19 JANUARY 1867, Page 13

"ORGANIZING THE EMPIRE."—[ThiRD LETTER.] [TO THE EDITOR OF THE "SPECTATOR."]

SI; —I wish now to consider the means by which the reforms I have urged could be set on foot.

I would begin by saying that I hold the object of establishing closer and more organic relations between the mother country altd the colonies to be so important, that I should be willing to A

accept almost any measure tending thereto as a first step towards it.

1. The easiest, and in my judgment the worst, would be the accrediting of Colonial Agents, whether called Envoys or not, to the mother country, who should be recognized as such, but with- out any seat or vote in Parliament. Without legal recognition, this has indeed been done over and over again, if not by colonies as such, at least by influential classes of colonists. To say

nothing of the vakeels of Indian princes, whose presence amongst us has been almost a standing scandal, either to our jus- tice or to our reputation for it, the Bengal indigo planters have had their occasional home agents ; the West Indian colo- nista their almost permanent ones. The experiment of official recognition has been tried elsewhere. During a portion of the

reign of Louis Philippe the French colonies were represented in Paris by a "Council of Delegates," recognized as such. But the plan has never worked well. Omitting all contingencies of foreign

complications to which I alluded in my last, the colonial agent, excluded from the Parliament of his country, has to obtain a

hearing by all sorts of indirect, if not crooked means,—by what our American brethren term "lobbying," the lying in wait for individual M.P's., button-holing, boring, in some cases bribing them ; by costly entertainments to influential persons or their retainers ; by buying space in the newspapers, or the newspapers themselves, paying for the insertion of articles in magazines ; by getting up more or less genuine public meetings, sometimes by purchasing the voices of orators. Official recognition (I speak from personal knowledge) tends no doubt to check the looseness of such practices, but it cannot wholly obviate them, so long as the agent or envoy is out of Parliament ; whilst if he obtains a seat within it, he is looked upon as a mere advocate, and listened to with distrust.

2. But there are other objections to the plan, which apply equally to the next one, that of Delegates sitting in Parliament, with or without a vote, one for each colony. No agent, envoy, or single delegate can fairly represent a colony, but only the dominant party in such colony. Hence it is almost impossible that he can fully inform the mother country, in or out of Parliament, of all the facts relating to the colony which it is important for her to know, or exhibit them in all the lights in which it is important that they should be seen. In proportion to the strength of his party feelings, his testimony will become not only insufficient, but misleading. Hence, colonial agents have had invariably to be more or less checked and connterworked by persons directly or indirectly representingtheopposite party tothat by which they wereappointed, the West Indian agents, for instance, representing the planting in- terest, being watched by the Anti-Slavery society, on behalf of the freedmen. Another serious objection to the plan is, the equality of weight which it must give to colonies very different in im- portance, although individually distinct, and therefore deserving individual recognition. Such a principle,—most useful as counterpoise to the weight of numbers, as in the American Senate, —if allowed to act alone, tends to distort all the relations between the different parts of the Empire, and to make the influence of any individual colony a matter almost of haphazard. If Canada comes to be represented by a goose, and Singapore (say) by a man of first-rate ability, Singapore must elbow Canada out of all notice and influence. I will go further, and say that Singapore will rule our Colonial Empire. For as, after all, the colonial represen- tatives would form but a very small band in Parliament, if added at the rate of one apiece to the present House, the measure of their influence would be their discipline, their power of acting and voting in a compact phalanx ; which, if they could do, they would be always sufficient to turn the scale on any doubtful divi- sion, and would be courted by both parties accordingly. They must therefore have a leader, and obey him. If Singapore be that leader, every colonial continent must follow him.

3. Should we, then, superadd a proportional number of Colonial Representatives to the existing Parliament, on a basis of popula-

tion, of wealth, or any other ? This is partly the system followed by Portugal, where the Elective House in the Cortes contains, besides 136 deputies from the mother country, 12 from the Azores and Madeira, elected at the rate of 1 per 7,000 households, or thereabouts, and 14 delegates from other dependencies beyond seas, at the rate of 2, if I mistake not, for each group, of which 7 are reckoned,—a combination of proportionate and individual representation. But such a plan is only practicable with numbers so manageable as those just referred to. The House of Commons contains too many members already, rather than too few. It is not that the talking members amount only to about 100 out of the 656,—the "dumb dogs" are as such an almost unmixed blessing in this case,—but that (allowing for exemptions) the real work has to

be done by, I believe, little more than double that number, the whole elaborate machinery of committees not being able to extract more than nominal attendance and a show of work from the re- mainder. No practical man could wish to add 100 or more colonial members to the present figure of the House.

4. Is no other plan conceivable? Surely there is. I have never spoken in these letters of admitting colonial repre- sentatives to the existing Parliament. I have spoken of a "Parliament of the Empire," in which they ought to have seats. I think the time is come for a distinction between Im- perial, and what, for want of a better term, I may call Home questions. To the Imperial Parliament, representing all the self- governed portions of the Empire, should be reserved the decision on the former ; with the Home or British Parliament would remain that on all the latter. I have not the slightest wish to see an M.P. for Sydney voting on a metropolitan gas bill. But I do not think that a question of subsidy to a line of ocean steamers should be decided in his absence. 500, perhaps as few as 450, would be numbers enough for the Imperial House of Commons ; of these from to 1, I suppose, would fairly represent at present the self- governed colonies. Whether delegates without votes might be admitted from the others is a minor question, which at present I should feel inclined to solve in the negative. I say nothing of the House of Lords, which has so little to do, and does that little, on the whole, so gracefully and ably, that it would form, at least for the present, a quite sufficient "other House" to the Imperial Commons.

But how should such Commons be elected? As respects the colonies, the quota for each being fixed, and subject to constitu- tional principles, by each as it might think best. There is no need of a uniform electoral law for the purpose ; the circum- stances of the various colonies differ so, that any such law could but do mischief. The home members should be all mem- bers of the Home Parliament, selected if possible so as to give the pick of it ; not by vote of the body itself, which would only give a party choice, but by some legal qualification directly connected with their election, as the size of the constituency, the number of votes polled by members, or anything else which should secure a fair representation of the country; with an official right to speak for Ministers, if Tamworth or Tiverton should fall below the line. On this footing, it will be seen that no new machinery of elections at home would be required, no new Houses of Parliament. A majority of the existing Commons, comprising presumably most of the influential members, would sit, it might be on alternate clays, it might be during successive periods, for home purposes with their existing colleagues, for Imperial purposes with colonial ones. There would, in respect to legislation, be little more than an apportionment of the existing work. Taking a list of the Statutes of last session (29 and 30 Victoria), I find that out of 122 "Public General Acts" only about 24 would have come under the cognizance of the " Imperial " Parliament, or about one-fifth of this branch of legislation ; the 363 "Local Acts," and all perhaps but one of the " Private " ones, being of course quite out of its jurisdiction. If we reckoned the labours of the Imperial Parliament after the first two or three sessions at 50 Acts per session, comprising; 1st, all measures in- tended to be binding throughout the Empire ; 2nd, all measures regulating the mutual relations of the mother country with a colony, or of the colonies (where not already confederated) inter se, we should probably be within the mark.

I have said that the admission of colonial representatives to an Imperial Parliament would be but the key to further reforms. In what direction these would be needed I have indicated in a general way already. In respect to civil liberty, the express extension of the Bill of Rights and of certain other constitutional guarantees throughout the self-governed colonies at least Would be essential. A general revision of the Customs' tariffs between the various members of the Empire (the name of " Customs " being in such case abolished) would follow as of necessity. If the mother country were called upon for real sacrifices of revenue (as in the case of the sugar duties), it would be but fair that some equivalent amount of taxation should be supplied for Imperial purposes by the colonies specially benefited. An Imperial Army, Navy, and Militia law would be needed, and for Imperial purposes Imperial duties, but no general equality of taxation would otherwise be required. I do not see, I confess, that the colonies can be called upon to bear the burthen of the existing National Debt, any more than the mother country that of colonial liabilities. But future loans for Imperial purposes, sanctioned by the Imperial Parliament, would of course be an Imperial charge.

Do not say that this apportionment of functions between one

central and various local representative bodies is impossible. The thing has been done already. To say nothing of German attempts in this direction, the United States have shown us that such a work is perfectly practicable. We have to study, not to copy their example. However ably, on the whole, the distribution of powers may have been effected by the American Constitution, the Secession War proves that personal freedom and equality before the law are matters of imperial, not of local concernment, as the founders of that Constitution vainly imagined ; that sooner or later a whole polity must totter, if not fall, where they are suf- fered to become questions of complexion in any part of it. And Jamaica reminds us that we too need the warning.

Here I stop, not because the subject is exhausted, for I feel myself but on its threshold, but because I fancy I have said enough for my readers to think about. I repeat my firm convic- tion that the "organizing of the Empire" is necessary, is prac- ticable; I believe there needs only a great minister to carry it out. It need not be attempted all at once ; the colonies would probably only dome in by groups, latterly one by one. But I believe that the life and vigour which such an intimate union with the mother country would infuse into its relations with the colonies admitted thereto, the impetus which would be given to emigration into such colonies, when once it was -felt that the full rights of Imperial citizenship were retained by the emigrant thither, would, after a few years, cause the example to be rapidly followed.

I have sometimes thought that Mr. Disraeli must by this time be getting tired of reckoning only as a negative quantity in the history of his country; as the framer of an abortive Reform Bill, or of an unremembered budget; as the man who badgered Peel, or the man who thwarted Gladstone; climbing to fame, like the spider of the fable on the eagle's tail, as a mere speck on the greatness of his opponents. The work. of shaping this great Empire into a living unity is of those, as it seems to me, in which failure is part success ; which to begin is to fix one's name to, for blessings in the after time. I believe him not incapable of comprehending its magnitude, even its necessity. If he chose to undertake it, he would for once have done, not hindered, something. — Your