SIR J. VOGEL ON IMPERIAL FEDERATION.

Globe, Volume VIII, Issue 1093, 31 December 1877, Page 3

SIR J. VOGEL ON IMPERIAL FEDERATION.

[From the Melbourne “ Argus.”]

Lord Blachford, better known by his former title of Sir Henry Rogers, of the Colonial Office, has contributed to the “Nineteenth Century ’ ’ an article on the integrity of the British Empire, as a rejoinder to Sir Julius Vogel’s plea for Imperial federation in a former number of that periodical. The proposition of the Agent-General for New Zealand is admitted to be the least objectionable that could bo suggested for perpetuating the unity of the empire, but coking at the question from an English standpoint, Lord Blachford considers the scheme to be wholly impracticable, inasmuch as, he contends, there can be no close and permanent association between self-governed States not arising out of geographical neighbourhood. But the force of this argument, we may remark in passing, is considerably weakened by the fact that distance is being virtually abolished by science. The brain of the empire is much nearer to its remotest extremities—relatively to the space which British possessions cover on the globe —than our own cerebral organs are to the most outlying nerves of our bodies ; for while, as Professor Tyndall remarked the other day at Birmingham, electricity in free wires is believed to move with the velocity of light, that is to say, at the rate of 190,000 miles a second, the researches of Helmholtz and Du Bois Raymond have demonstrated that the nerves transmit their messages at the rate of only seventy feet a second. The progress of invention as regards steam navigation is also tending year by year to “annihilate space,” and to substitute the measurement of distances by lime for the old estimate of them by degrees and miles The time is not far distant when the course of post between Melbourne and London will be reduced to thirty days; and we may be certain that the process of abridgement will not stop there. As it is, we are much nearer the metropolis of Great Britain than the inhabitants of tire Hebrides were rather more than a century ago, when Boswell, having announced to Voltaire his intention of visiting those islands, was looked at by the philosopher of Ferney with a countenance as expressive of amazement and incredulity as it the travelled Scot had declared his purpose of proceeding to the North Pole.

The geographical argument against Imperial federation appears to us, therefore, to bo one of no groat validity. But there is, it must be admitted, considerable force iu some of the other difficulties which are raised by Lord Blachford. One of these is that a confederacy implies a common purpose, to bo pursued by common efforts and a common policy ; and he

asks, where are these to be found ? “ The supreme power of a confederacy,” he remarks, “ may deal either with the purely internal affairs of its component members, or with their relations to each other or with their foreign policy.” With Urn first of these the confederacy would have nothing whatever to do ; most of the second are being settled by intercolonial arrangement or Imperial law ; and, as to the third, he is unable to perceive any community of purpose between England and her colonies as a mass. “In what European question,” he asks, “ have the latter any interest ? If any such question involves us in a maritime war they will, no doubt, suffer, but their interest in that case will not be in the object of the war, but in the war itself. It will be a simple interest of suffering. We may fairly enough say to them that as the whole empire may at any moment be called on to put itself into peril for their protection, so they must be content to suffer inconvenience when the empire goes to war for its own objects.” There is one other argument against Imperial federation prominently put forward by Lord Blachford, which has probably considerable weight in his own mind, and deserves stating, both on account of its ingenuity and novelty. Such an arrangement must be followed, in his view of the matter, by a transfer of the centre of political gravity from England to one of the colonies, and by the reduction of the House of Commons to the dimensions of a local legislature. “It is plain,” he says, “that some of our juniors may live to see the population of Ireland, Scotland, or even England, equalled or outstripped by some colonial confederacies.” And we may remark that that of Canada already exceeds by a quarter of a million that of North Britain. “In this case,” he continues, the treatment of Imperial subjects will plainly have outgrown the authority of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, and a new Imperial legislature would be necessary.” But then would be raised the question, where shall be the seat of Q-overnment ? Ought it not to be rather at Melbourne than in London ? The relative position of Australia and India, added to the acquisitions of Oceanica and New Q-uinea, certain to be effected under Australasian influence, appears to point to such a transfer, which by that time (a century hence) might be justified by the relative wealth and population of the different states of the Union. The question would be a very real one, and would have arisen before now with regal'd to New York, if it had been possible for us to retain our North American Provinces till now.”

But -while regarding Imperial federation as impracticable, Lord Blachford is of opinion that it is the manifest destiny, as well as the obvious interest, of geographically related groups of colonies to merge their individualities in one dominion, for the promotion of their internal progress, and in order to strengthen and consolidate their means of defence against external aggression. Every such confederation, he acknowledges, will “ only facilitate separation “ by providing against its evils,” nevertheless, he goes on to observe, “it is hardly a paradox to say that they may delay by preparing for it,” because “an agreeable but transitory relation is often prolonged by the sense that, when it becomes irksome, it can be terminated without difficulty.” In the meanwhile, he regards the relations of the mother country with her grown-up colonies as exceedingly satisfactory, and considers that the longer they continue the better it will be for both. They cannot remain for ever united in one political system, he says, and when they reach that national manhood into which they are rapidly rising, they may be expected to establish independent households of their own.

These insular aspirations are altogether at variance with the aspirations of those who look forward to the consolidation of all the possessions of England in a Greater Britain ; but it is essential to the present discussion and future solution of the question, that the arguments on both sides should be fully stated and carefully weighed, and we have therefore given Lord Blachford’s views the same prominence and local publicity which we previously afforded to those of Sir Julius Yogel.