482 ENGLISH POLITICAL HISTORY 



supporters in the country behind them, had created the problem, and its solution still 

 remained for them to find. Between them, wherever the fault might lie, they had sown 

 the whirlwind, and it must carry them where it blew. Meanwhile the Crown, outside 

 domestic politics, remained by universal consent an Imperial and social factor of all 

 the more potential value because of the warring of political factions. The consolidation 

 of the Empire was making steady progress irrespectively of the political situation in the 

 United Kingdom ; and King George, though not the personal force in European diplomacy 

 and statemanship that King Edward had been, was known throughout its length and 

 breadth as no English Sovereign had ever been before. In spite of all the political 

 difficulties in the mother country, the British Throne represented in his person a centre 

 of Imperial authority, to which other peoples and Parliaments than those of the United 

 Kingdom contributed: and whenever opportunity should serve for a judicious exercise 

 of this authority, the extent of its influence, both on domestic and on international 

 affairs, would not be limited by constitutional theories affecting the British Isles alone. 



//. The Empire. 



" English " history to-day cannot indeed be written without reference to the British 

 Empire, as a unit greater than is represented by " home " (i.e. English, Welsh, Scottish 



and Irish) politics. The course of domestic affairs in the other British 

 imperialism. Dominions and Colonies is however dealt with in other sections of the 



Year-Book, and here it is only necessary to refer to certain matters of 

 common Imperial interest, which are also part of the recent history of affairs in the 

 mother country as the centre of the Empire. The Imperial " idea," to which Mr. 

 Chamberlain's administration of the Colonial Office and the emergency of the Boer 

 War had given such a pronounced impetus, has progressed during these later years with 

 rapid strides, both in Great Britain and the Dominions. It has done so irrespectively 

 of English domestic politics, in consequence of the increasing consciousness in all quar- 

 ters that the different parts of the Empire have a common interest in the maintenance 

 of British power, and that this is only possible by mutual support. The persistent 

 advocacy of the fiscal policy of Tariff Reform and Colonial Preference by the Unionist 

 party in the mother country, and their agreement in this respect with the trade policy 

 of the statesmen of the Dominions, has undoubtedly done much, directly and indirectly, 

 to popularise the idea of closer union; but on these lines no advance was possible while 

 an English government, committed to " Free Trade," * was in office. 



Since 1909 however the question of Imperial Defence has become acute, in conse- 

 quence of the rapid increase of the German navy and its manifest challenge to British 



sea-power. This new external pressure, and the strain it involved on the 



resources of the mother country at a point where the security of the 



outlying British Dominions was immediately affected, concentrated atten- 

 tion throughout the Empire on the problem of a fuller co-operation for Imperial defence; 

 and during 1911 and 1912 this aspect of Imperial consolidation brought the statesmen 

 of the Empire increasingly into closer touch over a problem which raised no differences 

 of political principle. The most remarkable incident during the Imperial Conference, 

 which reassembled in London in 1911, was the confidential discussion of British inter- 

 national policy, at which the Colonial representatives were addressed by Sir Edward 

 Grey with a detailed account of the situation in foreign affairs. For the first time. 

 it was felt, the Empire as a whole had been taken into the counsels of the statesmen of 

 the mother country, in order that a common understanding might prevail. A naval 

 defence scheme was adopted, providing for the maintenance of the various naval services 

 and forces under the control of their respective governments, but for making the 

 training and discipline uniform with those of the fleet of the United Kingdom and for 

 arranging an interchange of officers and men, while in war-time the colonial ships placed 

 at the disposal of the Crown would be under the British Admiralty: The movement 

 for increasing the Colonial naval forces, and combining their provision with the idea of 

 1 See E. B. xi, 88 et seq. 



