,/"■ 1/ Foreign &> Colonial Speeches By the Right Hon. Joseph Chamberlain, M.P. JViotoi^rnf'/u'd by Elliott cr= Fry. t\ i 'r)]ijm"^l \ /-.>. .r. -, ,i.>'n-;i'-' 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 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 Printed by Ballantvne, Hanson df Co. London «2r» Edinburgh