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The Pamphlet Collection of Sir Robert Stout: Volume 57

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"The great meeting which took place yesterday at the Westminster Palace Hotel was not more remarkable for the diversity of political creeds represented by the speakers than for the occasion of the assembly. As Mr. Forster and others pointed out, scarcely a decade has elapsed since those who favoured the idea of Imperial Federation were regarded as fantastic dreamers and impracticable visionaries. They were credited with the very best intentions, of course, but the Goldwin Smith school was then dominant, and it had come to be very generally accepted that our colonies and dependencies were becoming unmanageable and should be cast adrift as quickly as might be. This nervous shrinking from Imperial responsibility naturally begot a feeling of contempt and almost aversion in Greater Britain, and there, too, all the talk was about separation. It is truly noteworthy, then, to see in the British metropolis an assembly of leading politicians, both English and Colonial, met together to discuss and promote the very object which only ten years ago was scornfully dismissed as too Utopian for serious consideration. How has this marvellous change been wrought! To what cause or influence is due the resuscitation of the Imperial sentiment which used to characterise the English people more than any other nation in the world, until it was undermined and nearly destroyed by the timid teachings of the economical school? While most anxious to keep this immensely important matter free from party spirit and party bickering, we unhesitatingly attribute the revival to page 98 the wholesome awakening which the people of England received from the Beaconsfield Government. Whatever view they may take of the foreign policy of that Cabinet, in some particulars, all candid Liberals must now acknowledge that it dissipated the dream that England could retain her place among nations without accepting the responsibilities due to her Imperial position. It was some vague idea that the colonies might be safely left to shift for themselves, while the mother country devoted herself to purely insular affairs, which lay at the back of the general acceptance given to the doctrines of the Goldwin Smith propaganda. If Imperial disintegration resulted, what matter"! Canada, Australia, South Africa, and New Zealand would still be as open to our trade as ever, while we should save a great deal of money by withdrawing from their protection. It was the Beaconsfield Government which shattered those mean and craven notions by breathing life into the dormant instinct of Imperialism, and yesterday's gathering demonstrated that, although England has changed her rulers, there is no change in her determination to strengthen rather than weaken the bonds which keep her mighty Empire together.

"That the federation of the Empire on such a footing as will insure the due representation of each part, is beset with difficulties, is a truism. But now that it is recognised by thoughtful politicians of all parties as an object well worth striving for, we may look forward hopefully to some practical solution of the long-standing problem. There has been too much of a disposition during recent years to leave difficult matters alone, merely because of their difficulty; an excuse which necessarily leads to public apathy and indifference. All that yesterday's meeting affirmed, after exhaustive discussion, was that, in order to secure the unity of the Empire, some form of federation is essential. Lord Rosebery suggested that this end might be attained by allowing colonial delegates to sit in the House of Lords. In a letter to a morning contemporary, Lord Wemyss recommends that a consultive body should be formed in London, composed of the Secretaries of State for the Colonies, Foreign Affairs, War, and India, the first Lord of the Admiralty, and the Chancellor of the Exchequer, to repre- page 99 sent England, and the Colonial Agents to represent Greater Britain. Apart from other objections of a more or less grave kind, we do not think that either of these plans would com-mend itself to the colonists. Even as matters stand at present, there are frequent consultations between individual Ministers and the accredited Agents, so that very little would be gained by the adoption of Lord Wemyss' proposal. Nor would it be of much use to give colonial delegates ex officio seats in the Upper House, since it is in the Commons that their local knowledge and experience would be the more profitable. This, however, is a matter of detail which will engage the attention of the society that is about to be formed for the purpose of keeping Imperial Federation before the public. Lord Rosebery would prefer to have the matter relegated to a Royal Commission or Select Committee, but the idea found little support, the general feeling of the meeting, with which we entirely agree, being in favour of independent action and in-vestigation. There is always a good deal of red tapeism about Royal Commissions and Select Committees, not to mention the inordinately long time they generally occupy with their deliberations.

"It is curious that this movement for the Federation of the Empire should have come to a head at a time when the Colonial Office is filled by Lord Derby. He cannot be suspected of feeling very sympathetically towards an endeavour which has for its object the strengthening of the ties which subsist between the mother country and her lusty offspring. Yet so great is the force of circumstances, that he has even been compelled to move in the direction of annexation. It has fallen to him to sanction the establishment of a limited British Protectorate in the southern part of New Guinea, and to him also the Fates allotted the duty of extending the ægis of England over the unfortunate Bechuanas. Basutoland has also been brought back under the Crown during his administration of the Colonies, and matters are fast tending to make the Reserve in Zululand an integral portion of the British Empire. Lord Derby thus stands forth as an annexationist malgré lui, and it may be hoped, therefore, that the society which is about to be formed will be able to move him in the direction even of page 100 Imperial Federation. That, indeed, will be one of the most important provinces of this long-required organisation—to keep unwilling Ministers abreast of the requirements of the Empire, by bringing public pressure to bear upon them whenever they show apathy. At the present moment there are as Lord Rosebery reminded the meeting, two great questions which the English people should not lose sight of for a moment if they wish to prevent colonial discontent The one is the exportation of the very cream of French rascality to the Pacific; the other, thé maintenance of British supremacy in Egypt. We are apt to forget that Australasia has quite as great an interest in the latter question as ourselves, and until lately, we have also been too apt to make light of Antipodean sensitiveness in the matter of convict neighbours. But the time has now come when it is recognised that in these affairs Greater Britain has a right to make her voice heard, and it will be the duty of the forthcoming society to impress that fact on any Colonial Secretary who desires to "rest and be thankful." There are happily some signs that a more sympathetic if not more vigorous policy has already come into favour with Lord Derby. It was a step in that direction when he consented to place the southern littoral of New Guinea under British jurisdiction, and another, was indicated by Mr. Ashley when he declared that the Colonial Office would not interfere if the Australian Governments jointly took legislative action against the importation of criminal aliens. This is a wholesome change, so for as it goes, but there are some Ministers who require to be kept up to the mark by persistent "pegging away," and for such as these a powerful organisation to watch over colonial affairs will be a most useful means of coercion."