may, I think, truly say has nearly always prevailed among English
public servants. It is not an easy thing to secure honest and faithful
administration in remote countries, far from the supervision and
practical control of the central government. I think we may boast with
truth that England has attained this end, not indeed perfectly, but at
least to a greater degree than most other nations. The history of
Indian and colonial governors has never been written as a whole, but
it is well worthy of study. In the appointment of these men party has
always counted for something, and family has counted for something;
but they have never been the only considerations, and, on the whole, I
believe it will be found, if we consider the three elements of
character, capacity and experience, that our Indian and colonial
governors represent a higher level of ruling qualities than has been
attained by any line of hereditary sovereigns, or by any line of
elected presidents. In the period of the foundation of our Indian
Empire much was done that was violent and rapacious, but the best
modern research seems to show that the picture which a few years ago
was generally accepted had been greatly overcharged. The history of
Warren Hastings and his companions has been recently studied with
great knowledge and ability, and with the result that the more serious
opinions on the subject have been considerably modified. Much
exaggeration undoubtedly grew up in the last century, partly through
ignorance of Oriental affairs, and partly also through the eloquence
of Burke. There is no figure in English political history for which I
at least entertain a greater reverence than Edmund Burke. I believe
him to have been a man of transparent honesty, as well as of
transcendent genius; but his politics were too apt to be steeped in
passion, and he was often carried away by the irresistible force of
his own imagination and feelings. Misrepresentations were greatly
consolidated by the Indian History of James Mill, which was for a long
time the main, and indeed almost the only, source from which
Englishmen obtained their knowledge of Indian history. It was written,
as might be expected, with the strongest bias of hostility to the
English in India, yet I suspect that many superficial readers imagined
that a history which was so unquestionably dull must be at least
impartial and philosophical. Unfortunately, Macaulay relied greatly on
it, and, without having made any serious independent studies on the
subject, he invested some of its misrepresentations with all the
splendour of his eloquence. I believe all competent authorities are
now agreed that his essay on Warren Hastings, though it is one of the
most brilliant of his writings, is also one of the most seriously
misleading.
I am not prepared to say that the reaction of opinion produced by the
new school of Indian historians has not been sometimes carried too
far, but these writers have certainly dispelled much exaggeration and
some positive falsehood. They have shown that, although under
circumstances of extreme difficulty and extraordinary temptation, some
very bad things were done by Englishmen in India, these things were
neither as numerous nor as grave as has been alleged.
On the whole, too, it may be truly said that English colonial policy
in its broad lines has to a remarkable degree avoided grave errors.
The chief exception is to be found in the series of mistakes which
produced the American Revolution, and ended in the loss of our chief
American colonies. Yet even in this instance it is, I believe, coming
to be perceived that there is much more to be said for the English
case than the historians of the last generation were apt to imagine.
In imposing commercial restrictions on the colonies and endeavouring
to secure for the mother-country the monopoly of their trade, we
merely acted upon ideas that were then almost universally received,
and our commercial code was on the whole less illiberal than that of
other nations. Both Spain and France imposed restrictions on their
colonies which were far more severe, and the English restrictions were
at least mitigated by frequent partial relaxations and exceptions, by
some important monopolies granted in favour of the colonies in the
English market and by bounties encouraging several branches of
colonial produce. It is at least certain that under the large measure
of political liberty granted by the English Government to the English
colonies their material prosperity, even in the worst period of
commercial restriction, steadily and rapidly advanced. This has been
clearly shown by more than one writer on our side of the Atlantic, but
the subject has never been treated with more exhaustive knowledge and
more perfect impartiality than by an American writer--Mr. George
Beer--whose work on the Commercial Policy of England has recently been
published by Columbia College, in New York. No one will now altogether
defend Grenville's policy of taxing America by the Imperial
Parliament, but it ought not to be forgotten that it was expressly
provided that every farthing of this taxation was to be expended in
America, and devoted to colonial defence. England had just terminated
a great war, which, by expelling the French from Canada, had been of
inestimable advantage to her colonies, but which had left the
mother-country almost crushed by debt. All that Grenville desired was,
that the American colonies should provide a portion of the cost of
their own defence, as our great colonies are doing at the present
time, and he only resorted to Imperial taxation because he despaired
of achieving this end by any other means. The step which he took was
no doubt a false one. As is so often the case in England, it was made
worse by party changes and by party recriminations, and many later
mistakes aggravated and embittered the original dispute; but I think
an impartial reader of this melancholy chapter of English history will
come to the conclusion that these mistakes were by no means all on one
side.
It is a story which is certainly not without its lesson to our own
time. It is very improbable that any future statesman will follow the
example of George Grenville, and endeavour by Act of Parliament to
impose taxation on a self-governing colony; but it would be a grave
error to suppose that the danger of unwise parliamentary interference
in Indian and colonial affairs has diminished. Great as are the
advantages of telegraphs and newspapers in the government of the
Empire, they are not without their drawbacks. Government by telegraph
is a very dangerous thing, and there is, I fear, an increasing
tendency to override local knowledge, and to apply English standards
and methods of government to wholly un-English conditions.
Ill-considered resolutions of the House of Commons, often passed in
obedience to some popular fad, and without any real intention of
carrying them into effect; language used in Parliament which is often
due to no deeper motive than a desire to win the favour of some class
of voters in an English constituency, may do as much as serious
misgovernment to alienate great masses of British subjects beyond the
sea. All really competent judges are agreed that one of the first
conditions of successful government in India has been that Indian
questions have for the most part been kept out of the range of English
party politics, and that Indian government has been conducted on
principles essentially different from democratic government at home.
On the whole, however, it is impossible to review the colonial history
of England without being struck with the many serious dangers that
might easily have shattered the Empire, which were averted by wise
statesmanship and timely--or at least not fatally tardy--concession.
There was the question of the criminal population which we once
transported to Australia. In the early stage of the colony, when the
population was very sparse and the need for labour very imperative,
this was not regarded as in any degree a grievance; but the time came
when it became a grievance of the gravest kind, and the Imperial power
had at length the wisdom to abandon it. There was the question of the
different and hostile religious bodies existing in different portions
of the Empire, at a time when the monopoly of political power by the
members of a single Established Church, the exclusive endowment of its
clergy, and the maintenance of the purely Protestant character of the
English Government were cherished as religious duties by politicians
at home. Yet at this very time an established and endowed Roman
Catholic Church was flourishing in Canada, and there were numerous
examples throughout the British dominions of the concurrent endowment
of different forms of religious belief by the State,[5] while in India
it abstained, with an extreme, and sometimes even an exaggerated,
scrupulousness, from all measures that could by any possibility offend
the native religious prejudices. There was the question of
Slavery--though we were freed from the most difficult part of this
problem by the secession of America. In addition, however, to its
moral aspects, it affected most vitally the material prosperity of
some of our richest colonies; it raised the very dangerous
constitutional question of the right of the Imperial Parliament to
interfere with the internal affairs of a self-governing colony, and it
brought the Home Government into more serious collision with the local
Governments than any question since the American Revolution. Whatever
may be thought of the wisdom of the measures by which we abolished
slavery in our West Indian colonies, no one at least can deny the
liberality of a Parliament which voted from Imperial resources twenty
millions for the accomplishment of the work. There was the conflict of
race and creed which between 1830 and 1840 had brought Canada to
absolute rebellion, and threatened a complete alienation of Canadian
feeling from the mother-country. This discontent was effectually
allayed and dispelled by the union of Upper and Lower Canada under a
system of constitutional government of the most liberal character,
which gave the colonists on all subjects of internal legislation a
legislative independence that was in practice almost complete.
Considered as a measure of conciliation this has proved one of the
most successful of the nineteenth century, and in spite of a few
discordant notes it may be truly said that there are few greater
contrasts in the present reign than are presented between Canadian
feeling towards the mother-country when Queen Victoria ascended the
throne and Canadian feeling at the present hour. There was also the
great and dangerous task to be accomplished of adapting the system of
colonial government to the different stages of colonial development.
There was a time when the colonies were so weak that they depended
mainly on England for their protection; but, unlike some of the great
colonising Powers of ancient and modern times, England never drew a
direct tribute from her colonies, and, in spite of much unwise and
some unjust legislation, I believe there was never a time when they
were not on the whole benefited by the connection. Soon, however, the
colonies grew to the strength and maturity of nationhood, and the
mother-country speedily recognised the fact, and allowed no unworthy
or ungenerous fears to restrain her from granting them the fullest
powers, both of self-government and of federation. It is true that she
still sends out a governor--usually drawn from the ranks of
experienced and considerable English public men--to preside over
colonial affairs. It is true that she retains a right of veto which is
scarcely ever exercised except to prevent some intercolonial or
international dispute, some act of violence, or some grave anomaly in
the legislation of the Empire. It is true that colonial cases may be
carried, on appeal, to an English tribunal, representing the very
highest judicial capacity of the mother-country, and free from all
possibility and suspicion of partiality; but I do not believe that any
of these light ties are unpopular with any considerable section of the
colonists. On the other hand, though it would be idle to suppose that
our great colonies depend largely upon the mother-country, I believe
that most colonists recognise that there is something in the weight
and dignity attaching to fellow-membership and fellow-citizenship in
a great Empire--something in the protection of the greatest navy in
the world--something in the improved credit which connection with a
very rich centre undoubtedly gives to colonial finance.
It is the custom of our friends and neighbours on the Continent to
bestow much scornful remark on the egotism of English policy, which
attends mainly to the interests of the British Empire, and is not
ready to make war for an idea and in support of the interests of
others. I think, if it were necessary, we might fairly defend
ourselves by showing that in the past we have meddled with the affairs
of other nations quite as much as is reasonable. For my own part, I
confess that I distrust greatly these explosions of military
benevolence. They always begin by killing a great many men. They
usually end in ways that are not those of a disinterested
philanthropy. After all, an egotism that mainly confines itself to the
well-being of about a fifth part of the globe cannot be said to be of
a very narrow type, and it is essentially by her conduct to her own
Empire that the part of England in promoting the happiness of mankind
must be ultimately judged. It is indeed but too true that many of the
political causes which have played a great part on platforms, in
parties, and in Parliaments are of such a nature that their full
attainment would not bring relief to one suffering human heart, or
staunch one tear of pain, or add in any appreciable degree to the real
happiness of a single home. But most assuredly Imperial questions are
not of this order. Remember what India had been for countless ages
before the establishment of British rule. Think of its endless wars of
race and creed, its savage oppressions, its fierce anarchies, its
barbarous customs; and then consider what it is to have established
for so many years over the vast space from the Himalayas to Cape
Comorin a reign of perfect peace; to have conferred upon more than two
hundred and fifty millions of the human race perfect religious
freedom, perfect security of life, liberty, and property; to have
planted in the midst of these teeming multitudes a strong central
government, enlightened by the best knowledge of Western Europe, and
steadily occupied in preventing famine, alleviating disease,
extirpating savage customs, multiplying the agencies of civilisation
and progress. This is the true meaning of that system of government on
which Mr. Cobden looked with 'an eye of despair.' What work of human
policy--I would even say what form of human philanthropy--has ever
contributed more largely to reduce the great sum of human misery and
to add to the possibilities of human happiness?
And if we turn to the other side of our Empire, although it is quite
true that our great free colonies are fully capable of shaping their
destinies for themselves, may we not truly say that these noble
flowers have sprung from British and from Irish seeds? May we not say
that the laws, the Constitutions, the habits of thought and character
that have so largely made them what they are, are mainly of English
origin? May we not even add that it is in no small part due to their
place in the British Empire that these vast sections of the globe,
with their diverse and sometimes jarring interests, have remained at
perfect peace with us and with each other, and have escaped the curse
of an exaggerated militarism, which is fast eating like a canker into
the prosperity of the great nations of Europe?
When responsible government was conceded by the British Government to
her more important colonies, it was done in the fullest and largest
measure. Although the mother-country remained burdened with the task
of defending them she made no reservation securing for herself free
trade with her colonies or even preferential treatment, and she
surrendered unconditionally to the local legislatures the waste and
unoccupied lands which had long been regarded in England as held in
trust for the benefit of the Empire as a whole. The growing belief
that the connection with the colonies was likely to be a very
transitory one, and also the belief that free-trade doctrines were
likely speedily to prevail, no doubt influenced English statesmen, and
it is not probable that any of them foresaw that both Canada and
Australia would speedily make use of their newly acquired power to
impose heavy duties on English goods. The strongly protectionist
character which the English colonies assumed at a time when England
had committed herself to the most extreme free-trade policy tended no
doubt to separation, and when the English Government adopted the
policy of withdrawing its garrisons from the colonies, when the North
American colonies, with the full assent of the mother-country, formed
themselves into a great federation, and when a movement in the same
direction sprang up in Australia, it was the opinion of some of the
most sagacious statesmen and thinkers in England that the time of
separation was very near.[6]
On the whole, however, these predictions have hitherto been falsified.
The federation of North America and, at a later period, the federation
of Australia have been followed by an increased and not a diminished
disposition on the side of the colonists to draw closer the ties with
the mother-country, while in England the popular imagination has been
more and more impressed with the growing magnitude and importance of
her colonial dominions. The tendency towards great political
agglomerations based upon an affinity of race, language and creed,
which has produced the Pan-Slavonic movement and the Pan-Germanic
movement, and which chiefly made the unity of Italy, has not been
without its influence in the English-speaking world, and it is felt
that a close union between its several parts is essential if it is
fully to maintain its relative position under the new conditions of
the world. The English-speaking nations comprise the most rapidly
increasing, the most progressive, the most happily situated nations of
the earth, and if their power and influence are not wasted by internal
quarrels their type of civilisation must one day become dominant in
the world.
Whether their harmony and unity are likely to be attained is one of
the great problems of the future, but the ideal is one which every
patriotic Englishman should at least set before him. It is not one
which can be called an assured destiny, and to many the chances seem
on the whole against it. Unexpected collisions of interest or passion
or ambition may at any time mar the prospects, and in great
democracies largely influenced by demagogues and by an irresponsible
and anonymous Press there are always powerful agencies that do not
make for peace. Immediate party interests both at home and in the
colonies too frequently blind men to distant and ulterior
consequences, and the many ill-wishers to the British Empire are sure
to direct their policy largely to its disruption. The natural bond of
union of a great Empire is economical unity, binding its several parts
together by a common system of free trade and by a common commercial
policy towards other Powers. Unfortunately the profoundly different
policy adopted on these matters in England and her colonies has made
such a Union almost impracticable, and it is quite possible for the
English colonies to be united by closer commercial ties with foreign
countries than with the mother-country. The question of the common
defence of the Empire and the question of the representation of the
colonies in Imperial politics are also questions of great difficulty
and of pressing importance.
Something has been done showing at least a disposition to meet them.
The concession of preferential duties in favour of England by some of
our most important colonies, the small subsidies made to the
maintenance of the British navy, and the far more important military
assistance given by the colonies to the mother-country in the Egyptian
and the South African wars are indicative of the feeling of closer
unity which has grown up between England and her colonies, and in
addition to the appointment of Agents-General, the introduction of a
few eminent colonial judges into the Judicial Committee of the Privy
Council, which is the Supreme Court of Appeal of the Empire, has given
the colonies some real representation in Imperial affairs. Much more,
however, in this direction may be done. There have been several
instances of eminent colonials obtaining seats in the English House of
Commons to the great advantage of the Empire, but a regular
representation of the colonies in this assembly may, I think, be
dismissed as altogether impracticable. The mere distance is a
sufficient objection, and at least nine-tenths of the business of the
House of Commons deals with purely English questions depending for
their wise solution on inherited English habits and on compromises
with existing institutions, and a large proportion of them are
problems which have been already dealt with in the colonies on other
grounds and without any of the complexities of an old country. What
reason could there be for calling in the colonists to adjudicate,
perhaps even to turn the balance, on questions relating to English
education, English licensing laws, English taxation, English
dispositions of property? The difficulty of distinguishing between
Imperial and local questions would be insuperable. The division of the
House into two categories of members with distinct spheres of voting
power would prove unworkable, and the colonial representatives would
during most of their time in Parliament have nothing to do. An
increase in the number of peers drawn from the colonies would be less
impracticable, but there would be much that is invidious in the
choice; much danger that the colonial peers living in England would
get out of touch with the colonies and become an object of envy and
jealousy; and English lawyers do not think that a large infusion of
colonial law peers would raise the competence of the Supreme Judicial
Tribunal of the Empire, which represents at present the highest legal
talent and attainments in England and deals mainly with English legal
questions. A Consultative Council, however, consisting of the
Agents-General and perhaps reinforced by additional colonial
representatives and dealing exclusively with Imperial questions, does
not seem wholly impracticable, and many competent judges believe that
a supreme legal tribunal for dealing with inter-colonial and
international conflicts might be constructed which would be both more
efficient and more representative than any that now exists.
It is probable, however, that the true tie that must unite the
different portions of the Empire must be mainly a moral one. In the
conditions of modern life no power is likely to maintain long a vast,
scattered, heterogeneous Empire if the central governing power within
it has declined; if through want of efficiency, or moral energy, or
moral purity, it ceases to win the respect of its several parts. It is
no less true that the cohesion can only be permanently maintained by
the wide diffusion of a larger and Imperial patriotism, pervading the
whole like a vital principle; binding men by the ties of pride and of
affection to the great Empire to which they belong, and subordinating
to its maintenance local and party and class interests. If this spirit
dies out, the movement of disintegration is sure to begin. No
political machinery, no utilitarian calculation, will in the long run
be powerful enough to arrest it.
What may be the future place of these islands in the government of the
world no human being can foretell. Nations, as history but too plainly
shows, have their periods of decay as well as their periods of growth.
The balance of power in the world is constantly shifting. Maxims and
influences very different from those which made England what she is
are in the ascendant, and the clouds upon the horizon are neither few
nor slight. But, whatever fate may be in store for these islands, and
for the political unity we so justly prize, we may at least
confidently predict that no revolution in human affairs can now
destroy the future ascendancy of the English language and of the
Imperial race. Whatever misfortunes, whatever humiliations the future
may reserve to us, they cannot deprive England of the glory of having
created this mighty Empire.
Not Heaven itself upon the Past has power.
But what has been, has been--and we have had our hour.
FOOTNOTES:
[3] _Autobiography_, ii. pp. 234, 235.
[4] Mr. Bayard.
[5] See the enumeration of these endowments in Gladstone's _State and
Church_, Ch. IX.
[6] See Cairnes' _Political Essays_, 49-50, 56.
IRELAND IN THE LIGHT OF HISTORY