BRITISH IMPERIALISM AND POLITICAL LIBERTY.
British history, for the last century and more, proves that Imperialism
is not naturally incompatible with Political Liberty, nor with the
respect due the national aspirations of divers ethnical groups. The
unity and the consolidation of the Empire made their greatest strides
since the close of the war which resulted in the independence of the
neighbouring Republic. As previously explained, they were the outcome of
the very wise and statesmanlike change of colonial policy then adopted
by England. The days were to come when they would be put to the severest
test and would prove more than equal to its greatest strain. Those are
the days which the British Empire is living through, with brilliancy and
heroism, amidst the dazzling lightning and the roaring thunder of an
unprecedented military conflict, with every prospect of surviving its
sufferings and sacrifices with a still stronger political structure.
The same evolution by which Great Britain was to reach the summit of
Political Liberty by the final triumph of the new constitutional
principle of ministerial responsibility, was spreading to her far
overseas Colonies. Canada, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa,
Newfoundland were successively granted constitutional charters based on
the same principles as those of the institutions of the United Kingdom.
As I have already said, Imperialism becomes dangerous and deserves the
severest condemnation, only where and when it is the instrument of
autocratic absolutism. It causes me no alarm whatever when it is
developed under free institutions, guaranteed and protected by
ministerial responsibility.
Whatever said to the contrary, by prejudiced and designing writers,
imbued with the extravagant notions of a narrow and fanatical
"Nationalism", Canada, the most important of the autonomous Colonies of
the British Empire, is freer than ever. Like all the other nations, she
suffers from disastrous events shaking the whole worldly edifice, but
she is none the less the absolute mistress of the initiative of whatever
efforts she considers her duty to make under those trying circumstances.
England has imposed nothing upon Canada, has asked nothing from Canada,
since the beginning of the war. She has, of course, accepted, with much
pleasure and gratitude, the help we have freely offered and given her.
Let our "Nationalists", in their inspired unfairness, say, if they like,
that Canada, like all the Allies defensively fighting, was forced in the
conflict by the imperious necessity of the situation created by those
who expected to reach the goal of their ambition. But they have no
right to charge Great Britain to have coerced the Dominion, against her
will, to join in the struggle which the British Government had done
their utmost to prevent.
If it was not giving to this work too wide a range, I would like to
undertake an historical sketch of all the good the British
constitutional system has produced in the United Kingdom and in the
Colonies. I shall quote only a few of the most important examples.
In my opinion, the one development in England's history, since the close
of the eighteenth century, most interesting to the French Canadians, is
certainly that which resulted in the emancipation of the Roman Catholics
of the United Kingdom.
To persuade my French Canadian countrymen of the good to be wrought by
the patriotic use of the British institutions, I explained to them that
at the beginning of the last century, the Roman Catholics of the United
Kingdom enjoyed no political rights. They were neither electors, nor
eligible to the House of Commons. They asked that justice be done to
them. True statesmen, high and fair minded, admitted the justice of
their claims and supported them. The ensuing political contest lasted
more than twenty years.
To obtain the proposed change in the long standing laws of the realm
from an exclusively Protestant electorate, was indeed a great task to
accomplish. The public men supporting the Roman Catholics' claims were
courageous and eloquent. They carried the day. Have not the true friends
of political freedom every reason to congratulate themselves that a
great measure of justice granting political rights to Roman Catholics
was voted by an Electorate and a Parliament exclusively Protestant.
King George IV, through fear that his Royal prerogative might be
impaired by the change, was hostile to it. He was persuaded to agree to
the measure by Sir Robert Peel, the life long opponent of Roman Catholic
emancipation. Whatever were the religious convictions and feelings of
Sir Robert Peel, he was a statesman of a high class. As all the leading
public men of England, he had a broad conception of the duties of the
chief adviser of the Crown, and of the true spirit of the British
constitution. The voice of the nation having spoken in no uncertain
sounds, the national will must be followed. He plainly said so to His
Majesty who yielded. Then, in a most admirable speech, he--Sir Robert
Peel--moved himself the passing of the bill granting justice to the
Roman Catholics, carried it through the two Houses of Parliament and had
it sanctioned by the King.
A great act of national justice always receives its due reward. The
Roman Catholics have been faithful and loyal subjects. George IV and his
successors have lived to see many evident proofs of their loyal
devotion, more especially since the opening of the present war.
The final success of the free discussion of the question of granting to
the Roman Catholics of the United Kingdom all the rights enjoyed by the
British subjects of all the other religious denominations, carried in
spite of difficulties not easily overcome, is certainly one of the
greatest and most honorable triumphs that Political Liberty has ever
obtained. I was often deeply moved at reading the historic account of
that most interesting debate in Parliament, on the public platform and
in the press. More and more, the conviction was firmly impressed on my
mind and soul that a great people accomplishing a grand act of justice
gives a most salutary example to posterity deserving the admiration and
gratitude of all generations to come.
I was only appreciating with justice and fairness the part played by
England in Canada, in telling my French Canadian countrymen that they
enjoyed the political rights of British subjects many years before the
same privileges and justice was granted to the Roman Catholics of the
United Kingdom. That much in answer to the charge of our fanatical
extremists that England and her Government always wanted to oppress the
French Canadians on account of their religious faith.
Without going back to the eventful days of _Magna Charta_ and of the
_Bill of Rights_, both embodying the fundamental constitutional
principles which were finally bound to overcome the last pretentions of
absolutism of yore, I considered a short review, in broad lines, of the
work performed by the British Electorate and the Imperial Parliament,
during the last century, would help in destroying in the minds of my
French readers the prejudices forced upon them by "Nationalist" writers.
That great work is principally illustrated by eight important measures
of general interest.
I have just mentioned that most honourable one emancipating the Roman
Catholics of Great Britain.
Shortly after, it was followed by that abolishing the Corn Laws after a
protracted and very interesting discussion. That important measure was
also carried on the proposition of the same Sir Robert Peel, for a long
time its determined opponent. The manufacturing population, increasing
so rapidly, would soon have been starved by the continuously augmenting
cost of bread. Sir Robert Peel foresaw the fearful consequences sure to
ensue, if no relief was granted to millions threatened with hunger. He
was, as I have already said, too much of a statesman to hesitate in
doing his duty. He gave up his own opinion and advised his Sovereign to
do away with the Corn Laws, the repeal of which he had Parliament to
vote.
With the advent of Queen Victoria, ministerial responsibility for all
the acts of the Sovereign became definitely the fundamental principle of
the British constitution.
Complete ministerial responsibility, once fully recognized in Great
Britain, was without delay granted to all the British colonies having
representative institutions.
The abolition of slavery all over the British Empire is, every one must
admit, a political development of first magnitude, one doing the
greatest possible honour to the great nation having first taken the
glorious initiative of granting to the black race the justice ordered by
Christianity. It is undoubtedly a very valuable reform to the credit of
England.
The Imperial Parliament realized that the constitutional regime of the
United Kingdom could not bear all the fruits to be expected from it with
an electorate restricted to privileged classes. To support such a
splendid edifice, admirable in structure and strength, a larger basic
foundation, more solid, laid deep in the national soil, was required.
After a long political struggle, freedom was once more triumphant in the
Motherland. The first great Reform Bill of 1832 was the starting point
of successive legislative enactments, enlarging the franchise, calling
to the exercise of political rights various classes of the people,
bringing up the British electorate to the glorious standard of being one
of the freest, the most enlightened, and most independent in the world.
The crowning measure of this extensive political reform has been the
Bill of 1917 providing for the addition of some 8,000,000 voters to the
roll, including about 6,000,000 women.
The rotten boroughs of old were abolished and replaced by a much better
redistribution of electoral divisions.
Dating from 1867, great autonomous federal colonies, with full Sovereign
rights in the administration of all their interior affairs, have been
created by Imperial charters. The Canadian, Australian, South African,
and New Zealand Dominions, of a total territorial area exceeding
7,000,000 square miles, with a total population of over 25,000,000,
nearly 20,000,000 of which belong to the white race, have commenced
their new political career with all the confidence and the hopes
inspired by their free institutions.
Finally, the Imperial Parliament passed a law granting Home Rule to
Ireland. Unfortunately, the war, so disastrous in many ways, prevented
the immediate carrying out of the will of Parliament, certainly
representative of that of the nation. But this vexed question must at
last be settled once for all. It is to be hoped that the day is not far
distant when it will be removed from the political arena by a solution
satisfactory to Ireland, to England and to the whole Empire.
Besides all those very important measures of political reform, the
British Parliament has passed many laws of urgent social improvement.
The crowning act of the Imperial Parliament has been its determined
attitude for the maintenance of peace through a long series of years.
If all the above enumeration of measures of widespread influence for the
general good is to be called Imperialism, I say without hesitation that
it is an Imperialism worth favouring. The world will never have too much
of it.