ENGLAND AND THE COLONIES.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXIX, Issue 4228, 8 October 1874, Page 3

ENGLAND AND THE COLONIES.

(From Tfic Colonics, August' 7.) The. soundness of principles may often be displayed by the pith and. brevity with which their truths are capable of being expressed. No one who has taken a leading part in the discussion of Imperial and Colonial policy has produced as many telliDg sayings respecting them which deserve to be remembered as Mr. Edward Wilson. In addressing Lord Carnarvon on the Fiji deputation, he spoke of those who want to degrade England into a mere " coal-hole" and blacksmith's shop for the test of the world." Now what could more accurately express the policy of those self-called economists who consider our Colonial fellowsubjects merely as so many customers, who should be retained in the Empire only so long as their union with the Mother Country will better subserve the purposes ,of trade, but who should be cast off as aliens if our commercial gains derived from them would not thereby be diminished?—because, forsooth, the Colonies might interfere with the coal and forgo business, might involve this country in a war, or require some protection from her while one was going on, and thus interrupt the business or reduce the profits of the shop. This policy being quite of recent date, and so opposed to the spirit and feelings upon which Englishmen have so long prided themselves, Mr. Wilson i speaks of its advocates as having raised in opposition to the good old Imperial British flag, which has " braved a thousand years the battle and the breeze," the "shoddy flag of the Manchester school," which " any man could knock to pieces in ten minutes with a pea-shooter and a squirt." There is great truth, force, and well-deserved scorn in these expressions in which Mr. Wilson most justly deals with a mere grovelling, moneymaking policy whicli has raised its head in opposition to the noble principles of Imperial unity. It is astounding that money should in the present day have so completely possessed men's souls as to prevent them from seeing anything but profits, debtor and creditor accounts, in the relations of our splendid

Empire ; and not only so, but to have deprived them of all sense of shame in declaring their belief. In no time or nation has the question of Empire been so regarded, and certainly Mr. Wilson, in the sayings which he has produced, has exactly ponrtrayed in their true light ideas which every true Briton should indignantly repudiate. Another feature in Imperial relations which Mr. Wilson has forcibly brought out by witty sayings is the imperfect manner in which the Imperial Parliament deals with questions beyond the limits of the United Kingdom, and the necessity for some system of Imperial Government which shall include Colonial representation. He has remarked how that, whilst such a dispute as that which took place between Mr. Ayrton and Mr. Beresford Hope a session or two ago, as to whether the crypt at the Houses of Parliament was a chapel or a vault, or " some question about the "growth of the grass in Hyde Park," or " whether bathers should be allowed to use soap in the Serpentine," challenges the attention of either House, of Parliament, benches are empty during important questions affecting Imperial or Colonial interests. All this is perfectly true, and lias often been remarked, but truth pointedly put is doubly effective. The sayings which we have repeated are just such as hearers are likely easily to carry away and then well lender over, and when the laugh which they at first occasion has subsided they will bear much serious reflection. A truth conveyed to the understanding iii a light and pleasant way loses none of its weight in the carriage. These amusing sayings of Mr. Wilson will stand the test of much solid argument. They bring boldly out some of the most important features of the Imperial question. We have never seen them grouped together, and now produce them, thinking them well worthy of an article.