BOOKS..
SANE IMPERIALISM.*
Maar's ever-increasing control over time and distance is an inestimable blessing so long as it is used for free expansion; it may prove a curse and an instrument of retrogression if it is abused for purposes of restriction and control. This is one of the truths necessary for Empire-makers-and rulers to keep before them, and one emphasised by Dr. Macphail in his volume of essays in Imperial politics, which deserves to be widely. read on both sides of the Atlantic. The first and last, entitled " The Patience of England" and " British Diplomacy and Canada," concern us at home more particularly than the others. Dr. Macphail goes into detail in; his defence of those who have been sent from home to engage on Canada's behalf the sharpest wits of the United States, and he shows that the results were more satisfactory than those of the Canadian " pilgrimages " to Washington. To begin with, the English- men did not forget that the States had thrown off British control by force of .arms; they realised that negotiations which aim at peace mast none the less be regarded in the glare of war. Further, the defensive forces on which Canada depends are occupied in keeping 'peace in Europe, Asia, and Africa as well as in America. The average Canadian has not always had so wide a view of ' Imperial burdens. Dr. Macphail 'insists on these preliminary considerations, and goes on to show that such diplomatists as Lord Ash- burton and Lord Elgin fully deserve the favourable verdicts of history against contemporary recrimination. He proves his casafor. England's assiduous and successful care for Canada's interests in spite of the fact that he succumbs to the temptation to hint at excuses for their limitations, which do not strengthen his defence. The essay on "The Patience of England" should stir the pride of the Mother-country in the honour paid to her by one of her Western children. England's patience in foreign affairs is only excelled, in the view of this pious son of the Empire, by her -wisdom in dealing with her own kindred. He denounces the injustice of expecting England to rate highly the importance of fish in the waters of Prince Edward Island when she is dealing with the Turk in Europe and Asia, with .India, with Egypt, with her other dominions, and with her millions at home. He studies history as a whole, and proclaims that 'England bas nourished and protected her childrea, endowed them with
• Essays is Politics. By Andrew MagphaiL London; Longinana and Co. Da. net.1
freedom and a kingdom when' they were competent for the - charge, and that if her children say that she did it for her own enda, then are they "bastards, not sons." The blood of- the Empire is of no pure strain; it can comprehend all those who are willing to forget the quarrels of the past in the work of the present and the hope of the future. England will patiently nourish them in the bosom of her Empire until they are fit to take up their rights as full and free members of the family, and then she will freely grant them ; she will even thrust these rights upon them, as did Lord Grey and Lord Elgin upon Canada when in 1849 the Governor insisted on assenting to the Rebellion Losses Act. In matters outside the writer's own land no finer tribute could be desired than ' this :—" The enemy of to-day may be adopted into the family to-morrow, therefore an English campaign is a mixture of war and benevolence. That is why England did so badly in South Africa. That is also why, in the long run, she did so well, as the issue has proved."
Two of the essays are concerned with domestic affairs of Canada, her Patentlaw and her last political election ; the remainder deal with Canada's place in the Empire, and in lesser degree with her relations to the United States. The shrewd thrusts which are dealt out with impartial good humour to Englishmen, Canadians, and their neighbours are characteristic of the light band with which Dr. Macphail can deal effectively with large subjects. Nothing could be more wholesome for some of our Imperialists than the views of this Canadian author upon Colonial Preference. They refuse to • learn from the contemporary history of the old preferential tariffs and the dangers they brought to the Empire ; perhaps they will study a living writer whose historical knowledge only serves to give him a clear view of the causes that have led to the conditions under which he lives. Mr. Chamberlain's words, " Empire is commerce," clearly stick in Dr. Macphail's gorge. He has no mind for such materialism, even- if it were good business. Again and again he rends them to shreds. Protectionist politicians and' Manufacturers' Associations are not a nation; and as a nation Canada does not want high Protection, even if abated for the Mother-country. If her loyalty could require a 5 per cent. preference from us, how much loyalty would a 10 per cent. preference from the United States procure P That question is the logical sequence of the insult that the Empire. depends on preferences. Loyalty is a deep sentiment not lightly to be spoken of ; the deeper it is in the heart, the less it appears on the lips ; but this volume leaves no doubt that the best Canadians are loyal to the bottom of their hearts. The greatest strain upon so sacred a feeling is not any demand for material sacrifices, but a doubt of the worthiness of the object. Canadians admire our Constitution and the comprehensive character of the House of Common's, but they have difficulty in gauging the true values of items of British news that come to them. They like to hear of Labour Members, but they do not like to see them treated with more consideration than any other group; nor do they like the qualifications of certain other Members ; they cannot admire a devotion to Socialistic legislation-which imposes taxation of " eight " millions in times of falling revenue; least of all do they like a single Chamber claiming supremacy and a House of Lords too weak to act on conviction. " To ask Canadians to be unceasingly and unreasoningly and for ever loyal to that, is expecting too much."
But to return to the text, 44 Empire is commerce," the world has been influenced by the Greek, who cultivated beauty and character; by Rome, which built an Empire of law and order ; by England, whose aim was freedom. Dr. Macphail - contrasts the influence of a commercial Power such as Holland was. He is bold enough to say of Germany :—" Forty years- ago it was to Germany we went in search of a love for the ideal, for a reverence of fact, for a high and austere and dis- interested view of life , Forty years of the commercial ideal has made of the Germans the tinkers of Europe, the bagmen of the world,"—and so on. Commerce is rooted in love of money ; the ethic of politics is love of men. Can government be made an affair of business in which dignity, loyalty, homage,, and affection have no part? "An Imperialism, based on trade appeals only, to traders." Dr. Macphail may seem drastic in his views of commerce ; be never thinks.of it as the exchange of things needful for the. convenience of all partiei ; he has in his wind the simply material motives of the trader who would be the politician in a commercial Empire. Readers of the Spectator are familiar with the description of the "business man" quoted from Eccleslasticus, will& ends with the words : "They shall not be sought for in public counsel nor sit high in the congrega- tion ; they cannot declare justice and judgment." In Canada, -however, we are told that the Manufacturers' Association has declared that the tariff is -out of polities, and herein Dr. Macphail sees hope both for the politics and for the destruction of the tariff, for Canada, as a nation, wants a freer market with lower prices. Besides her experience of preferences, she can tell our politicians something of Retalia- tion ; she knows the evils which it brings to all parties, and its absolute failure to bring about its objects. The people have a good many miles of frontier across which they can study the working of Protection generally, and -Dr. Macphail declares that the sensible people on either side of that line "entertain a hatred of Protection on the two main grounds that it makes for the corruption of public life and the increased cost of living." He recounts the origins of many tariffs, and concludes that they were all political measures without direct economic aims. He supports by facts his theory that "Protection is a political device, and has not often been consciously adopted as an economic advantage." No doubt political conditions have always moulded the forms of tariffs, but Protectionist nations have generally thought that their early tariffs were for revenue. So long as the Press of these countries is mainly in the hands of interested parties, there is some excuse for our Tariff Reformers' idea that England is the only country with a strong Free-trade party. These essays contain more wholesome diet.
The essay entitled "New Lamps for Old" gives a near neighbour's view of the United States. As Bagehot said, a Constitution is not more easily adopted than a father, and the written Constitution of the Union is said to have broken down whenever it felt an unusual strain; it only continues " because it is unworkable." Certainly the States have created exactly what they did not intend in a President who is not responsible to a Government for foreign affairs, for administra- tion of public business, nor for appointments to the judiciary, and finally is leader of a party. Whether the Constitution is to be blamed or no, their condition is unhappy. Lawless- ness is rampant; the Courts are corrupt; the people do not govern themselves; the only pure and satisfactory munici- palities are found where representation is not applied to government, but administration is handed over to Commis- sioners; and "they have to contend with the utter divorce of government from piety." The state of things does not encourage serious Canadians to "cut the painter."
Canada has grown up a worthy child of the Mother-country. She is fit to manage her internal affairs, and expects that England will no more interfere with her tariffs or with the relations between Dominion and Provinces than Canada will take a side in disputes between England and Ireland. Increased intercourse and the free expansion of which we wrote above make the best atmosphere we can desire for progress of the Imperial sentiment. Canada will gladly serve England by receiving the surplus • population into a land where, if a man will not work, neither shall he eat : and there men she will make of them if they can claim to be men at all. She is loyal to the Imperial spirit of the Empire and the common Sovereign who stands for the headship of a race devoted to "truth, pitie, freedom and
hardiness" Is Empire commerce?' No, and it never will be, and " until Imperialism is divorced from Protection, it will be a tainted thing. England rules because she rake justly. When England adopts Protection she will . become corrupt. Then she will cease to rule." Canadians who love the Old Country passionately say that if the Empire can °nix be held together by preferencee, it may fall apart, as well soon
118 later. : But it will not;' and in this stiraulating volume
we find this best reason for confidence : " The greatest feat of England in Empire building since 1759 is that, during. the
past twenty years, she has wmi batik her colonies by -the cords of affection alone, not by Pmferences within nor by Retaliation without."
We can best sum up what we feel about this suggestive and admirable book by saying that if we' could have' our way we • would oblige every Cabinet Minister at home and throughout the 'nit-ions of the Eragre to read, marn;learneSsnd iliwtS4$ digest it. Though we may not agree with it in all its details, we are thoroughly at one with the spirit by which it is inspired,
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