PROBLEMS OF GREATER BRITAIN.* [SECOND NOTICE.]
THE question of Protection as it affects the Colonies is one which is bound to interest profoundly the inhabitants of Great Britain. Sir Charles Dilke's conclusions as to the matter are, as usual, cautious and judicial ; but, on the whole, they go to support the contentions of the scientific economists. Free- traders have always declared that Protection, even under the most favourable conditions imaginable, must be powerless to effect the purposes for which it is imposed. At the worst, it may starve the mass of the population, or rob them of com- forts. At the best, it is an exceedingly clumsy and extravagant way of collecting revenue, and one utterly incapable of raising the net remuneration of labour. To show the power- lessness of Protection to protect, we need only take the examples of Protectionist Victoria and Free-trade New South Wales. No doubt Victoria does not show as unfavourably in the comparison as some of the leas thoughtful Free-traders might expect. That, however, is not material. The really interesting thing about the figures is, that they show that a general tariff has not done what its advocates declared it would do,—has not kept out the competition of English goods, and encouraged internal manufactures to grow up which without it could never have struggled into existence. Victoria, with the same population as New South Wales, imports as much from England as her neighbour. Again, in New South Wales as many native industries have grown up under Free-trade as in Victoria under Protection. All that the tariff has done has been to alter the direction of Victorian industrial energy, and to force it into channels other than those it was naturally inclined to assume. As to the question which Colony enjoys greater general prosperity, no certain answer can be given, for there is no possible means of telling which possesses most natural advantages. All that can be said with certainty as to the results of Protection in Victoria is, that the Colony has what seems to our ideas a very wasteful way of collecting its revenue. On this, however, as on all other matters of the kind, we are bound to assume that the Colony knows her own business best. But though it is thus possible to feel hopeful that the amount of injury that will be inflicted upon the * Problems of Greater Britain. By the Right Hon. Sir Charles Wentworth Dilke, Bart. In 2 vols. With Maps. London : Macmillan and Co. 1890. • inhabitants of the Protectionist Colonies will nothe excessive, there are other condiderations which_ make the problem a very grave one. Should the present 'efforts towards Australian Federation unhappily prove abortive, it is not impossible`that ill-feeling of a very dangerous kind may grow •up between Victoria and New South Wales in regard to frontier smuggling- and other fiscal questions.
'The subject of Imperial' Defence is treated by Sir Charles Duke at considerable length. ' Though we do not altogether agree with his conclusions, or admit 'the soundness of all his data, we cannot but think that he is doing a good work in drawing attention to the absence of forethought displayed,by our supreme naval and., military authorities in regard to the protection of our own shores, our. commerce, and our world- wide possessions :—
"The result of this survey °Hesperia' Defence is to bring before the mind a dearer image of the stupendous potential strength of the British Empire, and of our, equally stupendous -carelessness_ in organising its force In .spite of the . abundant sealand patriotism of the country, its enormous wealth and vast resources, the chief success in organisation-which has been lately met with has been achieved by the vulgar experiment of sending round the bat.' When a popular Lord -Mayor goes begging.for subscriptions to equip a portion of the forces of the Queen the astonishment of the world is great. This illustration of our peculiar methods of preparing for defence is not, however, much more startling than is that provided by the consideration of our habit of managing Imperial Defence by temporary committees, while we neglect the uniform experience of other nations in favour of the selection. for the purpose of the best men, specially trained. Those of :my readers who have followed me in. a consideration of the entire subject, must, I think, be equally struck by the latent strength of 'the British Empire, and astounded at its latent weakness. Prince Bismarck-has-said of the British Empire that it wouldJbe supremely powerful if it understood and organised its means for offensive war; but our ambition is not for offensive strength, and not only home-staying 'Britons but our more energetic colonists themselves decline to accept such organisation of our power, with the temptations that it would bring. We wish only to be safe from the ambition of others, and the first step towards safety must be the arrangement of consistent plans for supporting the whole edifice of British rule by the assistance of all the component por- tions of the Empire. Aa all have helped to raise the fabric, so may all combine to secure it by the adoption of a settled plan. of Imperial Defence. At the present moment the words made use of by the. Queen, in which the very italics are her Majesty's own, • with regard to our home defences, have become true of those of the Empire treated as a whole : That it is most detrimental and. dangerous to the interests of the country that our defences should not be at all times in such a state as to place the Empire in security from sudden attack ; and that delay in making our preparations for defence till the moment when. the apprehension of danger arises exposes us to a twofold disadvantage. 1st, The measures will be necessarily imperfect and expensive as taken under the pressure of the emergency and under the influence of a feeling which operates against the exercise of a cool and sound judgment. 2nd, Our preparations will have to be made at a time when it is most important, for the preservation of peace, neither to produce alarm at home nor by our -armaments to provoke the Power with which we apprehend a rupture."
'Whether we agree or disagree with the rest of Sir Charles Dilke's views, it is impossible to doubt that the problem of Imperial Defence should be carefully worked out by a body of experts reflecting tile best ability of the Fighting Services, and permanent in its constitution. At present, everything is left to the hap-hazard of departmental or Parliamentary con- venience.
The long and important chapter dealing with the future relations of the Colonies to the Mother-country and to each other, cannot well be abstracted here, for there are no very definite conclusions arriVed at therein, although, as we pointed out last week, the drift of the opinions expressed is in favour of a close and-perpetual alliance of virtually, though not nominally, independent States. Before, however, this happy and devoutly to be wished consummation can be reaehed, it will probably be necessary to move somewhat further along the path of freeing the Colonies from the control of Great Britain. The public has had the declaration that the Colonies are already independent communities dinned so constantly into its ears, that it has come to believe in it. In truth, there is a vast deal of exaggeration in any such statement. It is not too much to say that at the present moment, in the judgment of many shrewd persons, though not in ours, the chief danger of disintegration to which the Empire is exposed, comes from the fact that England has not yet sufficiently abandoned the right to interfere with the purely domestic concerns of the Colonies, and still claims and exereises the power to veto their legislative acts. Our own difficulty in acquiescingtin this view is that responsibility remains to us for some legislative acts of
which England heartily disapproves. That these survivals of the older system will, however, die out if Australia becomes a Federal Dominion, need not be doubted. From every point of view, Australian Federation is to be hoped for. Not only would it give the new Dominion the right of choosing its own Provincial Governors, but it would ensure that the Governor- General despatched from England should be a statesman possessed of high qualifications for his task. As regards the present position of the Agents-General, Sir Charles Dilke has some valuable suggestions to make :—
"The suggestion of the creation of a Council of the Agents- General may be taken in connection with that of the election by the Colonies of their Governors. This change is advocated only in Australia, and Australian federation upon the Canadian plan will give the Colonists the virtual election of the Provincial Lieutenant-Governors, the Viceroy alone being named by the Ministry in the United Kingdom. Mr. Patchett Martin, who is favourable to Colonial selection of Governors, has also put forward some practical suggestions which are of value, as, for instance, the gradual elevation of the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council into the place filled by the Supreme Court of the United States, and the admission to it of a fair proportion of Colonial legists. The Colonial title The Honourable' should be used on formal occasions by our Government for Colonial Ministers when in England, as it is recognised in the Colonies themselves. Some- thing might be done to draw the Mother-country and the Colonies together by offering appointments in the Civil Service and by ex- tending the system of offering employment in the Army and Navy to young Colonists, by giving Colonial Governorships to distin- guished Colonists of other Colonies (as was done in the case of Sir Ambrose Shea), and by drawing closer the ties which bind the Colonial universities to the old English universities. There is more hope about such schemes than attaches to the larger systems of Imperial union which have been devised. The creation of a Council of Agents-General would bring out the fact that the Colonies, as a rule, have at present little interest in one another's business; but no such objection can be offered to an improvement in the position of the Agents-General. The practice might spring up of inviting Agents-General to attend meetings of the Cabinet when matters are under discussion on whioh their advice might be useful, just as Generals about to proceed to take command of armies in the field, as well as law officers of the Crown, are invited, from time to time, to Ministerial meetings. Sir John Gorst has wisely said that closer union should be looked for in the more intimate concert of executives, for change is hardly sought except as regards defence and foreign policy (being impracticable as regards tariffs), and defence and foreign affairs are chiefly dealt with by executives. In many little matters, too, the position of the Agents-General might be better recognised. They should be treated as Ambassadors as regards taxation, while at the present time many of them pay Income-tax twice over. Their formal constitution as a Council is a more doubtful matter, for no one who knows Sir Henry Parkes would like him to feel that he was ruled by a Victorian ; and Sir Arthur Blyth, another distinguished Agent-General, like Sir Graham Berry of Victoria, has strong opinions on Australian questions, though not the same opinions. A Colony may be disinclined to allow the Mother-country to declare that a thing cannot be done on account of Imperial interests or Imperial treaties, but each Colony would admit the validity of such a declaration from the Mother-country more readily than she would tolerate interference from the representa- tives of other Colonies. At the same time, while it is difficult to make a Council of the Agents-General, there is no reason why we should not give them a nominal position which would correspond in dignity with the services that they already render. They are, in fact, taken individually, among the most trusted of the coun- cillors of the Empire, and those who have held for some years the position, and who have bad the confidence of successive Govern- ments, might well be placed formally in the Imperial Privy Council."
The fact that the home authorities have not even sufficient courtesy at their disposal to give the Australian Ministers the title of "Honourable," is a good instance of the stupidity and want of sympathy with which the Colonial Office treats Englishmen who happen to reside in communities outside these islands.
Before leaving Problems of Greater Britain, we must quote the passage dealing with the possibility of our losing India, and the consequences of such a disaster :—
"The most important question connected with India at the present time is that of defence. From the more limited or British Indian point of view it is of little use for us to concern ourselves with improvements in government if we cannot retain the country in our hands ; and from the larger or British Imperial point of -view the loss of India would be a crushing blow to our trade, if our rule were succeeded by that of a protectionist country or by a period of anarchy. It would constitute, moreover, so grave an encouragement to our enemies in all parts of the world that we might expect a rapid growth of separatist feeling in Canada, South Africa, and Australasia, and a general break-up of the British power. The bolder among the pessimists of the Dominion ; the extreme Dutch, who may desire the creation of the United States -of South Africa under republican forms ; and the wilder portion of the 'native' Australian party, would need no other signal— would find no longer any difference of opinion among their friends
as to the nature of the action that they should take, nor would they be confronted with the same body of opposition to their views as exists in the three groups of Colonies at the present time."
India is one of the essential stones in the arch of empire that spans the globe. The overthrow of our rule there must mean
ruin to the whole fabric, and prevent for ever the accomplish- ment of a union of the English-speaking races. If we fail to hold Tnilia, we have published to the world that the mother- land of the English kin has at last lost her vigour, and entered upon the path of moral and political decadence.
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