ENGLAND AND ITS COLONIES.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume V, Issue 1025, 14 December 1883, Page 4

ENGLAND AND ITS COLONIES.

Mr Frederick Young, the Hon. Secrethe Pall Mall Gazette as follows: rPqljturarquestions of various kinds are xCDfeGmtly forced on the attention of Englishmen. Comprised in the category oflittle and large, the majority of the public are absorbed in the little. Nor is this surprising; for, superficial I as they generally are, small subjects most frequently attract the feelings of men, because they seem chiefly to affect their immediate personal interests. But there is one large question Clrhich, far before all others, claims imJp ratiyely p be regarded with profound attention. The greatest English question of our time, which demands prompt and statesmanlike solution by a nation possessing a world-wide ern'“ptire like our own, is rapidly coming to the front. Ta Britons, equally at home bpybnd the seas, its importance is Supreme. The question, what are to (, ; be-the future political relations of England and her colonies ? already in the air, is beginning to be asked by those •-Wh» r i-are ‘the leaders of national thought.' ' It is a - vast and momentous subject, and requires to be treated with the, greatest {courage, .tact, • ; by all who rule; Those who,- w.ith, Unerring - instinct, have for years past been endeavoring to rouse public attention to the contemplation inf-iits- vital - issues to the future of the British Empire, have reason to be inspired with hope that this great and intricate question will ;at length be ’’brpught prominently forward, and fairly ; and’ •. discussed, as being essentially ripe enough to be included in the arena of practical politics. One of the most welcome and valuable contributions which have recently appeared in connection with it is the recently vpjume of Professor Seeley’s “Lectures riri the Expansion of England," to which, in an admirable article in the Pall Mall Gazette on the 4th instant, public attention is especially drawn. An essential service is done to tWe'pbople s bf“ ‘ this country by the promulgation of such sound and sensible views on the great colonial ques;3«tion;by.;SUch an eminent authority as ?;Ptofessor /Seeley. An equal service is rendered by the emphasising of those views by writers in the leading organs of the public Press. JLt is curious to reflect on the haphazard way in which the British colonial empire of the last . fifty years—which is the true period of the modern exp|»|iSion of England—has been built up. Trtie pressure of popuHome has forced millions to emigrate to territories happily possessed by the mother country beyond the seas. But the Government at Home never seems to.have risen to the contemplation oTthe idea that the sons of England; Who - left her shores to enrich and dgy^lbp 1 her empire by colonisation vrerlkstill an portion of the people at v H6m&. They only seemed capable of regarding them—first, as subjects to .be governed merely as inhabitants of dependencies, and not as equals; and, secondly, when they became too powerful and independent to be under control of the central fhat’ they must necessarily culminate in becoming the founders of new tetidnSj’ and So, shaking themselves free from the Old Country, ceasing to be Britons in nation . and in name. Ajt.a certain stage of the political pro-gress-and growth of colonial possessions •the tlltetViafive must be faced, no doubt. The colonies and Ihe mother country must either disintegrate of federate. -JB.qk,;jtimay:.berasked; why should it be the former, and why not the latter ? Modern Europe is pursuing a policy of *qfltional; > Qn&j ; h.':' 1 'Germany and Italy have led the:‘ wav. J It is impossible for Britain, if she claims to remain onptp.f the leading nations policy. - • ■There * is, however,_ only one way in which it cap be practically carried out. admitted by the pe , dpls‘ 4 .6{ (be*inpther country that their brethren beyond the seas are to have a fajr ; apd equal participation in the conical of the - policy; and a share in the. Government of the Empire. This cati s ; cmly be carried , into effect ■'Constitution . constructed .> on thd ,of an" il;raperial federation, by an Imperial representative Parliament! in' imion with Great Britain., Lbcdl questions of all kinds inustiube* 1 relegated, as now, to local colonial Parliaments, and a local must be constructed Sp model to deal with local ifritTsh questionsi An Imperial Parliament, as the supreme Senate of the naiidn, froulif Under such a constitution deal alone with Imperial questions among which (with? others' to be distinctly defined) national defence, peace and war, foreign relations, and such likeu.would‘ be included. Professor Seeley has well insisted pn the important fact that “ science has given to the political; prganisnr a new circulation.” This is, indeed, most true. Steam and electricity have annihilated distance, which was once the real formidable initial difficulty -in the way of the formatifcriof a national Parliament for an empire! onwhidvthis “ sun never sets,” All that is now required to make a reality Of that Which, for want of firmness .and sagacity to grapple with and stMb ';'a ! /grand political problem, has called;a philosophic dream, is cpjpjge, capacity and disinterested psittiolism on the part of those who are at the helm of the ship of State.