PLANS. CONCLUSION.
'There is not the least probability that the British
constitution would be hurt by the union of Great Britain with
the colonies, That constitution, on the contrary, would be
completed by it, and seems to be imperfect without it. The
assembly which deliberates and decides concerning the affairs of
every part of the Empire, in order to be properly informed,
ought certainly to have representatives from every part of it.
That this union, however, could be easily effectuated, or that
difficulties and great difficulties might not occur in the
execution, I do not pretend. I have yet heard of none, however,
which appear insurmountable.'----Adam Smith's _Wealth of
Nations_.
THE advocates of national consolidation have been constantly
subjected, as everyone familiar with current discussion knows,
to two diametrically opposite forms of criticism. They are
vigorously reproached by writers like Mr. Goldwin Smith for not
stating in detail the method by which their purposes are to be
accomplished; they are ridiculed by others as people who aim at
binding together by means of a 'cut and dried plan' an Empire
which has hitherto depended upon slow processes of growth for
its constitutional development. It will be well to form a just
estimate of these contradictory lines of criticism.
{297}
The demand so often made for a formal and detailed statement of
the precise constitutional methods by which national unity is to
be secured appears to me to be put forward in defiance of the
teachings of history. The grounds upon which this opinion is
based are obvious to anyone who studies the methods by which
Federal organization has been effected in the past.
Take first the case of the United States. The time between the
recognition of American Independence in 1783 and the adoption of
the Federal constitution in 1788 has been well called the
'critical period of American history.' During this period of
strenuous agitation Alexander Hamilton, Madison, and other
American statesmen had freely discussed in a general way their
ideas upon Federal union, and had made many but widely divergent
attempts to outline the main principles upon which it should be
based.
Still, when the famous convention which met in 1787, eleven
years after the declaration of independence, entered upon its
discussions, it had to deal, not with any single plan, but with
many contradictory plans, brought forward by states or
individuals. It is now known that weeks and indeed months spent
in anxious consultation elapsed before even the most sanguine
among the delegates began to feel assurance that a plan which
would harmonize conflicting ideas could be devised. Even when
the Federal constitution was at length drafted, and Alexander
Hamilton, at the last session of the convention, made {298} a
final plea for its adoption, he emphasized his demand for the
sacrifice of personal preferences by pointing out how remote its
provisions were from the ideas which he had at the outset
entertained and had indeed supported throughout the discussions.
It was at a later period that Hamilton and other leaders of the
Federation movement made their contributions to the famous
'Federalist,' a series of discussions avowedly written with a
view to secure popular support for a plan which had previously,
however, only been elaborated by the united wisdom of the
trained statesmanship of the country[1].
The discussion of Canadian Confederation had been conducted only
upon general lines up to the time when the leading public men of
Canada, drawn alike from all political parties, met in
conference at Quebec in 1866. The Federal system of the United
States had given general direction to the public thought, but
the actual scheme by which Confederation was accomplished had
been barely outlined in the minds of a few of the principal
delegates; the resolutions at first proposed were submitted to
much criticism and revision, and the final form of the
constitution was only adopted after weeks of earnest discussion.
Even Sir John Macdonald admitted that on the quite {299}
fundamental question of whether the union should or should not
be Legislative, he only yielded his own convictions to the
manifest objection of the majority in the Conference.
The agitation for Federal Union in Australia has gone on for
many years; the examples of both the United States and Canada
have been open to Australian study, and hence the easy
construction of a system might have been assumed. Yet it was
only when the responsible statesmen of the different colonies,
and of the different political parties in these colonies, had
met in general conference that a formal plan other than the
essays of amateurs was placed before the public.
We have in our own generation seen the union of Italy and that
of Germany consummated under the strain of intense national
passion, and yet we know that even the chief agents in working
out those great movements could only feel their way as they went
along, taking advantage of opportunities and advancing with the
advance of public sentiment--and that it was only when near
their goal that they saw clearly the precise form which national
unity would take.
One may therefore with some confidence appeal to history in
support of the position that no great work of national
consolidation has ever been carried out which started from a
defined initial plan. The plan has been the crown of effort, not
its starting-point.
{300}
For this there are two manifest reasons. Years of discussion and
agitation are almost necessary, especially under free popular
constitutions, before that public opinion can be formed which
enables statesmen to determine what sacrifices or concessions
communities are willing to make to secure even a great end.
Again, only statesmen practically and closely in touch with the
people, familiar with the passions or prejudices of the
communities concerned, and accustomed, moreover, to the work of
practical administration, are able to give adequate
constitutional expression to aspirations or desires for
unity--necessarily more or less vague even when vehement; they
alone can judge where compromise or concession must be made, or
where it would be fatal.
It is on such grounds as these that advocates of the more
complete political unity of the Empire have hitherto chiefly
confined themselves, to pointing out the fundamental defects of
the existing system, to the inculcation of principles, the study
of facts, and the dissemination of information bearing upon the
question. They have directed their efforts to bringing about
conferences of statesmen duly qualified to deal with the
questions at issue, and at the same time to creating a public
opinion which would justify such conferences in taking vigorous
action. They have felt that the formulation of detailed plans
should be left for statesmen who had received a mandate from the
people, and who would be responsible to the people for the
results of their decisions.
{301}
This policy constitutes the best answer to those who ridicule or
reproach them with attempting to bind the Empire together by
some preconceived system of their own. The only plan to which
they look forward is such a one as may be the outcome of the
will of the people and the wisdom of responsible statesmen
representing the different parts of the Empire.
While the demand for a formal and detailed plan is illogical,
the suggestion of plans is useful and helpful so far as they
give definiteness to men's thought, and so help to form or
strengthen public opinion.
But in approaching the study of possible plans we are met by a
primary consideration.
There are clearly two ways in which national unity might be
attained. One would be by a great act of constructive
statesmanship, such as that which gave a constitution to the
United States, that which confederated Canada, that which is
doing the same for Australia, that which in other states has
changed an old system for a new. Such an effort is what people
have undertaken when they saw before them a great national
problem, knew distinctly what they wished to accomplish, and
were ready to run the risks always involved in radical change
for the sake of the end to be obtained by new organization. To
make such an effort requires statesmen with courage to lead, and
with judgment to plan so as to command public approval; courage
and judgment such as {302} those which unified Germany and
Italy, or those which federated the United States and Canada. On
a smaller scale we have in the history of the United Kingdom
examples of this bold and definite statesmanship, as opposed to
slow constitutional growth and change, in the acts of Union with
Ireland and Scotland, or in the Reform Bills of half a century
ago which gave to the vast but newly-formed industrial centres
their true weight in the government of the country. To make
decisive constitutional changes to meet distinct national
necessities is strictly in keeping with our political
traditions. An attempt to federate the Empire by a great act of
political reconstruction would therefore differ from other
events in our history not so much in kind as in degree. If the
task to be undertaken seems great, we must remember that it
would be faced in order to deal with facts of national growth
and change without precedent in human history.
It can scarcely be denied that at any time circumstances may
arise which would almost compel such an act of reconstruction.
The demand of a single great colony to know the terms on which
it might remain within the Empire as an alternative to
independence would make the question practical at once. A great
struggle for national safety or national existence would
probably have the same effect. That the public mind should be
prepared to deal intelligently with such a question is the
strongest reason for the careful education of popular opinion on
all matters relating to our national position.
{303}
There is, however, another very different method by which the
object in view may be attained or at least approached with the
prospect of final attainment. Instead of radical change and
reconstruction we may look to a policy of gradual but steady
adaptation of existing national machinery to the new work which
must be done.
This method commends itself more especially to thinkers in the
mother-land, who are accustomed to consider that the supreme
merit of the British institution consists in the fact that it is
not a written rule,--not a system struck off at white heat by
the efforts of legislators, but is, in the main, the result of a
progressive historical development. To them further progress
would seem safer if pursued on similar lines. The policy seems
of less consequence to colonists, living as they do in countries
going through rapid changes, and lending themselves more readily
to new organization.
The ideal of Federation which naturally presents itself to the
mind is one which provides a supreme Parliament or Council,
national not merely in name but in reality, because containing
in just proportion representatives of all the self-governing
communities of the Empire. Such a body, relegating the
management of local affairs to local Governments, and devoting
its attention to a clearly defined range of purely Imperial
concerns, would seem to satisfy a great national necessity. It
would secure representation for all the great interests of the
Empire, it {304} would bring together those best fitted to give
advice on Imperial matters, and it would be free from that
overwhelming responsibility for petty administration which now
paralyzes, and at times renders ridiculous, the supreme council
of the greatest nation in the world.
This, it seems to me, is the ideal which must be kept in view as
the ultimate goal of our national aspiration and effort. It is a
reasonable ideal, one which, as we have seen, long since
commended itself to the philosophic mind of Adam Smith, and
which has today, under the changed conditions of intercourse,
infinitely more to justify it, and infinitely less to hinder its
attainment than in his time. Even Burke, to whom it also
occurred as a reasonable political conception, would have
hesitated to employ the phrase, _opposuit natura_, with which he
dismissed it, could he have grasped the possibility of what
steam and the telegraph have done during the last half century.
The realization of some such an ideal as this--a common
representative body, Parliament or Council, directing the common
policy of the Empire, while absolute independence of local
government is secured for the various members--may fairly be
looked upon as the only ultimate alternative to national
disintegration, the only thing which can fully satisfy our
Anglo-Saxon instincts of self-government, and give finality to
our political system.
Meanwhile I have found that practical statesmen throughout the
Empire, even those most devoted to {305} the cause of national
unity, while recognizing that the difficulties constantly tend
to diminish, look upon the immediate realization of this ideal
as impracticable, or as involving too great a political effort,
too sweeping a change in the existing machinery of national
government. They turn themselves to the consideration of
measures which will by gradual steps and a process of
constitutional growth lead up to the desired end.
Prominent among such measures must be placed the proposal to
summon periodical conferences of duly qualified representatives
of the great colonies to consult with the home government and
with each other on all questions of common concern. The public
recognition of the right of consultation, the formal summoning
of such conferences by the Head of the State, would of itself be
a signal proof to the outside world of the reality of national
unity, a decisive step towards its complete attainment. By
bringing the leading statesmen of the colonies from time to time
into immediate contact with those of the mother-land, the
opportunity would be furnished for that personal understanding
which becomes more and more necessary in the conduct of politics
and diplomacy. In proportion as dignity is given to these
conferences, and as their decisions are carried into effect,
their influence on the policy of the Empire would increase till,
it is believed, they would either themselves develop into an
adequate Federal council, or would have gained an authority and
experience entitling them to indicate the lines on which such a
council could be created.
{306}
The Conference of 1887, though merely tentative, proved how
great is the variety of subjects which may usefully come under
the consideration of such gatherings. New questions are
constantly arising. A single illustration may be given. The
right of Canada to make independent treaties has been so
strongly urged by the leaders of the Opposition in the Dominion
Parliament that it is difficult to see how, when next in power,
they can avoid pressing the claim upon the Imperial Government.
In the constitution outlined by the Australian convention at
Sydney 'external affairs and treaties' were among the subjects
specially reserved for the Federal Government. A prominent
Victorian barrister has pointed out that this provision would
bring up the whole question of the nature and limits of the
Imperial connection. Newfoundland is now claiming the right to
form separate treaties with foreign powers, and has thereby come
into conflict with Canadian interests. It is clear that such
questions should be settled on broad principles of general
application. The fixing of such principles would of itself
justify a conference of representatives of all the communities
concerned. But conferences are occasional, and it would still be
necessary to provide some means of more continuous contact
between the thought of the Governments of the colonies and that
of the mother-land. On this point of an adequate constitutional
nexus we have many important suggestions, to a few of which
reference should be made.
{307}
Sir Frederick Pollock, in an article contributed to an English
journal in March, 1891, says: 'Is there not any way, short of a
gigantic constitutional experiment, of providing a visible
symbol and rallying-point for the feeling of Imperial patriotism
which has so notably increased within the last ten years? I
think there is. One part of our constitution retains, not only
in form, but in fact, the vigour of perpetual youth, and is
capable of indefinite new growth as occasion may require,
without doing any violence to established usage. I mean the
Privy Council. From the Privy Council there have sprung within
modern times the Board of Trade, the Judicial Committee, the
Education Department, the Universities Committee, and virtually
though not quite formally, the Local Government Board, and the
several commissions now merged in the Agricultural Board. Why
should there not be a Colonial and Imperial Committee of the
Privy Council, on which the interests of the various parts of
the Empire might be represented without the disturbance of any
existing institution whatever, and whose functions might safely
be left, to a large extent, to be moulded and defined by
experience? ... It might be summoned to confer with the Cabinet,
the Foreign or Colonial Minister, the Admiralty, or the War
Office, at the discretion of the Prime Minister or of the
department concerned; and its proceedings would be confidential.
... It is hardly needful to mention the Agents-General of the
self-governing colonies as the kind of persons who {308} should
be members of the Committee now suggested, being, of course,
first made Privy Councillors. ... I believe that such a
Committee might give us something much better than a written
constitution for the British Empire; it might become the centre
of an unwritten one.'
In the _Nineteenth Century_ for October, 1891, Sir Charles
Tupper suggests a plan similar in principle to that of Sir
Frederick Pollock, but more clearly defined. Assuming that at no
distant date the Australasian and the North African groups of
colonies will be federated, as the Canadian provinces now are,
he proposes that each of these three great British communities
shall be represented in this country by leading members of the
Cabinets of the countries to which they belong, ministers going
out of office when their own governments are changed, and so
permanently representing the views of the government in power.
Such a minister should in England be sworn _ex officio_ a member
of the Privy Council, and though not a member of the Imperial
Cabinet would be in a constitutional position to be called upon
to meet it on every question of foreign policy or when any
question that touched the interest of a colony was being
considered. To this suggestion Sir Charles Tupper lends not only
the great weight of his personal authority, but he supports his
proposal by the expressed opinion of men like Earl Grey, the
Marquis of Lorne, W. E. Forster, and others.
Once more, Lord Thring, looking at the question {309} as a
constitutional expert, has stated his opinion that the best way
in which the colonies could at present directly intervene in the
general policy of the Empire would be by elevating the position
of Agents-General to one akin to that of a minister of a foreign
state, and by giving them in addition, as members of the Privy
Council, the right of constitutional access to the British
Government. This, he thinks, would satisfy the immediate
necessities of the case, and would pave the way for the fuller
representation which must come with the fuller acceptance of
national responsibility.
Nothing can more fully show the change that has come over the
public mind than the fact that proposals such as these are now
made by constitutional authorities and responsible public men.
It illustrates a complete reversal of the policy which was
assumed without question by the statesmen of the last
generation. The discussion has become one not of the principle
of unity, but of ways and means to arrive at the most
satisfactory constitutional nexus between the mother-land and
her offshoots.
But it must not be thought that discovering the precise point of
constitutional connection is the only or even the most important
step towards effective unity. While the constitutional question
is being debated there is much which Parliaments can do, much in
which every voter in the Empire, by the use of his political
influence can assist, to forward the cause of political
unification. Foremost among these practical measures may be put
the establishment of the cheapest possible {310} postal and
telegraphic communication. The practical advantages which would
flow from an inter-Imperial system of Penny Postage have been so
often and so effectively presented by those who have given
special attention to the question, that it is unnecessary to
dwell upon them here. But from another aspect it may be said
that when the emigrant of the remotest colony knows that,
because he is a British citizen, the penny stamp upon his letter
will carry the home news of father, mother, brother or sister
over all the extent of a world-wide empire, such a fact will be
more to the nation than the strength of many ironclads in the
stronger national sentiment, the deeper feeling of national
unity which it will evoke.
The same may be said of extended and cheapened telegraphic
communication, which even now makes possible an extraordinary
sympathy of national thought.
The beginning which has been made in co-operation for naval
defence and in the strengthening of posts essential to common
security, can with advantage be carried much further than it has
yet been.
The addition to the judicial committee of the Privy Council of
representative judges of the greater colonies, on the same
principle that Indian law is now represented, is a practical
measure which would give a more complete judicial unity to the
Empire, and perhaps lay the foundation of a supreme court of
final appeal for the federated nation. These are but {311}
illustrations of lines on which immediate action can be taken
and progress made.
But the work of unifying a great nation is not one that can or
should be left to legislators alone. Statesmen must have behind
them the strength of a trained and intelligent public opinion;
the warmth of national passion. In forming such a public opinion
and developing such a passion there is abundant room for the
patriotic effort of every believer in the greatness and goodness
of the cause, whatever may be his walk in life.
Chambers of Commerce, by the careful and practical study which
they are able to give to commercial relations; by the
opportunities which their associations furnish of bringing
together the representatives of those trading interests upon
which the Empire has been so largely built up, should be able to
exercise a profound influence on public thought, and provide
important information for the guidance of political leaders.
The discussion in working men's clubs of the industrial and
political relations of the Empire is most desirable. So far from
being remote from the ordinary interests of the working man,
such discussions would be found to touch more closely than
almost any others upon his daily work, wages, and food. It may
with confidence be said, that a working man who does not have
some fair knowledge of inter-Imperial relations is not fit to
exercise the franchise for the Imperial Parliament.
{312}
The equipment of all public reading-rooms and working men's
clubs with maps specially designed to stimulate geographical
imagination, and books to furnish accurate geographical
information about the Empire would serve a highly useful
purpose.
Upon the journalism of the Empire a great responsibility is
laid. It is only a few years since even the most prominent
English journals published colonial news under the head of
foreign intelligence. Canadian news came to London by way of
Philadelphia. All that is now changed. Four or five of the
leading London dailies, and most of the greater provincial
journals, now make the careful and conscientious study of
colonial problems a marked feature of their work. One suggestion
perhaps remains to be made. If the British interests at stake
determine such questions, the time will probably soon come when
in three if not four of the outlying parts of the Empire the
greatest English journals should have as able and as well paid
correspondents as in the great capitals of Europe. The work of
such men, devoting their time to the study of colonial
conditions, would do much to make English information accurate,
and to create in the colonies confidence in English opinion on
their affairs.
It is a crying evil that much of the English news published in
the daily Canadian press, reaches it, even now, by way of New
York, and has characteristics specially given to it to meet the
demands of anti-British classes of American newspaper readers.
Canadian {313} journalism can alone apply the remedy of direct
communication carried on under reliable control.
In schools there is an immense work to be done. The cultivation
of national sentiment in the minds of the young, on the basis of
sound knowledge, historical, geographical and industrial, is not
only a legitimate work, but a primary duty for the schools of a
country. Especially is this true of countries where good
government rests on the intelligence of the masses. Above all is
it true for a nation which has the great birthright of free
popular institutions; which has more than once stood as the
bulwark of modern liberty, as it may have to stand again; which
has traditions behind and prospects ahead fitted to fire the
noblest and purest enthusiasm. Somewhat extended observation has
led me to conclude that there is a very great lack of historical
and geographical teaching in portions of the Empire. The
deficiency is most marked on the historical side in the
colonies, and especially in parts of Australia; on the
geographical side in the mother-land. The remark applies equally
to elementary and to secondary schools. It seems a lamentable
thing that any British child abroad should grow up without
having felt the splendid inspiration to be drawn from the study
of British history; a disgraceful thing that any British child
in the mother-land should grow up to exercise the franchise
without a fair idea of the geography of the Empire whose destiny
will be influenced by his vote.
I appeal to the teachers of our British world, and {314} to all
who have to do with the direction of its education, to remedy
this deficiency. The spread of educational facilities has placed
in their hands a wonderful leverage with which to give direction
to the destinies of the Empire. One hesitates whether to press
this duty most strongly upon those who control the 'Public' and
secondary schools, which chiefly educate the professional and
political classes, or the common schools which give to the
voting masses most of the early training which they get. Let
both equally feel the significance of this great national
responsibility.
This work of giving education upon the immediate problems of
national life, begun at school, should be carried on at our
colleges and universities. The author of the 'Expansion of
England' has shown how much can be done from a single centre and
by a single teacher when the highest resources of historical
knowledge and literary skill are turned to the elucidation of
national problems.
By manifold agencies and influences, then, is the problem of
British unity to be worked out. Our freedom, our national
traditions, our institutions, our Anglo-Saxon civilization, are
the common heritage of all. It is the business of all to labour
for their maintenance and for their security.
[1] 'In nothing could the flexibleness of Hamilton's intellect,
or the genuineness of his patriotism, have been more finely
shown than in the hearty zeal and transcendant ability with
which he now wrote in defence of a plan of government so
different from what he would have himself proposed.'----_The
Critical Period of American History_, p. 342, John Fiske.
[Illustration: Commercial and Strategic Chart of the British
Empire]
[Transcriber's Note: All spellings have been preserved as
printed.]