LETTERS TO THE EDITOR.
IRELAND AND THE EMPIRE.
tTO =a Boma or rox "Sosonzoo."]
have not noticed in English newspapers any reference to the probable effect of Irish Home-rule on the maintenance of the Empire. By Home-rule, I mean not any measure of pro- vincial self-government, but the modified national independence which, as I understand them, the Parnellitea desire, and Mr.
Gladstone is willing to concede,—such independence, for in- stance, as we in Australia enjoy. If Ireland is given a National.
Parliament, and still remains part of the United Kingdom, it seems to me that the supreme Legislature will become a Federal Diet, or a Congress of at least two nations combined for Im- perial purposes. I do not venture to offer an opinion on the effect such a radical change in the Government may produce on what I may be permitted to call the domestic management of the United Kingdom; but have Englishmen considered how a Federal Parliament sitting at Westminster will dis- charge the exceedingly delicate and difficult task of con- trolling the outside affairs of the Kingdom ? At present, we Colonists, though we grumble occasionally, are content to leave the control of our relations with the outside world to the Parlia- ment of the United Kingdom, or—more properly—to the Ministers it selects. If any of us are becoming discontented, it is because we seem to see evidences of increasing weakness and irresolution in the conduct of foreign affairs by successive British Governments; and it is your foreign affairs—using the phrase in its broadest sense—which concern us. If the Imperial Government, as now constituted, wavers and shows signs of irresolution, what may we expect from a Ministry chosen by a Federal Diet representing peoples with such marked racial differences as the inhabitants of Ireland and Great Britain ? We have been reading recently about the manner in which the outside action of the Austrian Empire has been paralysed by divergences between the two Kingdoms composing it ; and yet Austria has a strong executive, and can therefore maintain a more uniform outside policy than if the Crown had surrendered the complete control of all external and internal government to a Ministry chosen by Parliament, and liable to be turned out of office almost by a chance vote. What would be the condition of her Colonial empire, if Austria possessed one, and it was under the supreme control of the Delegations P The wise men who founded the American Union counselled the Federation never to have any Colonies, nor, as far as possible, any intimate foreign relations ; and the great Republic has followed the advice to the present day. The Swiss Federa- tion has neither Colonies nor foreign relations. Sweden and Norway may be said to have no foreign relations now ; and if I recollect rightly, there were signs of an ominous divergence between the two Kingdoms when, in 1863, there was a possi- bility of their being involved in an outside complication. Does not all history show that a Federal Government is weak and irresolute in dealing with its neighbours P And how will a British Federal Parliament, with the Irish tugging one way, the Scotch perhaps another, and the English endeavouring dis- tractedly to conciliate everybody, be able to give the close and discriminating attention to Imperial affairs which is necessary, if it is to continue to control the heterogeneous collection of States which constitute our Empire P Non-intervention has always seemed to me a mere empty phrase when applied to the policy of Great Britain ; she cannot disembarrass herself of foreign relations unless she also gets rid of her Empire. It follows, therefore, that we in the Colonies shall find the foreign relations of the Empire—including our relations with the outer world—in weaker and more incompetent hands if the Mother- country ceases to be a united Kingdom, and transforms itself into a Federation, unless the future Federal Parliament gives
back to the Crown a very mach larger measure of executive con- trol than it possesses at present, —and that, I assume, is out of the question. And with increasing weakness and irresolution in the Imperial Executive, there will be growing discontent in the Colonies. And the feeling—at present not very strong out here—that we must prepare for early and complete severance from Great Britain will take possession of the public mind. To put it plainly, if you tear the Union Jaok into stripe, we must prepare to replace it out here with the Southern Cross.—I am, Sir, &a,
P.S.—I may be asked,—Why could not the Colonies be represented in a Federal Parliament P I do not answer the question, because Imperial Federation in that sense is regarded by nearly all Australians as so utterly beyond the range of practical possibilities that they do not even discuss it,
Previous page
