Idttro to tlit fititur.
COLONIAL C.ONSIILTATION versus SEPAEATIOIL Hams, 8th August 1854.
SIR—Taking strongly as I do your own view as to the shape which it Jo
most desirable to give to the inevitably approaching change of our relations with the Colonies, I should be greatly obliged by your allowing me space for some reflections on the two able letters which under the signature of "J. R. G." appeared in your numbers of July 1st and July 8th. The present almost autonomous condition of our larger Colonies, subsisting under a theoretic subjection, can only produce confusion and misunderstanding while it lasts, and disaster when brought into contact with the first real obstruction or crisis in affairs. Mr. Howe's most interesting and significant speech, which formed the text of your own remarks, (June 24,) and of J. R. G.'s consequent letters, pro-
, as a solution of the difficulty, the consolidation of the Colonies with the Empire, by direct admission of their representatives into the Imperial Par- liament. The proposition has in its favour the authority of such names as Adam Smith and Franklin, and of the actual offer of the British Govern- ment to the United States in 1778, when bitter experience of the " Mother- oountr y " system had taught them wisdom, but too late. But I think J. It. G. has shelved the proposition finally. J. R. G., however, having dis- posed of one of Mr. Howe's alternatives, gives himself up to the other, namely, the establishment of the Colonies in separate nationality; and de- votes himself to the recommendation of a generous preparation for an honour- able and healthy alliance with them worthy of and inspired by the national spirit of our common origin. Now I am very reluctant to be driven to J. E. G.'s conclusion ; as, indeed, he allows himself to be. It seems to me, that it consigns England to a speedy degradation in the scale of nations. For conceive her stripped of Canada, West Indies, Australasia, and South Africa, and reduced to a mere emanci- pated Saxon colony herself : she might still he able to defend herself by sea; but even her navy would before long appear, amongst those of her gigantic progeny, much as her armies already seem in proportion to those of her Eu- ropean allies—only to be raised at all to the level of the world's increasing scale of operations by the ruinous and not inexhaustible resource of sub- sidies.
This little island wants not .energy, but only territory and basis to extend itself: its sea-girt home would become the citadel of one of the greatest of the empires which seem to foreshadow their approach in this last stage of the world's history. Is she to be doomed to the singular function which J. E. G. assigns to her—to be ever evincing a prolific vigour and tendency to spread over fresh territories, and a first-rate aptitude for raising offiiet emu- ramifies, merely to lose her offspring in the prime of their existence, just When their exuberant youth might gratefully, yet with mutual advantage, minister to her own necessities ? Surely if there be any mode in which all the national energies might be alike developed in the Colonial as in the central parts of the empire,—if the armies and navies of Canada and Australia might carry the meteor flag of Britain wherever British spirit burns, and the civil offices of all parts of the empire might offer scope impartially to the self-administrative instinct of the nation,—Queen Victoria and her successors need not under God's blessing, ever sink the pretensions of her ancestors to a first-rate position among the earth's potentates, even in whatever proportions the empires of the latter days may exceed the features of the past. The influences of such extended empire would be for peace ; whereas Colonial alliances would only present small powers of resistance against the general spirit of acquisition and aggression ; but beset England with ,all those jealousies and risks of war which spring from kindred rivalry, and which have hung about our relations with the United States. I weuld, the; prefer any possible modification of Colonial connexion, to even the most auspiciously commenced system of alliances, both on the score of peace and Meurity, and for the sake of the normal advantages of a sustained Colonial eonnexion to both the parties concerned. - To argue the point with correct views as to the nature of the connexion which England should attempt to maintain with her grown-up Colonies, we should ever bear in mind that the rights of citizenship are identical through- out the empire. This has rather been admitted of late in the abstract than acted upon in legislation. For instance, the opposition in the Imperial Par- liament to the Canadian Parliament's measures relating to the rebellion losses, clergy reserves, and constitutional reform, has practically rested on a denial of representative government to British citizens in Canada. The reference of the decision of a representative to the sanction of a non-representative legisla- ture, is merely the addition of mockery to a subversion of constitutional rights. It is not sufficiently borne in mind that nothing but the intervention of the Atlantic prevents Canada from being as fully incorporated with Great Bri- tain as Cornwall or Caithness ; and in considering the proper constitutional rights of Canadians, we should simply allow for the modification of their ex- ercise which that intervention of ocean—that is, which the impossibility of a personal attendance of representatives from all parts of Canada in West- minster—compels. The miraculous power of steam might in time annihilate this physical obstacle to absolute national unity ; but the severance has lasted too long to be annihilated in its effects. J. R. G. has convinced me of the moral impossibility. At all events, a Canadian Peerage could not now be created for a Colonial contribution to the House of Lords. One branch therefore of an united legislature is clearly unattainable. The Legislature, therefore, for Canadian purposes, must remain in Canada ; but with powers identical with those of the Legislature in London for British purposes.
There are, however, subjects of common, that is of Imperial interest, affecting alike the constituencies on both sides the ocean ; and the whole suestion before us is, whether some body representing the whole em- pire might not be constituted to deal with them. To get over the difficulty, as we have hitherto done, by allowing the Parliament at Westminster to dis- pose of all such questions—to consent to Imperial wars, and pronounce upon the treatment of neuti ale during those wars—to adopt Colonial frontiers, sanction the abandonment of Colonial fisheries, settle Imperial questions of trade, and so forth—is to ignore the rights of a section of our fellow-citizens becoming as strong and numerous as the central community, taxing them- selves.as the rest do by their representatives ; and, by the supposition, con- tributing their quota of forces as well as of supplies to her Majesty. If, then, the amalgamation of the several Colonial Parliaments with the Central l'orliament at Westminster is impossible, and the assumption by the latter. to dispose of questions equally affecting the constituents of the former IB unjust and cannot be much longer maintained, a new body seems wanted external to them all ; and if that can be devised, this Gordian knot may yet be unravelled, and needs no severance. ifutatis mutandi8, a sort of precedent offers itself to us in the Spanish " Council of the Indies."
Suppose a.Central Committee formed of delegates from the Representative Assemblies in every part of the Empire, Home and Colonial, to whom should be referred every question of policy affecting all of them, before it should be decided upon legislatively.
To such a Committee, all such questions as the United States discuss in Congress should be referred.
To them, to take-Shelia-instance of a motion of common interest raised by a private Member in the House of Commons, Mr. Phillimore's proposed address to her Majesty on the treatment of neutrals, if successful, should have been submitted onits way to her Majesty. To them, what quota of ships or troops should be furnished from each part of the empire for any general war would be referred.
If her Majesty might need Parliamentary advice or assistance in deciding any frontier question, this Committee would* a necessary channel through which that advice must pass a sifting process.
I have given sufficient outline of a tertium quid between the propoaitions of Mr. Howe and J. R. G. to provoke further discussion of a deeply interest. ing and important consideration; and, I hope, sufficient also to elicit same encouragement from both those high authorities, who are equally anxious with myself to avoid Colonial severance, and wbo deprecate the already to much adopted jargon of "necessary separation." As respects North America in particular, let us bear in mind Mr. Howe's words—" I would not cling, as I now do, to England, one single hour after I felt convinced that the friendship of North America was undervalued, and her proper status deliberately refused her." If England will make no provision for her North American Colonies to beeline integral parts at the empire, with national and not merely provincial rights, site cannot expect them much longer to resist the temptation to acquire nationality by annexation to the United States. An unrestricted local trade, the easy and final settlement of all commercial and frontier questions, and security of peace, the opening to private ambition and to social status, would altogether be more than a match for the simply moral obligation of allegiance to a power denying them the ordinary rights of its subjects.
Previous page
