CONFEDERATION OF THE EMPIRE.

Evening Star, Volume IX, Issue 2636, 29 July 1871, Page 3

CONFEDERATION OF THE EMPIRE.

(Continued.) I must repeat my conviction that, if Great Britain were bold enough to grapple resolutely with the question, and would promulgate a federal constitution, leaving to each colony to decide whether it would come wi bin that constitution or would cease to be in any sense part of the empire, every colony would elect to remain, and the mightiest empire of history would be an accomplished fact. It may be said that the detai’s of such a constitution would be very difficult to work out; but I cannot believe that it would bo so difficult for Great Britain to frame a federal constitution, to be applicable to her own dependencies only, as it was for Prussia to frame a federal constitution to apply to a number of independent nations. The leading points to be kept in view would be-(I.) So to regulate the federal power that it should not interfere in the internal affairs of the members of the confederation while securing to the parent country all the executive power she ought to exercise. (2.) To provide that what are now called “ colonial questions” should be left to tbe federation. (3.) The establishment of a federal fleet. (4.) That each member of the federation should be liable, in case of war, to provide a stated land force, which force it would probably be found convenient,J in most cases to retain within, or near, the territory to which it belonged. (5). The federal expenses to be contributed by the members of the federation, upon some stated basis, such as population ; or there might bo one fixed federal tax running throughout tbe empire. (6). There should be two Chambers, one directly elected by the people, the other by the local legislators. The former might be elected upon a population basis, and any colony not having the stated number, might be allowed to return a member who, until the population sufficiently increased, should be empowered to vote upon particular questions only. Following the German plan, it might be found desirable to give to some members of the house a plurality of votes. The executive power ought to be jealously vested iu the Queen and her Ministers ; and, still further following the example of Prussia, the Minister for Foreign Affairs might be made Chancellor of the Federation. 1 almost regret that I have entered at all upon details. Ido not profess to have made anything but suggestions intended to break ground—to get rid of that extreme dread of details which makes the working out of a great plan seem vastly more difficult than it r.ali y is. My suggestions are, no doubt, crude ; but I shall hope they will prove sufficient to prevent that “damning with faint praise” which is so often meant to smother unpopular questions with the scarcely-hidden siuer, “Idea very good, but decidedly impracticable.” I plead for some consideration for this question. It is painful to think that the traditions which have made the British nation so powerful, not only because of her internal resources, but because of the energy and enterprise which have secured her the position of supremacy on the seas, should be in process of * gradual extinction under tbe withering influence of a utilitarian policy, which meets with a cui bono ? everything that docs not promise a pounds, shillings, and pence profit An Anglo-Saxon c tion is the legitimate crown" of the energy and the enterprise which have made Great Britain the centre of dependencies, amongst; which are to be found the finest countries on the face of the earth ; but that policy which leads to the dismemberment of the empire is at once an ingratitude to those who have built up the past of the nation—a treason to the living generation, a vast majority of whom are wholly unconscious of the direction affairs are taking—and a bitter wrong to ihe generation unborn, whose inheritance (t is dispersing. We look abroad ta see that national confederal ions are the grand features of the age. It is said that the tendency iu this country should be entirely in the opposite direction.; and it is singular that the inclination to secession should be coincident with a period when the means of communication have been so greatly improved that the most distant colonies are virtually nearer to England than were some parts of Ireland less than a century ago. Will you, in conclusion, allow me to place upon record tbe cunvict on, which I am sure hundreds of thousands of colonists will share with me, that if ever and whenever secession becomes a fact, the conditions which make it so will owe their origin to the actions and the faults, not of the colonists, but of the Mother country. —I have, &c , J.V. London, May 9.