Harcourt's methods of debate,
56,57
the administration of praise, 74
qualifications for the post of Colonial Secretary, 89
accused of making a "spread-eagle" speech, 98
domestic squabbles ot the Liberal Pavfcy, 1 1 1
called a Jingo, 132
visits to Canada, 3, 162
Free trade, 170
his policy has received support from opponents as well as
friends, 204
receives a message from members of the Cape Parliament,
218
Chambers of Commerce, thanked for their assistance, 1 58
how they may best serve the interests which they represent,
158
Chambers of Commerce of the Empire, Congress of, 177
Chitral Campaign, 90
Cobden Club, and a Customs Union of the Empire. 182
Oobden, Richard, and Free Trade, 170, 185
Colonial affairs of pre-eminent interest, 235
Index 255
Colonial Office, The patronage of, 82
new markets, 141
circular on trade to the Colonial Governors, 154
Colonial Secretary, qualifications for the post of, 89
Colonies, The Self-Ooverning, demonstrations of loyalty at the
time of the Egyptian War, 27
loyalty of, 28
a critical stage in the history of the relations between them
and the Mother Country, 75, 100
as the possibility of separation from the Mother Country
becomes greater, the desire for separation has become
less, 76
joint heirs of the traditions of the past, and joint partakers
of the influence, resources, and power, of the British
Empire, 77, 104, 164, 243
bound to the Mother Country by a slender thread, 77
qualifications for a governor, 83
send assurances of sympathy and support when the Mother
Country is in danger, 90, 95, 163, 176
errors in our colonial policy, 93
the British people the most successful colonisers, 93, 116
145
the future of the colonies and the future of Great Britain are
interdependent, 99, 104
upon the colonies depends the future of the British Empire
102
their wealth and capabilities, 103
they have a noble heritage, 104
comparison between the exports of Great Britain and Ger-
many to the colonies, 153
destined to become great nations, 239
the first stage in Imperial history, when the colonies were
regarded as a source of profit, 242
the second stage, or the policy of the Little Englanders, 242
the third stage, or the true conception of Empire, 243
Great Britain undertakes to protect them from foreign
aggression, 5, 246
sentiment of kinship, 243, 246
may equal, and even surpass, the greatness of the Mother
Country, 248
256
Index
Colonics, The Crown, and Dependencies, Great Britain develops
her territories as trustees of civilisation for the commerce
of the world, 94, 144, 217
British and foreign colonies compared, 117, 145
their wealth and capabilities, 103
infinite variety of climate and productions, 239
Great Britain's obligations to the native races, 244
Pax Britannica, 244
sentimental philanthropists, and the promotion of civilisa-
tion, 245
See also under "Imperial Federation," " Imperial Trade,"
" Canada," " Cape Colony," &c.
Commerce, The foundation of the British Empire, 102
and the expansion of the Empire, 114
duty of a Government to create new markets, and develop
the old markets, 132, 143, 150
India, our best customer, 132
Egyptian trade, 132
all the great offices of State are occupied with commprcial
affairs, 141
the greatest of all political interests, 142
British trade threatened by hostile tariffs, 143, 144
British and foreign commercial policies compared, 144
pessismistic statements of the condition of British trade
will not bear examination, 150
comparison of the trade statistics of Great Britain and
Germany, 151
Colonial Oflico circular to Colonial Governors, 154
we have lost trade which ought to have been retained, owing
to the too g;oat independence of our manufacturing popu-
lation, 155
how to maintain our commercial supremacy, 156
British trade with South Africa, 192, 193
See also under ' Imperial Trade "
Commercial law, J79
Communications, imprcved, within the Empire, 179
Concert of Europe, The, 230, 231, 234
Cromer, Lord, his work in Egypt, 42, 49
Cycle industry, The, 157
Cyprus, The development of, 236
Index 257
Death Duties, The, 142
Democracy, true, and the Empire, 13
Dilke, Sir Charles, and the Dongola Expedition, 62, 67
Dongola Expedition, the Foreign Office vote, 45
difficulties of the advance exaggerated, 45
the advance not a new policy, 51, 54
rendered necessary by the movements of the Dervishes, 52
telegrams regarding the movement of the Dervishes, 52, 53
cost of the expedition, and the assent of the Caisse, 53
situation altered by the defeat of the Italians, 62
wise to anticipate the threatened Dervish attack, 64
necessary to prevent the fall of Kassala. 64
in attempting the defence of Egypt we are also assisting the
Italians, 64,65
attitude of the Powers with regard to the expedition, 65
the advance limited by two considerations, 66, 68, 69
" Where we go we shall remain," 67
not a policy of reckless adventure, 67
brilliantly led and splendidly successful 233
control of the Nile, 233
moral obligation in regard to the Soudan, 234
although described as " wanton folly," and '• an infatuated
policy," has put an end to much cruelty and barbarity,
147, 148
East Africa, expedition in, 148
Education Department and corainercial compotition, 141
Egypt, a question outside party politics, 32
an interesting country, 32
ancient prosperity, 33
occupation forced upon Mr. Gladstone's Government, 34, 41
Arabi Pasha's insurrection, 34
two alternatives, 35
change of French policy, 35
M. Gambetta protested against the attitude taken up by the
French Government, 35
the duty of undertaking the regeneration of Egypt, cast upon
Great Britain, 36
its deplorable condition under Ismail Pasha, 36, n, 48
K
258
Index
Egypt, the kourbafih, 37
the corvee, yj
the army, 38, 48
neglect of the irrigation and the canals, 38, 49
water supply, 38
miserable condition of the peasants, 39
what British administration has done for the finances, 39,
49
France and the conversion of the debt, 39
reform of the Courts of Justice, 40, 49
taxation revised, 40, 49
abolition of the corvee, 40, 49
re-organisation of the army, 40
renewal of the irrigation system, and the distribution of
water, 41. 49
not a reform, but "a new birth," 41
to complete the work of reform before leaving the country is
Great Britain's national duty, 42, 43, 48, 50
the work of Englishmen in Egypt, 42, 49, 90
the Egyptians are not a self-governing race, 43
the value of the Dongola Expedition to Egypt, 46
Dervish rule, 46
Wady Haifa, 47, 61
policy of " scuttle," 46, 47
Egyptian rule in the Soudan described by Mr. John Morley
as barbarous and corrupt, 47, 58
arguments for remaining in Egypt, 48, 49
a Frenchman on the British occupation, 49
Lord Cromer's report, 49
grants for education, 49
to leave now would undo the work which has been the
result of British occupation, 43, 50, 51, 236
a mistake to state the period after which evacuation might
possibly take place, 51
difficulties in the way of evacuation, 51
the corruption and inefficiency of the Egyptian Government
responsible for the loss of the Soudan, 54, 55
Mr. Gladstone's Government and the abandonment of the
Soudan, 55
the expedition for the relief of General Gc- on, 56, 123
Index 259
^C^yp^i ^n 1S84, the Government decided " to smash the Mahdi at
Khartoum," 56, 57
Sir William Harcourt the spokesman of the Government,
57, 58
the intention of the Government not carried ont owing to
critical relations with Russia, 58
Slatin Pasha on Egyptian rule in the Soudan, 58
the consequences of the abandonment of the Soudan, 59
the ideal policy of every Egyptian statesman, 60, 69
that we did not allow them to reconquer the Soudan is a
grievance of the Egyptians, 60
control of the Nile necessary to the existence and security
of Egypt, 60, 233
the present and practical policy of Egypt is the defence of
the Egyptian frontier, 61, 69
Dervish raids, 61
Dervishes encouraged by the defeat of the Italians in
Abyssinia, 63
if Kassala were to fall the effect might be incalculable upon
Egyptian interests, 63, 64
Mahdism a dying force, 124
trade with England, 132
Soudan railway, 149
See also under " Dongola Expedition "
Egyptian War, and Colonial demonstrations of loyalty, 27
Eight hours' day. An, 131, 138
Employment, Want of, and the expansion of the Empire, 131,
132, i33» 202
how Uganda may find employment for British working-
people, 134-139
English politics and personal friendship, 221
Exhibition of foreign goods sold in British Colonies, 155
Fishery Commission, The treaty rejected by the Senate of the
United States, 3, 232
but the modus vivendi is still in operation, 3, 233
Mr. Chamberlain's aims are misrepresented, 4, 5
no antagonism of interests between Great Britain and
Canada, 5
26o Index
Fi8hery CommiBsioD, the plenipotentiaries animated by a spirit
of conciliation, 8, i6, 25
Mr. Chamberlain's object in serving on the Commission, 16
not a mere treaty of fisheries, but a treaty of amity, 16
concessions made on both sides, but no " ignominious sur-
render," 16
every Englishman sympathises with the objects of tho
mission, 21
treaty rights maintained, 24
Mr. Bayard's opinion of the treaty, 24, 25
Canadian and American ditto, 25
Flying Squadron, The, 90
Foreign affairs of pre-eminent interest, 235
Foreign Office and Uganda, 109
and new markets, 141
Forster, Mr., and the Imperial Federation League, 165
"Forward Party, The," 233
Foster, Mr., leader of the Canadian House of Commons, 94
France and the Egyptian question, 35, 39
and the Dongo'a expedition, 65
the cost of her colonial possessions, 116, 145
Free Trade, 169, 170, 175, 183, 185
Froude, Mr., 243
Gambetta, M., and the Egyptian question, 35
Oarrick, 8ir James, 97
Germany, and the Dongola expedition, 65
the message of the Ejaperor to President Kriiger, 90, 94
colonial possessions of, 116, 145
her trade compared with the trade of Great Britain, 151
creation of the German empire, 167, 185
German West Africa, 197
her aims in South Africa, 199, 200
Gladstone, Mr., and Uganda, 120
Gordon, General, Expedition for the relief of, 56, 123
Government, The most important duty of a, 141
Granville, Earl, at the Devonshire Club, 20, 21, 24
Great Britain, bound to maintain the interests of her Colonies,
5. 246
pride in, and her institutions, 6
Index 261
Oreat Britain, her institutions more democratic than those of
the United States, 17
the true England, 18
has not lost the force and capacity to govern, 42
she is not isolated in Europe, 65, 66
and the Triple Alliance, 65
English habit of self-criticism misinterpreted abroad, 89
appeared to stand alone in the world, 94
holds her possessions throughout the world in trust for all,
94, 144. 217
resolute to fulfil her obligations and maintain her rights, 94
her continual growth of population, 105
proud of her colonies, 106, 176, 240
no signs of decrepitude and decay, 248
see also under " British Empire." " Imperial Federation,'" &c.
Grenfell, Sir Francis, and the Egyptian army, 40
Harcouut, Sir William, the personal responsibility of Cabinet
Ministers, 56, 57
the military power of the Mahdi, 57, 58
improvement of trade and the death duties, 142
Heligoland, transfer of, 115
Herbert, Sir Robert, 88
High Commissioner in South Africa, the duties of, 200, 201
Holland, The Colonial possessions of, 116
Holmes, Dr. Oliver Wendell, 74
Home Office, 141
Imperial Defence, the great wars and disputes in which Great
Britain has been engaged during the present century have
arisen in connection with the concerns of the Colonies or
India, 27
it is to tbe interests of the Colonies, as much as to those of
the mother country, to have a concerted system of defence,
28,95
depends upon fiscal and commercial arrangements, 166
another name for the protection of Imperial commerce, 180
Imperial Federation, the confederation of the Empire is a grand
idea and a splendid dream, 13. 78, 178
262 Index
Imperial Federation, no practical scheme has yet been submitted,
but it is not impossible, 25-28, 247
the spirit of the time is in the direction of such a move-
ment, 78
local federation must come before Imperial federation,
80
the ideal future of the British race, 88, 100
potent factor in maintaining the peace of the world, 96,
176
recommended by sentiment and by material intereat, 105
247
necessary to seek the line of least resistance, and to proceed
by a process of gradual development, 165, 166
common interests and common obligations must be estab-
lished, 166
Imperial defence and Imperial trade, 166
must be approached from its commercial side, 166, 167, 172,
180, 181
the Colonies must take the initiative, 167
there is a universal desire among the several branches of the
Empire for closer union, 164, 172, 178, 187
Imperial Federation League, 165
Imperial Postage, 179
Imperial Trade, trade follows the flag, 2G
sentiment has a powerful influence in commercial questions,
26
duty of every statesman to maintain and increase com-
mercial intercourse between Great Britain and her
Colonies, 26, 95
it is usdess to expect the Colonies to abandon their custom
duties as their chief source of revenue, 28
necessary for Great Britain to wait for proposals from the
Colonies, 28
no nation has achieved real greatness without the aid of
commerce, 102
free interchange of commodities, 105
commercial union will make permanent the unity of the
Empire by basing it upon material interests, 105
the example of the German Empire, which was founded on
a commercial zoUverein, 167
Index 263
Imperial Trade, resolution passed at the Ottawa Conference
respecting a Customs arrangement between Qreat Britain
and the Colonies, 167, 183
the tendency of the Ottawa proposal would be to increasie
the cost of living and the cost of production in Qreat
Britain, 169
the return for this sacrifice would be small, 169, 170
a proposal which it is impossible tu adopt, 169, 170, 17a,
173. '«3
the burden of .such an arrangement would fall heavily on the
United Kingdom, 171
will the Colonies better their offer? 171
Lord Kipon's despatch uf 1895 was not an absolute negative
to the proposals of the Colonies, 171, 173
an alternative suggestion, a true zdliicrehi fur the Empire, in
which Protection is to diriiippcar, is in principle free from
objection, 172, 173, 174
this alternative proposition would be of great advantage to
the Colonies, 174
proposed meeting of representatives of the mother country
and the colonie6 to consider the question of a Customs
Union, 175
a suggested Imperial Council for consultation and advice
on commercial matters, 179, 180
commercial union the first step tu Imperial Federation, 181
commercial union dominates all other interests, 181
no one can deny the advantage which commercial union
would be to the entire British race, 181
there are only three lines of progress in the direction of
commercial union, 181
first, the proposal which finds favour with the orthodox
Free Traders, but which the Colonies will not adopt, 182
second, the proposal of the Ottawa Conference, which the
United Kingdom cannot accept, 183, 1S4
third, the suggestion for tlie creation of an Imperial
Customs Union which would practically establish Free
Trade throughout the British Empire, 184
the laet proposal, if adopted, would be the greatest advance
that Free Trade has made since it was first advocated,
18s
264 Index
Imperial Trade, exceptions to the principle of such a proposal, 186
the colonies must take the first steo, 186
India, the native army, 128
loyalty of, 238
administration of, 90
the best customer of the United Kingdom, 132
railways, 137
Irish question, The, 32, 237
Italy and the Dongola Expedition, 46, 62, 63, 64, 65
British good-will to, 66
colonial possessions of, 116
Jameson's, Dr., raid, 91, 207
Johnston, Sir Harry, expedition to Nyassaland, 149
Khalifa, The, and the Soudan, 54, 55
his power on the wane, 68
Khartoum, 55, 56
Kriiger, President, 90^ 212
Labouchere, Mr., and Egypt, 123
and Uganda, no, 121, 122, 123, 126
Lamington, Lord, 90, 97
Liberals, in office and out of office, above the gangway and below
the gangway, the difference between, no
Little Englanders, accuse Mr. Chamberlain of making a " spread-
eagle " speech, 97-99
views with regard to the British Empire, in, 113, 133, 235,
242
Lobengula, 245
London Chamber of Commerce, exhibition of foreign-made goods
sold in the Colonies, 158
and South Africa, 191
London, speeches in, Devonshire Club, 20 .
House of Commons, 45, 109
Whitehall Rooms, 73, 91, 211
Imperial Institute, 82
Holborn Restaurant, loi
Albion Tavern, 161
Index 265
London, speeches in, Hall of the Grocers' Company, 177
Cannon Street Hotel, 191
Constitutional Club, 204
Cafe Monico, 220
Hotel M§tropole, 241
London Convention, The, 223
Lugard, Captain, in Uganda, 109
a tribute to, 120
Macaulay, Lord, 247
Macdonald, Sir John, 162
Mackay, Mr., and Uganda, 124, 125
Mackenzie, The Rev. John, on South Africa, 191, 192
Mahdi, The, and Uganda, 124
Manchester, The trade of, 4
Mashonaland, The mines of, 79
Matabeleland, The mines of, 79
the rebellion, 208, 209, 214, 215, 223
difficulties of transport, 210
the rinderpest, 214
Mauritius, The French population in the, 222
Milner, Sir Alfred, farewell dinner to, 220
his difficult task, 221, 223
his instructions, 221
M'Neill, Mr., moves a patriotic resolution in the Canadian Parlia-
ment, 163
and Imperial trade, 168
Montague, the Hon. Dr., 161
Morley, Mr., and the Dongola Expedition, 45, 52, 53
inconsistency of, 47
and Uganda, 122
criticises the work of the Government, 234, 235
Mwanga, King, 109
Napoleon Bonaparte, 102
Natal, trade with Great Britain, 192, 193
its mixed population, 195
its growing trade, 216
relations of the English and Dutc b, 223
266 Index
Natal-Transvaal Railway, 73, 74, 79, 80, 97 *
Navy, The British, 132
New markets, 132, 143
Nupe Expedition, The, 246
Nyassaland, expedition in, 148, 245
Orange Free State, and Germany, 199
relations of the English and the Butch, 223
Order of the Sons of St. George, 14, 18
Patents Act, and the number of patents, 156
Patriotism, the wider patriotism which includes the whole of
Greater Britain, 7, 77
Peace, Mr. Walter, 73
Philadelphia, Speech at, 14
Picton, Mr., and Uganda, 118, 119
Portal, Sir Gerald, and the Uganda Expedition, 109, 118
Portugal, Colonial possessions of, 116
Postage, Imperial, 179
Prempeh, 245
Punjab, The, 128
Queen's Jubilee, The, the Queen's Reign, 237
visit of the Premiers of the self-governing colonies, 238
a demonstration that no other country can make, 239
Queensland, 90, 96
Radical Party, The, and foreign and colonial policy, 235
Railways, railway disputes in South Africa, 80
Indian, 137
Uganda, 126, 137, 149
Queensland, 96
Soudan, 149
Rhodesia, 215
the arteries of a country, 138
Rhodesia, its rapid development, 215
see also " Matabeleland " and " Mashonaland "
Rinderpest in South Africa, The, 213, 214
Ripon's, Lord, Despatch to the Colonial Governors, with refer-
ence to an Imperial ZoUverein, 171 '
Index 267
Robinson, Sir Hercules, Address by members of the Cape Parlia-
ment to, 218
Rosebery, Lord, and the isolation of Great Britain,, 65, 66
and the little Englanders, 99
on pegging out claims for posterity, 125
on the suppression of the slav^ trade, 128
and the growth of the Empire, 143
Rosmead, Lord, see uuder "Robinson, Sir Hercules "
Royal Colonial Institute, 241, 243, 248
Russia, Critical relations with, 58
and the Dcngola Expedition, 65
Sebley, Professor, 243
Selous, Mr. , 245
Senoussi, The, and Uganda, 124
Slatin Pasha's experience in the Soudan, 58
Slave Trade, The, in the Soudan, 59
British policy with regard to, 112, 128, 129, 130, 146
and the Uganda railway, 127
the causes of, 128
Sir Harry Johnston's expedition to Nyassaland, 149
Smith, Colonel Gerard, 82, 84, 88
Soudan, see under " Egypt," and " Dongola Expedition "
South Africa, its development and prosperity, 79, 81, 212
its mineral wealth, 79
the mother country and all the colonies will share in its
prosperity, 79
its climate and soi), 79
the one thing wanted, unity and identity of sentiment and
interest, 79
local federation must precede Imperial federation, 80
conference to discuss railway disputes, 80
the Rev. John Mackenzie, 191
fluctuations in British trade with the Cape and Natal, 192,
193
the great resources of the country, 193
is Great Britain to take any part in the development of the
unoccupied territory ? 194
the difficulty of the South African problem, 194
the composition of the population, 195, 196, 205
268 Index
South Africa, how is tlie work of colonisation and civilisation
to go on? 196, 200
treatment of the natives, 196
who is to be the dominant Power ? 197
successive Governments have avowedly shirked the diffi-
culties of the South African problem, 197
the attempt to secure confederation, 197
British indifference to German acquisition of territory on
the West Coast, 197
the policy of shirking has been inconsistently carried out,
and has been a conspicuous failure, 1 98
the cost of six African wars, 198
the policy of ''scuttle'' would be a consistent but not a
noble policy, 199
Great Britain's retirement would be Germany's opportunity,
199
the only alternative to the policy of shirking, and the policy
of scuttle, is that we should accept our obligations and
responsibilities, 200
is it advisable that the two offices of High Commissioner
and of Governor of the Cape Colony should be retained in
the same hands ? 200, 201
the Imperial policy must prevail over the colonial policy,
201
there is no obscurity about the policy of the Governmer*
204, 213
Great Britain must continue to be the paramount Power
205, 224
the duty of maintainlDg amicable relations between the
English and Dutch races, 205, 207, 208, 212, 213, 217
Great Britain intends to fulfil her obligations and to maintain
her rights, 213, 217, 222, 224
its prosperity depends more upon statesmanship than upon
its marvellous natural resources, 213
rinderpest, 213
trade statistics, 216
Address to Sir Hercules Robinson on leaving Cape Town by
members Oa the Cape Parliament, 218, 219
to reconcile the two races is not an insolvable problem,
222
Index 269
South Africa, a federation of States in which Dutch influence
would be predominant is incompatible with the highest
British interests, 224
see also under "Cape Colony," "Natal,'' "South African
Republic," " Rhodesia," &c.
South African Dinner, 211
South African Republic, The mines of, 79
Dr. Jameson's raid, 90, 92
the raid said to be due to Mr. Chamberlain's " spread-eagle "
speech, 98
the Boer War, 197
and the Cape Colony, 199
the grievances of the Uitlanders, 206, 223
Great Britain, as the paramount Power, cannot be indifferent
to a state of things which involves danger to the peace of
South Africa, 206
up to the time of the raid the sympathy of the Dutch of the
Cape and the Orange Free State was with the Uitlanders,
207
sentences on the Johannesburg Reform leaders, 211, 212,
213
the London Convention, 223, 224
Spain, Colonial possessions of, 116
Storey, Mr., and Uganda, no, 117
and the expansion of the Empire, 1 1 1
and the slave trade, 112
Suakin, 123
Technical education, 156, 157
Toronto, speech at, 3
a commercial centre, 4
Toronto Board of Trade and Commercial Union, 184
Trade, see under "Commerce," and " Imperial Trade"
Transvaal, see under "South African Republic"
Tunis, 116
Tupper, Sir Charles, 73, 74
Uganda, its development will entail some sacrifice of life and
money, 116, 135
the Government policy, 118, 129
270 ' Index
Uganda, the Commission of Inquiry, 118
we cannot go back even if we would, 119, 121
history of the British occupation, 109, 115, 119, 134
anarchy and civil war, 120, 121, 135
Captain Lugard's work, 120, 121
our alHes in Uganda would suffer if we were now to leave the
country, 121, 135
the decision affects British influence throughout South
Africa, 122
we ought not to count the cost, 122
peace can be secured at a comparatively small expense, 123,
124, 135
its climate and productions, 124, 125, 127, 134, 135
it requires means of transport and British enterprise, 125
cost of carriage, 125
necessity of a railway, and the cost of its construction, 126,
136, 149
the railway should be made by the Government, 137
prospects of the railway, 127
the construction of the railway would benefit trade, 1 37
it would eventually more than pay expenses, 1 37
t. sellers and missionaries, 134
Undeveloped estates, 138
Union of the United Kingdom, 237
Unyoro, 127 ,
Usoga, 127
United States of America, visit of Mr. Chamberlain, 3
not a foreign nation, 7, 17
their relations with Canada, 8, 9
their commercial tariffs, 9
they inherit English traditions and history, 15, 17
British Americans, 15
friendship with Great Britain the best guarantee for the
peace and civilisation of the world, 16, 25
reception of Mr. Chamberlain, 17 '
abuse of England by a section of the Press, 17, 18
change of public opinion in England with regard to the
United States and their institutions, 22, 23
population, 22
the most pacific country in the world, 22, 23
Index 271
United States of America, its Conservatism, 23
adherence to their constitution unparalleled in history, 23
American opinion of British legislation, 23
good feeling of England, 24
American opinion of the Fishery Treaty, 2$
the Venezuelan dispute, 98, 231
commercial union, 185
Treaty of Arbitration with Great Britain, 231, 232, 233, 234
Venezuelan Dispute, 98, 231
Victoria Lake, 127
War Office, The, and trade, 141
West Coast of Africa, Railways in, 149
West Indies, 222
Western Australia, its history, resources and population, 84, 85,
86
gold exports, 85
its first need is labourers, 86
its clear duty is to spend its whole energy in cultivating the
natural resources of the soil, 87
Zanzibar, no, 127
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