The Dominion. THURSDAY, JULY 8, 1909. MR. CHAMBERLAIN.

Dominion, Volume 2, Issue 554, 8 July 1909, Page 4

The Dominion. THURSDAY, JULY 8, 1909. MR. CHAMBERLAIN.

It ia given to few statesmen to see in their lives any large results of their labours or any general recognition of their work. Most of them die , with no coneolation but their faith, and no reward excepting their confidence in a posthumous.'fainp. Mr,. Joseph Chasider'lain is one of (the happy few- Today there will be'held at the Albert Hall, to celebrate hip seventy-third birthday, a great gathering which will voice the feelings of many "millions of men scattered all over the world—feelings of admiration for a great Imperialist, and of gratitude for.'his fnotable service in- assisting the development of the new conception of Empire.'•'; The congratulations which are beipg showered on i the veteran statesman, from all quarters can be endorsed by every Imperialist, whether ho is a Free-trader or a Tariff . iteformeri It has not been merely as an opponent of British Free-trade that Mr. Chamberlain has done his work in stirring the fires of Imperialist thought, although it. was by;his Protection in what ho considered the best interests of the Empire that he gave the largest petus to Imperial ;;thlnking. /, His proposals were the acid that caused the precipitate .of something like definite ideas. By-splitting the public into two camps, he helped us all , along towards .a-.com- , i mon ? agreement. The Tariff Reformers had to think and talk; about the Empire in order, to defend the new■.'doctrine j. the Free-tradera Miyio- think and .analyse also in order to oppose, it. But, Mr. Chamberlain had done, much long before 1903. ' . When ho was appointed to the charge of Colonial Oiiice by Lord Salisbury in 1895, tho Imporial idea had long been abroad. There had been many great Imperialists during tho century, but there was no general sense of Imperial citizenship amongst the people of tho Empire. No man ever said to himself, "Civis Rrttannicus sum," unless ho were an Englishman speaking in half-jest of his Englishman status. The colonics were vory far away, and it was their "dependency" that was thoir main political quality. Tho Colonial Office was an obscure bureau. "In tho glej clays," as Mr.. Churchill said on February 4, 1907, at Leeds, "it was an abode of -peace and rest. It had very little to do. It did nothing in particular, and, like the noblemen' in the song, it did it Very well. Its functions were mainly diplomatic-pspudo-diplomatic", In an entertaining artiple which has had &omo publicity, Sir William Baillie Hamilton, told us in the Nineteenth Ccnliuij recently the absurd indifference, to business, of the Colonial' Ollico, But Mr. Chamdcrlain immediately showed hiinsejf to bo a new broom of an unusually onergetic kind, a)id ■ ho remained a now broom until he resigned his post. lie swept away the nobwobs, ho iufusad new life into a i dying Department of Government, he woke the colonies up, and > ho gradually sccurod that ''Downing Street" '> should mean tho street in vhichithe Colonial Oflico workod rather than' tho street in whioh cho Prime Ministor ]ivod. As early as 1887, ho had spoken in Toronto of "the confedaration of the British, Empire," but then only as "a grand idea" which "might only exist at present in tho imagination of the enthusiast." In JBBB he was again preaching confederation in tho (ceth of the high authorities who assured him that confederation was "an empty dream, tho fantastic vision of fools and fanatics." By 1895 ho felt himtelf fairly on the road to success, and in a public 'speech in November of thftt year he declared that "a" critical stage',' was being approacbod, a chapter the whole of which would be written "in the lifetime of tho next generation."

. Of,* course, Mr, Cbambiselain has been helped by cir.cumstancesi but ciroumstanceß have'been helped by' hini. '.Muph platitude is talked nowadays in thg name of Empire, but pl&tUudo is just the complacent middle-age' of, an v infant intuition, an.d the early Imperial enthusiasm of Mn. Chamberlain: was gohuino and original, \and even daringly novel. The energy and conviction, that, were born of his intuition . never flagged. He has never; attempted to'examine the ethics of Empire as , they, have ibeen examined and expounded by, say j Lord Rosebeky. Until he propounded his proposals'. 1 for Tariff Reciprocity, he never put forward any_ practical suggestions! for the i Imperial unity that he felt must come, and that-he spent his ripest years in presenting : tb : the Imperial public .as b, great "end -waiting pn effort and -enthusiasm. In.hb'flouring 1 him to-day, there isinjfcended no detraction from , the ,- forerunners. . The ; Empire-builders and the philosophers who ; blazed the' track before him did their; work , in their best way. His claim to fame and to honour is based on his having'spread the gospel in tho market-place. Posterity, perhaps,' may not; esteem 'him so 'highly as esteemed to-day, but-. Wβ: name cannot be omitted from the Toll of tho Empire's notable men. The right conception of Empire would have come without his aid,;but it is his glory that he hastened its awakenipg. , : -\ . v/ , : V: '