whom is the federation to extend? To all the subjects of the Queen of
Great Britain and Ireland? Or only to such of them as are European by
dwelling-place or descent? Or, to come nearer to the point, we might
put the question thus; Is it to take in only the subjects of the Queen
of Great Britain and Ireland, or the subjects of the Empress of India
as well? This is a subject of some importance, about which it will be
well clearly to know our own meaning. As yet, the doctrine of Imperial
Federation is somewhat vague, and its objects are somewhat fluctuating.
Sometimes we are told that the Imperial Federation is to be an union of
all English-speaking people. The wiser advocates of the scheme see the
difficulties, but they seem for the nonce to put them in their pockets.
They do not talk either of a federation of all English-speaking people
or of a federation of all the Queen’s dominions. They mention those
parts of the Queen’s dominions, those parts of the English-speaking
people, to which they wish their scheme of federation to extend, and
they say nothing about any other parts of either. But this is not to
go to the root of the matter, and it is humdrum work compared with
the talk of the more enthusiastic votaries of “Imperial Federation.”
It is to be the “federation of the Empire,” that is presumably of the
whole “Empire;” and in some of the highest flights it would sometimes
seem as if the “federation of the Empire,” and the “federation of all
English-speaking people” were the same thing. Now about this last there
are some other difficulties, of which we may say somewhat presently;
at this stage the difficulty is that such a rule would not only shut
out a few speakers of European tongues nearer home, it would not only
shut out those uncivilized natives of colonial possessions who often
save us all trouble by dying out before us, but it would further shut
out the vast native population of India, a part of the subjects of the
common sovereign of Great Britain and India who must be thought of one
way or another. If we are to have a real federation of the Empire, the
whole people of the Empire must be let in with full federal rights, as
political equals of the Englishman of Britain and the Englishman of
Australia. But this would be something very different from a federation
of the English-speaking people. Such an enfranchisement as this would
indeed be a leap in the dark, a leap such as no people ever took
before. It is not for us to say what would be likely to come of it;
let us rather ask those who talk about Imperial Federation whether
they have thought what would be likely to come of it. Whenever the
thing is to talk big about “empire,” its greatness, its “prestige,”
all about the dominion on which the sun never sets, all about the
drum-roll of the British army going the round of the world, then India
is the dearest, the most cherished, the sublimest, part of the talk.
“Imperial” interests, “imperial” greatness, “imperial” everything, seem
specially at home in that land. It is the specially imperial soil.
“Our Eastern Empire,” “our Indian Empire,” is the grandest subject
of all for magnificent eloquence. And why? To speak the plain truth,
because here the corporate Emperor “We” comes in on the grandest scale.
“We” govern India; “we” hold the dominion of Aurungzebe; is not every
British elector part of a great corporate Aurungzebe? But receive
India to federation, and “we” cease to do all this. In a federation
of the “Empire,” “we” must simply sink into the position of citizens
of one or more of its states; the elector for London will be in no
way privileged above the elector for Masulipatam. It may even be that
the “we” shall be turned about, and that people at Masulipatam will
begin to say how “we” govern England. Instead of every British elector
being part of a corporate Aurungzebe, it may be that every Indian
elector shall be part of a corporate William. Imperial Federation may
take a shape in which England, Scotland, Canada, Australia, shall be
dependencies of the Empire of India. For truly it will need some very
artificial arrangement to secure even proportional representation for
any of those small and distant cantons, lying so far away from the main
centre of power and population. We must expect that in the Federal
Assembly, “we,” even strengthened by “our” reinforcements from other
English-speaking lands, will be defeated on every division by that vast
majority of the people of the Empire who are not English-speaking.
“Our” Imperial position will be, in truth, handed over to quite another
“we,” a “we” of whom the old British and Jingo “we” will form a very
small part indeed.
I shall of course be told that nothing of this kind is meant. And no
doubt nothing of this kind is meant by anybody. Only, if so, people
should not use words which mean either this or nothing. They should
tell us distinctly what they do mean. The words “Imperial Federation,”
“Federation of the Empire,” either mean nothing, or they mean that on
all “imperial” questions the speakers of English shall be liable to
be outvoted by the speakers of Tamul and Telugu. A federation which
does not give these last equal federal rights with their European
fellow-subjects is not a “Federation of the Empire,” but only of a
small part of the “Empire.” Such a federation would be, as regards
India, simply an enlargement of the dominant “we,” an admission of
more members to “we”-ship and its privileges. The people of India have
now for their masters the people of the United Kingdom only. They
would then have for their masters the people of the United Kingdom and
those of the British colonies also. Such an outcome might be highly
imperial, but it would not be at all federal, at least not federal
for the vast majority of the inhabitants of the Federal Empire. There
would be a grand stroke indeed on behalf of “imperium,” but very little
indeed would be done on behalf of “libertas.”
* * * * *
In truth, in this particular argument, India, so present to every
mind in every other argument, India, the choicest flower of the
Empire, the brightest jewel in the Imperial Crown--any other figure
of speech that may spring of the oriental richness of an imperial
fancy--seems suddenly to be forgotten. But another land seems also
to be forgotten, a land which should surely be more to us than all
the wonders of the East, a land whose kindred and friendship should
surely be more precious to Englishmen than all the glories and all
the treasures of a hundred thousand Great Moguls. If it would be a
strange Federation of the Empire which should shut out the greater
part of the inhabitants of the Empire, it would be a yet stranger
Federation of the English-speaking people which should shut out the
greater part of the English-speaking people. It is wonderful to see
how the declaimers about “Greater Britain” and “Imperial Federation”
seem ever and anon perplexed by the fact that there is on the western
shore of Ocean, perhaps not a greater Britain, but assuredly a newer
England. I believe that no one proposes that the Federation of the
English-speaking people shall take in the United States of America;
if any one does so propose, I honour him as being at once bolder and
more logical than his brethren. But unless such a federation does take
in the United States of America, it will assuredly be a very lame and
imperfect federation. It is the most curious illustration of the modern
theory of colonization, the substitution of mere personal allegiance
for nationality in the higher sense, that any mind could take in for
a moment the thought of a federation of the English-speaking people
of which the United States should not form a part. In the ideas of
too many on both sides of Ocean, the fact that the people of the
United States are not subjects of the sovereign of the elder England
hinders them from being looked at as Englishmen at all. The English
of the United States have indeed something to get over. The memories
of the War of Independence, the more grievous memories of the war of
1813, have made a sad gap between the two great branches of the same
folk between whom, if only modern Europe had colonized on the wise
principles of older times, there need never have been any gap at all.
That our independent colonies--I use the name as a name of the highest
honour--will ever join with us in a political federation is a thing
hardly to be thought of. I have often dreamed that something like the
Greek συμπολιτεία, a power in the citizens of each country of taking up
the citizenship of the other at pleasure, might not be beyond hope; but
I have never ventured even to dream of more than that. It is our bad
luck at present that there are only two independent English nations,
two English nations which parted in anger, and neither of which has
quite got over the unpleasant circumstances of the parting. As long as
there are only two such English nations, there is almost sure to be
somewhat of jealousy, somewhat of rivalry, between the two. And there
will always be on both sides people who take a strange pleasure in
stirring up ill-feeling among kinsfolk. Surely, if there were three or
four or five independent English nations, there would no longer be the
same direct rivalry between any two of those nations; there would be
far more chance of keeping up friendly feeling, more chance of keeping
up, if not the impossible federation, yet something like an abiding
political alliance, between all the members of the scattered English
folk. The sentiment is possibly unpatriotic, but I cannot help looking
on such a lasting friendly union of the English and English-speaking
folk as an immeasurably higher object than the maintenance of any
so-called British empire. I may judge wrongly; but it strikes me that
the establishment of a rival federation, an “imperial” federation, is
not the best way to keep up such a friendly union. A single federation,
especially a federation which would be an immediate neighbour, would
be likely to call out more active jealousies in the United States than
are at present called out by the single kingdom and its dependencies.
Towards several independent English nations, whatever might be the
political constitution of each, feelings of this kind would be likely
to be far less strong. We are told that, if we will not have Imperial
Federation, we must have either “disintegration” or the continued
“subjection” of the still dependent colonies. It is a question which as
yet one cannot do more than whisper; but would “disintegration” be too
dearly bought, if it carried with it the perfect independence of the
United States of Australia, and a greater chance than we now have of
keeping the lasting good will of the United States of America?
FOOTNOTES:
[2] There are one or two other rather curious uses of the word
“imperial” with regard to weights and measures, which it cannot be
supposed had any reference to India or the colonies.
[3] See an article by Mr. Forster in the Nineteenth Century for
February, 1885, from which I have made some extracts.
[4] This is historically true of the Achaian cities, of the Swiss
cantons (in 1848), and of the original American States. All these
really did cede certain powers and keep others. Of the American
States admitted since the acceptance of the Federal Constitution by
all the original States, it is not historically true, but it is true
by a legal fiction. Massachusetts really ceded certain powers to the
Union. Missouri never did, as a historical fact; but it did so by a
legal fiction when it was admitted to the same rights and the same
obligations as Massachusetts.
[5] The second union of Greek cities under the headship of Athens comes
nearest to such a change; but it is not a real precedent. The cities
which formed the second Athenian alliance had once been subjects of
Athens; but, when the second alliance was formed, they were subjects of
Athens no longer; they entered the union as independent states. And the
union was not really a federation, but only a close alliance. Moreover,
before very long, Athens was at war with her own allies.
[6] When I wrote this a year ago, I did not foresee that the question
of Home Rule would become an immediately practical one before the
question of Imperial Federation.
[7] I am speaking here of political position, not of political power,
still less of extent of territory or population. Bern is small, New
York is great; but the political position of the two is the same; each
is the greatest member of an equal confederation. And that political
position is higher than that of any British colony, even though the
Legislature of the colony may actually have, as in some cases it has,
greater powers than the Legislature of the American State or Swiss
canton. For the greater powers of the colony are mere grants from a
higher authority; they are bestowed by royal charter or by Act of
Parliament. But the smaller powers of the American State or Swiss
canton are the inherent powers of an independent state. They are those
powers which an independent state kept to itself and did not cede to
the federal authority.
[8] The use of the word _Congress_ for the Federal Assembly of the
United States is a curious instance of the survival of a word when
the thing expressed by it has wholly changed its nature. Up to 1789
the United States had a body which had naturally borrowed the name
of _Congress_ from the diplomatic gatherings with which it had much
in common. In 1789 this mere Congress gave way to a real Federal
Parliament. But the Federal Parliament kept the name of the imperfect
institution which it supplanted.
BY THE SAME AUTHOR.
=Lectures to American Audiences.= Crown 8vo. 8_s._ 6_d._
Contents:--I. THE ENGLISH PEOPLE IN ITS THREE HOMES. (1) Old,
Middle, and New England. (2) The English Name. (3) The First Voyage
and the Second. (4) The Old England and the Second. (5) The English
in their Second Home. (6) The Second Voyage and the Third Home. II.
THE PRACTICAL BEARING OF GENERAL EUROPEAN HISTORY. (1) Causes and
their Effects. (2) The Democratic City. (3) The Aristocratic City.
(4) The Ruling City and its Empire. (5) The Elder and the Newer
England. (6) Rome Transplanted.
TRÜBNER AND CO.: LONDON.
=The Methods of Historical Study.= A Course of Lectures. 8vo. _In the
Press._
=Historical Essays.= First Series. Third Edition. 8vo. 10_s._ 6_d._
Contents:--The Mythical and Romantic Elements in Early English
History--The Continuity of English History--The Relations between
the Crown of England and Scotland--St. Thomas of Canterbury and
his Biographers, &c.
=Historical Essays.= Second Series. Second Edition, with additional
Essays. 8vo. 10_s._ 6_d._
Contents:--Ancient Greece and Mediæval Italy--Mr. Gladstone’s Homer
and the Homeric Ages--The Historians of Athens--The Athenian
Democracy--Alexander the Great--Greece during the Macedonian
Period--Mommsen’s History of Rome--Lucius Cornelius Sulla--The
Flavian Cæsars, &c. &c.
=Historical Essays.= Third Series. 8vo. 12_s._
Contents:--First Impressions of Rome--The Illyrian Emperors and
their Land--Augusta Treverorum--The Goths at Ravenna--Race
and Language--The Byzantine Empire--First Impressions of
Athens--Mediæval and Modern Greece--The Southern Slaves--Sicilian
Cycles--The Normans at Palermo.
=Historical and Architectural Sketches=; chiefly Italian. Illustrated
by the Author. Crown 8vo. 10_s._ 6_d._
=Subject and Neighbour Lands of Venice.= Being a Companion Volume to
“Historical and Architectural Sketches.” With Illustrations. Crown
8vo. 10_s._ 6_d._
=English Towns and Districts.= A Series of Addresses and Essays. With
Illustrations and a Map. 8vo. 14_s._
=Comparative Politics.= Lectures at the Royal Institution. To which
is added “The Unity of History.” 8vo. 14_s._
=The Office of the Historical Professor.= An Inaugural Lecture read
in the Museum at Oxford, October 15, 1884. Crown 8vo. 2_s._
=History of the Cathedral Church of Wells.= As Illustrating the
History of the Cathedral Churches of the Old Foundation. Crown 8vo.
3_s._ 6_d._
=Old English History.= With Five Coloured Maps. New Edition, revised.
Extra fcap. 8vo. 6_s._
=The History and Conquests of the Saracens.= Six Lectures. Third
Edition, with New Preface. Crown 8vo. 3_s._ 6_d._
=The Growth of the English Constitution from the Earliest Times.=
Fourth Edition. Crown 8vo. 5_s._
=General Sketch of European History.= New Edition. Enlarged, with
Maps, &c. 18mo. 3_s._ 6_d._ (Vol. I. of _Historical Course for
Schools_.)
=Europe.= 18mo. 1_s._ [_Literature Primers._
=Disestablishment and Disendowment.= What are they? Popular Edition.
Crown 8vo. 1_s._
MACMILLAN AND CO.: LONDON.
Transcriber's note:
Footnotes have been moved to the ends of the Lectures referencing them.
Table of Contents added by Transcriber.
Punctuation, hyphenation, and spelling were made consistent when a
predominant preference was found in this book; otherwise they were not
changed.
Simple typographical errors were corrected; occasional unbalanced
quotation marks retained.
Ambiguous hyphens at the ends of lines were retained.
Reading devices that cannot display some of the characters in this
eBook may substitute question marks or other placeholders.
Text uses “mother-land” and “motherland”; both retained.