THE TKUE TEMPER OF EMPIRE. 



283 



state of things has been reached in which they exist as nations, 

 enjoying complete autonomy in politics, economics and defence 

 within the area of their respective territories, the condition of 

 their adhesion to the empire being complete liberation from the 

 control of tlie Imperial Parliament. The question that is now 

 testing the temper of the British Eaipire, so far as the 

 Dominions are concerned, is the nature of the association that 

 is to exist in the relations of these isolated autonomous units 

 with the sovereign authority, with each other, with the Crown 

 Colonies, with India and with foreign nations. Lord Beaconsfield, 

 in a speech at the Crystal Palace on Midsummer Day, 1872, 

 clearly indicated the difficulties to which the grant of self-govern- 

 ment to the Colonies, without intelligent anticipation of its 

 bearing on their relation to the rest of the Empire, has given rise. 

 He said : " Self-government, in my opinion, when it was conceded, 

 ought to have been conceded as part of a great policy of Imperial 

 -consolidation. It ought to have been accompanied by an 

 Imperial tariff, by securities for the people of England for the 

 enjoyment of the unappropriated lands which belonged to the 

 ^jovereign ns their trustee, and by a military code which should 

 have precisely defined the means and the responsibilities by 

 which the colonies should be defended, and by which, if 

 necessary, this country should call for aid from the Colonies 

 themselves. It ought, further, to have been accompanied by 

 some representative council in the metropolis, which would 

 have brought the Colonies into constant and continuous 

 relations with the home Government. All this, however, was 

 omitted because those who advised that policy — and I believe 

 their convictions were sincere — looked upon the Colonies of 

 England, looked even upon our connection with India, as a 

 burden on this country, viewing everything in a financial aspect, 

 and totally passing by those moral and political considerations 

 which make nations great, and by the influence of which alone 

 men are distinguished from animals." 



It is not out of place to recall that in 1868 an Association 

 called the Colonial Society was formed having for a main object 

 the holding of a Conference in London of representatives 

 authorised by their respective governments to consider the 

 organisation of " some central body in the Constitution of the 

 Empire, with effective legislative power and an influence over 

 the laws and destinies of the Colonies." Lord Granville, how- 

 ever, on September 6th, 1869, addressed a circular despatch to 

 the colonies dissociating himself from any connection with the 

 propaganda of the Society, and strongly ol)jecting to any 



