i lllll|ff!H"!!!l|iIl!iinilllilili ajotnell UtttuerBtts ffiihtara atljaca, 2f?U) ^ark BOUGHT WITH THE INCOME OF THE SAGE ENDOWMENT FUND THE GIFT OF HENRY W. SAGE 1891 Cornell University Library DA 18.M65 1913 Nation and the empire 3 1924 027 935 083 THE NATION AND THE EMPIRE Cornell University Library The original of this book is in the Cornell University Library. There are no known copyright restrictions in the United States on the use of the text. http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924027935083 THE NATION AND THE EMPIRE Being a Collection of Speeches and Addresses: with an Introduction by LORD MILNER, G.C.B THIRD IMPRESSION LONDON CONSTABLE AND COMPANY LTD 1913 TO MY OLD FEIBND CHARLES W. BOYD WHO WAS THE FIRST TO tTEGE UPON ME THE PUBLICATION OF MY SPEECHES AND WHO GENEROUSLY UtNDERTOOK THE LABORIOUS TASK OF SELECTING, ABBANOING, AND ANNOTATING SUCH OF THEM AS ABB HERE BEPRODUCED I DEDICATE THIS VOLUME WHICH BUT FOB HIS STIMULATING INFLUENCE AND DEVOTED AID WOULD NEVER HAVE COME INTO EXISTENCE CONTENTS London INTKODUCTION, London: March 29, 1897. Speech at a Farewell Banquet before going to South Africa, .... Speeches during tenure of office of High Commissioner for South Africa — Gbaapf Reinet : March 3, 1898, Cape Town ; June 24, 1899, April 12, 1900, AprU 20, 1900, May 22, 1900, June 28, 1900, November 9, 1900, December 11, 1900, May 7, 1901, May 26, 1901, The Guildhall: July 23, 1901, Cape Town : September 2, 1901, Maeitzbfeg: October 15, 1901, Durban: October 21, 1901, . Johannesbueg : January 8, 1902 „ June 8, 1902, June 17, 1902, June 25, 1902, July 29, 1902, „ May 28, 1904, Pretoria: March 22, 1905, Johannesburg: March 31, 1905, London, Queen's Hall, Langham Place: January 9, 1906 Persecution of the Jews in Russia, House op Lords : February 26, 1906. The Transvaal and Orange River Colonies, House of Lords : March 27, 1906. Land Settlement in South Africa, ..... 6 12 16 19 20 22 26 28 32 35 39 41 42 44 48 58 58 61 63 65 68 77 92 93 109 viii SPEECHES AOT) ADDRESSES PAGE London: May 24, 1906. Empire Day, . ■ ' \ House of Loeds : July 10, 1906. Cost of National Service, 123 November 14, 1906. British Settlers in " . " 125 South Africa, . . ■ ■ • . j.^^ Manchbstek: December 14, 1906. The Imperialist Creed, 135 Wolverhampton : December 17, 1906. A political Ishmaelite, . • • ■ ■ . ioi Chueoh House, Westminster : March 9, 1907. South African Eailivay Mission, . . • .163 Kensington Town Hall: March 15, 1907. National Service, 164 Guildhall : April 23, 1907. Empire Education, . . 171 BuKLiNGTON HousE, LONDON: May 16, 1907. Oxford University Fund, . . ■ • .173 Geocees' Hall, London: May 29, 1907. Freedom of City Companies, . . . • • .174 YoEK : May 30, 1907. South Africa and the Consolidation of the Empire, . . . . . .175 House op Loeds : June 25, 1907. Territorial and Reserve Forces Bill, . . . . . .188 TuNBEiDGB Wells : October 24, 1907. Tariff Reform, . 195 GuiLDFOED : October 29, 1907. A Constructive Policy, . 209 Edinbuegh : November 13, 1907. Geography and Statecraft, 218 „ November 15, 1907. Unionists and the Empire, 234 Eugby : November 19, 1907. Unionists and Social Reform, 243 OxEOED : December 5, 1907. Sweated Industries, . . 253 Mansion House: December 6, 1907. Cape Town Cathedral Fund, ....... 260 United Empiee Club : December 18, 1907. Missionaries of Empire, . . . . . .263 House of Loeds : May 1 3, 1 908. Land Values (Scotland) Bill, 266 House of Loeds : May 20, 1908. Preferential Trade, . 267 Impeeial South African Association : May 21, 1908. The Friends of South Africa, . . . .279 Weybeidge : May 22, 1908. National Service and the Law, 287 EoYAL Colonial Institute: June 16, 1908. The Two Empires, ...... 289 Constitutional Club: June 26, 1908. Tariff Reform and National Security, • . • . , 300 The Canadian Club, Vancouvee: October 9, 1908. Im- perial Unity — External Advantages, . . . 302 CONTENTS ix PAGE The Canadian Club, Winnipeg : Octobee 15, 1908. Im- perial Unity — Internal Benefits, . . .310 The Canadian Club, Toeonto : October 27, 1908. Practical Suggestions, ..... 320 The Canadian Club, Ottawa: October 31, 1908. South African Development, . . . . .330 BoAED OF Trade, Monteeal: November 1, 1908. Pre- ferential Trade, . . . . .341 "Women's Canadian Club, Monteeal : November 2, 1908. Imperialism and Social Reform, . . .352 The Canadian Club, Monteeal: November 3, 1908. Conditions of Closer Union, .... 359 Nottingham : April 19, 1909. National Peril and Rational Service, . . . . .365 Bath: April 30, 1909. Preparatioti against War, . . 374 Beistol: May 4, 1909. Eating up Capital, . . 380 London : May 14, 1909. The Work of the Industrial Law Committee, .".... 382 London : June 24, 1909. ' Communis Patria,' . . 386 Poole: November 16, 1909. Tariff Reform and National Policy, ....... 388 House of Loeds : November 24, 1909. The Budget of 1909, 390 Glasgow: November 26, 1909. The House of Lords and Duty, ....... 400 Stieling: November 27, 1909. The Bridget versus Tariff Reform, ...... 401 Eamsgate : December 14, 1909. The Church's Work abroad, 413 Huddeesfield : December 17, 1909. Taxing the Foreigner, 416 Stockpoet: December 18, 1909. Single Chamber Government, 427 Caediff: December 23, 1909. Two Conflicting Policies, . 438 London: April 28, 1910. Imperial Organisation, . . 452 Liveepool : June 7, 1910. Crown Colonies, . . 461 Canteebuey : October 28, 1910. National Service — National Security, ..... 469 The Canadian Club, Halifax : September 26, 1912. Local and Imperial Politics, . . ■ . . 478 AuTHOES Club : December 2, 1912. Emjnre Citizenship, . 487 East London : December 9, 1912. The Two Nations, . 494 INDEX, 501 ' Une nation est une dme, un principe spirituel. Deux ckoses' qui, a vrai dire, ne font qu'une, constituent cette dme, ce principe spirituel. L\ine est dans le passe, I'autre dans le present. L'une est la possession d'un riche legs de souvenirs, I'autre le consentement actuel, le desir dt vivre ensemble, la volonte de faire valoir I'heritage qu'on a re^u indivis, Un passe hiroique, des grands hommes, de la gloire {j'entends la veritable), voila le capital social sur lequel on assied une idee nationale. Avoir des gloires communes dans le passe, une volonte commune dans le present, avoir fait des grandes choses ensemble, vouloir en faire encore, voila la condition essentielle pour elre un peuple. On aime en proportion des sacrifices qu'on a faits, des, maux qu'on a soufferts. On aime la maison, qu'on a bdtie et qu'on transmet. Le chant spartiate " Nous sommes ce que vous fiites, nous serons ce que vous etes," c'est dans sa simplicite I'hymne abrege de toute patrie.' — Renan. INTRODUCTION The speeches and addresses contained in this volume cover a period of sixteen years — ^from the date of my appoint- ment as High Commissioner for South Africa to the present time. The majority of them are just occasional speeches, such as any pubHc man is constantly obliged to make — often with inadequate preparation and sometimes with none — to deal with an incident arising in the course of his work, or with the latest phase of a controversy in which he may happen to be engaged. In a few cases only, such as the Manchester Speech of December 1906 (pp. 135-152) or the series of addresses delivered in Canada in 1908 (pp. 302- 365), was I in a position to develop my ideas in a more or less complete and systematic manner. Under these circum- stances, anything of more lasting value which the book may contain is necessarily embedded in a good deal of matter of merely transitory interest. Whatever unity there may be in such a series of incidental and fragmentary discourses can only be a unity of spirit, due to the fact that, throughout all these years, and indeed for a much longer period, my pubhc activities have been dominated by a single desire — that of working for the integrity and consolidation of the-British Empire. I should be the last to claim that I have always been successful in keeping this, my main object, free from entanglement with secondary and more questionable political aims. But I have at least always tried to do so. And in judging of the measure of my success or failure it is fair to bear in mind the special difficulties with which, in the present stage of our constitutional development, any man, who aspires to be a servant of the Empire, has to contend. An interesting discussion, initiated by my friend Mr. xii THE NATION AND THE EMPIRE E. B. Sargent, was carried on for some months last year in the columns of United Empire on the meaning of the words ' British citizenship.' The upshot appeared to be that, strictly speaking, there was no such thing as citizen- ship of the Empire. It is correct to speak of a ' British subject.' That term apphes to the vast majority of those who are born, and to all those who are natural- ised, in any of the dominions of our sovereign. But ' British citizen ' is, according to the jurists, only a ' rhetori- cal espression,' at any rate in the sense in which it is com- monly used, as signifying membership of a body-politic coextensive with those dominions. And yet men exist, and happily in increasing numbers, who are conscious of such membership, who mean something definite when they say that the Empire is their ' country,' the State to which they feel themselves to belong, and to which their highest allegiance is due. The Crown is in their eyes a sacred symbol of a bond, a fellowship, which may be based upon, but does not end with, subjection to a common sovereign. Loyalty to the Empire is to them the supreme poUtical duty. The existence, the growth, the potency of this sentiment is a momentous fact, though legal and juridical conceptions may not have expanded to correspond with it, and no word has yet been coined to describe membership of the body- politic towards which that loyalty is felt. The barbarous term ' Britisher ' is perhaps an attempt in that direction, but, besides being barbarous, it is not wide enough. For the time being we must, despite the jurists, faU back upon ' citizen of the Empire,' for want of a better phrase. But loyalty to the Empire, however inspiring as a motive of action, is not easy to practise at the present time. And it never will be, as long as the conception of the Empire as a single State is not embodied in any institutions other than: the Crown. In actual fact there is no such thing as an ' Imperial Service,' which any man can enter, hi a sense indeed the service of a part is the service of the whole, if one chooses so to regard it. But that is a matter of individual feeling. Strictly speaking, the public servant INTRODUCTION xiii in any part of the Empire belongs, under the King, to the particular government which has appointed him, and no one of the King's governments, not even the British, is in reality a government of the whole Empire. There are no doubt certain officers of State, the British Prime Minister for instance, or the Foreign Secretary, the scope of whose authority is so wide, that they may almost be regarded as Imperial officers. But it is not essential that they should so regard themselves, or should discharge their duties in that spirit. They may owe their positions entirely to their pre-eminence in the local politics of the United Kingdom. They might retain them, even if all the rest of the Empire thoroughly disapproved of their line of action. StiU greater is the difficulty of serving the Empire as a private citizen, however much a man may desire to do so — I mean, of course, of serving it by direct political action. We can all serve it indirectly by cultivating Imperial senti- ment, or simply by living useful and honourable lives. But in that sense any man may serve any community of which he is a member. I am speaking now of service more immedi- ate and tangible — of activity in the sphere of public life. In that sphere the service of the Empire is beset by pitfaUs, for in every part of it the same men and the same bodies are dealing now with local and now with Imperial affairs, and while the latter may be essentially the more important, it is dexterity in the former which spells success and power. And no doubt the successful local politician may turn out to have the qualities of an Imperial statesman. Fortunately he sometimes does. But he may equally well be quite deficient in the breadth of view and width of sympathy which are requisite for the handling of Imperial affairs. And in any case, whatever his own capacity and inchnation, he is never free to deal with those affairs on their merits. They are, for him, inevitably mixed up with the local party game. And until the two classes of questions can be dealt with by separate authorities, this always must be so. And meanwhile what are the opportunities before any man in a humbler position who yet desires, as a good xiv THE NATION AND THE EMPIRE ' citizen of the Empire,' to take his part in Imperial affairs ? He may write academic treatises, which nobody will read. He may join associations 'of a non-party character,' to promote this or that object of Imperial interest, and help to pass platonic resolutions, which will be as water on a duck's back to the Minister to whom they are forwarded. But if he desires to achieve anything practical, he must throw in his lot with some pohtical party, and earn, by vigorous swashbuckhng in the field of party politics, for which he may have neither aptitude nor liking, the chance of occasionally being hstened to on the questions which he really cares about and understands. Do not let me be thought to suggest that Imperial affairs are necessarily of greater dignity and importance than local affairs, or that a man is better employed in con- cerning himself with the former rather than with the latter. The word ' Imperial ' has an imposing sound, but not every question properly so described is necessarily of the first importance. And on the other hand there may be local controversies, in any part of the Empire, which are of supreme moment to the welfare of that part, and even of the whole. I have no idea of extolling interest in the one, or depreciating interest in the other. The point is, that Imperial and local affairs are different in character, and that the same men are not generally, or often, equally well qualified, by inclination and experience, to deal with both. A system, which makes successful activity in the one sphere the only avenue to influence in the other, involves enormous waste. And that is not the only, or the greatest evil arising from the present subordination of Imperial to local politics. Its worst consequence is that it carries the corroding influ- ence of party spirit into a region in which existing party divisions are wholly out of place. Those divisions owe their origin to conflicts of opinion about domestic questions. It is true that they have a tendency, even in the field of their origin, to outlive the differences of principle from which they sprang, and that the party fight thus becomes a mere INTRODUCTION xv scramble for power. It is true that in that scramble men are constantly compelled to sacrifice their convictions to the imperious caU of party discipline. But with regard to domestic questions, or at least some of them, party distinc- tions stiU have some vestige of meaning. With regard to almost any Imperial question they have absolutely none. And yet no sooner does any Imperial problem assume a character of real urgency, no sooner does it pass out of the region of theoretical discussion into that of practical politics, than it is almost certain to become the shuttlecock of party. For the Government of the day is then obliged to take some line about it. That line may be determined by all sorts of considerations having very httle to do with the matter itself. But whatever line the Government takes, the leaders of the Opposition will be tempted to cast about for a different line, and it is ten to one that they wiU be successful in their quest. And the rank and file on either side wiU feel in duty bound to foUow, though it is out of all reason to suppose that if left to form a genuine' opinion — on an entirely new subject — they would find themselves arrayed in two con- flicting groups, precisely coinciding with the two normal parties. And this edifying process is likely to be going on simultaneously in every part of the Empire, which enjoys the blessing of Parliamentary government, with- regard to every new question of urgency that affects them all. The result may be good or bad. It is hardly likely to be good. But whatever it may be, it wiU certainly . not be the same result, which would be arrived at, if men everywhere were considering the question on its merits. In that case there would often be general agree- ment, where we now have artificial differences and bitter controversy. And even if the question was one which aroused real differences of opinion, men would take sides over it in accordance with their genuine views about the matter itself, and not on the lines of pre-existing, and in this coimection meaningless, party divisions. The decision would then at least represent the true opinion, right or wrong, of a majority of the citizens of the Empire. That opinion xvi THE NATION AND THE EMPIRE would not, as now, be liable to be distorted and submerged in a whirlpool of ulterior motives and irrelevant prejudices. This is not a fancy picture. The reahty of the evils just described can be iUustrated by what has happened, and is even now happening, with regard to matters of supreme importance to the whole Empire. Let us look at two questions, the magnitude of which is beyond dispute— the development of inter-Imperial trade, and the naval defence of all His Majesty's dominions. How have these fared when proposals affecting them, which were at least intended to promote the common good, and therefore entitled to dis- passionate consideration, have been brought into the arena of local party poKtics 1 Take first the Trade question. Ten years ago Mr. Cham- berlain, holding, as he did, a unique position in the eyes of the whole British world, regarded everywhere as an essen- tially Imperial and not merely a British statesman, pro- pounded to the people of the United Eangdom a new de- parture in commercial policy, expressly designed to increase the economic interdependence of the different parts of the Empire. For he believed, as aU statesmen have believed in all ages but the present, and still believe in every country but our own, that the bond of mutually profitable trade is a powerful factor in promoting political unity. But the particular measures, which he advocated with that end in view, gave a great shock to the fiscal principles, which had for some time past been generally accepted in Great Britain. That his proposals should meet with opposition, and give rise to controversy, was perfectly natural and indeed inevit- able. And had the controversy, which was certain to arise, been conducted on anything Hke rational lines, the result, whether favourable or unfavourable to the proposals them- selves, might have been of great public advantage. It is always well for any community to review from time to time the traditional foundations of its policy, and consider whether the reasons which led to the adoption of that policy still hold good, or whether altered circumstances make them no longer valid. And in the particular case under discussion INTRODUCTION xvii there were exceptionally strong grounds for a reconsidera- tion of the principles of our British fiscal system. The growth of other parts of the Empire, and especially of the self-governing Dominions, had immensely increased their importance to us, as markets for our goods, to say nothing of their political importance as piUars of the Imperial fabric. But at the same time their ideas about trade and taxation diverged widely from those prevalent in Great Britain. All more or less Protectionist, and resolved to favour the products of their own industry in the com- petition with imported goods, the Dominions were never- theless agreed in giving, among imports, an advantage to those coming from other parts of the Empire as against those brought from foreign countries. And they were also agreed, and very strongly, in the desire that the same prin- ciple — discrimination between goods of foreign and goods of British Imperial origin — should be adopted by the Mother Country. How that might be done — it was admittedly difficult — and whether the Mother Country could afford to do it at aU, were necessarily, as they all recognised, questions for the people of Great Britain alone to decide. Their con- tention only came to this, that, if the Mother Country did see her way to take a step in the desired direction, the con- sequences, not merely in the increase of trade and inter- course, but in the promotion of closer poHtical relationship, would be momentous. On that point they were all unani- mous, and the strength of their conviction on the subject was impressive. The situation thus created was clearly one which demanded the earnest attention of British statesmen. Mr. Chamber- lain was, alike by his official position and by his personal sympathies, in close touch with the feehngs of the people of the Dominions. In his constant striving to bind them by every possible tie to the Mother Country and to one an- other, he was gradually converted to their view about the best means of developing inter-Imperial trade, and led to propose a modification of the British fiscal system. What- ever the merits or defects of that proposal, its object was b xviii ; THE NATION AND THE EMPIRE undoubtedly laudable. It was prompted by motives of Imperial patriotism. By no possibility could it serve any partisan purpose, indeed its author must have been well aware of the risk which it involved to his party, and to his own position as a party leader. Perhaps he hoped that in breaking entirely fresh ground he would open a new era in our political life, and that, if he failed to convince some of his own associates, he would, on the broad Imperial issue, gain the support of the mass of his fellow-coimtrymen, irrespective of party. But the sequel was destined to show the impossibihty, under present conditions, of keeping party considerations from exercising a decisive influence upon the fate of any political movement however novel, however remote from current topics of party controversy. To start such a movement effectively required the inter- vention of a man of first-rate eminence in pubhc life, of a party leader. No mere theorist or philosopher, however able, no old public servant, however distinguished, no political free-lance, however bold, could have got the British people to take the proposed innovation seriously. ' There is no pain like the pain of a new idea,' and if the man in the street is to tolerate such an intrusion on his peace of mind, it must come to him with the authority of one of those familiar names, which a thousand speeches and leading articles have taught him to love or to execrate. But unfortunately the sponsorship, which is necessary to give the new idea a chance of being seriously considered at all, is likely at the same time to cause the consideration of it, from the very outset, to be tainted with bias. And that was the fate of the scheme of Imperial Preference propounded by Mr. Chamberlain. It burst hke a bombshell in the camp of his friends, causing a deep cleavage of opinion, which still remains, though in the long run the majority of them bowed to his authority and accepted it. But their assent was in many cases born of loyalty rather than of con- viction, and Mr. Chamberlain's pohcy was sometimes iU served by the advocacy of men who had not fully grasped its principle and its object, and who clung to the letter of his proposals without appreciating their spirit. And, INTRODUCTION XIX on the other hand, his poUtical opponents fell upon those proposals tooth and nail, because they were his. ' Theirs not to reason why,' nor to pause and consider what effect might be produced upon the growing sentiment of Imperial loyalty in the Dominions by the unmeasiu'ed denunciation of a poHcy, which owed its origin to that sentiment on their part, with which they aU sympathised, and which had been adopted by Mr. Chamberlain for the express purpose of creating a basis of economic co-operation between them and the Mother Coimtry. Considerations of this nature could not be expected to weigh with party politicians, when they saw an opportunity of tripping up a formidable ad- versary. Mr. Chamberlain's own followers were divided. Some features of his scheme were unpopular to begin Avith, and could easily be made more so by the unscrupulous exaggeration in which party pugihsts delight. It was the chance of a lifetime. And so the broad and far-reaching question of principle, which Mr. Chamberlain had raised, was hardly discussed. The reasons, and they were grave reasons, which had led him to risk everything for the adop- tion of Imperial Preference, were treated as of no account. AU the rhetorical batteries of the Opposition were concen- trated upon those details of his scheme which lent them- selves to the creation of unreasoning prejudice and exagger- ated alarm. A duty which might, or might not, have added Id. to the price of the quartern loaf, was represented as threatening milhons of people with famine. The idea, that closer commercial relations between the different parts of the Empire were of value in promoting amity and co-opera- tion in other respects, was denounced as reliance on ' sordid bonds.' But I have no wish to go at length into the history of this unhappy controversy. I only refer to it to illustrate the troubles which spring from our having no proper forum .for the discussion of Imperial relations. AU that happened in this case was bound to happen, the moment that the new issue raised by Mr. Chamberlain was sucked into the vortex of our local party struggle. It was inevitable, under these circumstances, that discussion should rage over those aspects of it which were of immediate electioneering value, and XX THE NATION AND THE EMPIRE that the wider and more important question of principle should be smothered in the hubbub. And the consequence is that the people of Great Britain have never yet had a fair chance of looking at the policy of Preference in an atmosphere unclouded by the dust of the party scrimmage. They have been led to take sides, in the main on party hnes, with regard to a particular proposal — for or against the imposition of certain customs duties, and especially of one such duty — that of 2s. a quarter on foreign wheat — ^the importance of which has been enormously exaggerated on both sides. But the prin- ciple of Imperial Preference does not stand or faU with the approval or rejection of that or of any particular duty : indeed it is not confined to the domain of Customs at all. Neither is there anything in the principle itself which should make it acceptable to a man because he is a Conservative or inacceptable because he is a Liberal. The first practical step towards the realisation of it was taken in Canada by a Liberal government. It has found favour in Australia and New Zealand with parties and governments more Liberal, and indeed more Radical, than any which have ever been in power in the United Kingdom. Why should it have come to be regarded as a doctrine, which every Liberal in the United Kingdom is bound to abhor ? The answer can only be found in the accidents of party warfare, which have prevented him from approaching the subject with an open mind. With the solitary but memorable exception of Mr. Lloyd George, who at the Colonial Confer- ence of 1907 paid an eloquent tribute to the principle of Preference, which has unfortunately never been followed by practical action, i the party at present in power have 1 'We heartily concur,' Mr. Lloyd George said, 'in the view which has been presented by the Colonial Ministers, that the Empire would be a great gamer if much of the products now purchased from foreign countries could be produced and purchased within the Empire. In Britain we have the greatest market in the world. We are the greatest purchasers of pro- duce raised or manufactured outside our own boundaries. A very laree proportion of this produce could very well be raised in the Colonies, and any reasonable and workable plan that Vould tend to increase the proper tiou of the produce which is bought by us from the Colonies, and by the Colonies from us and from each other, must necessarily enhance the resourceB of the Empire as a whole. A considerable part of the surplus INTRODUCTION xxi displayed a total inability to look beyond the particular proposals made by Mr. Chamberlain. The result can only be to give the impression that something Uke half the people of the United Kingdom are resolutely opposed to any attempt to consolidate the Empire by reciprocal con- cessions in respect of trade, and are therefore in direct conflict, on this subject, with the cherished opinions of their kith and kin across the seas. If this were indeed the case, it would be a great disaster. But no man is entitled by anything that has yet happened to say that it is the case. For my own part I firmly believe that this impression is a false one, and that on the broad question, whether it is or is not right and wise dehberately to direct as much trade as possible into Imperial channels, and to aim at making the Empire economically self-sufficient, there is no con- flict between the sentiment of the majority of the British people and the sentiment of Canada, AustraUa, and New Zealand. It is one thing to dissent from a particular method of promoting Imperial in preference to foreign trade, quite another to be out of sympathy with that object altogether. Personally I hold that even the particular proposals made by Mr. Chamberlain have never received unbiased consideration. But it is perfectly certain that his fundamental idea has been so obscured by the mists of party controversy, that it has never had a chance of being generally understood, and that in consequence many oppor- tunities of increasing trade and intercourse within the Empire have been and are being thrown away. Turning now from the question of Imperial Trade to that of Imperial Defence, let us cast a glance at what is at present going on in Canada. Here is an even clearer illustration of the effect of party divisions in creating artificial conflicts population of the United Kingdom, which now goes to foreign lands in search of a Uvelihood, might then find it to its profit to pitch its tents somewhere under the Flag, and the Empire would gain in riches of material and of men. We agree with our Colonial comrades, that all this is worth concerted efforts, even if the effort at the outset costs us something. The federation of free Commonwealtlts is worth making some sacrifice for. One never knows when its strength may be essential to the great cause of human freedom, and that is priceless.' — (Minutes of the Proceedings of the Colon- ial Conference, 1907. Cd. 3523, p. 362.) xxii THE NATION AND THE EMPIRE of opinion over a matter with which they have reaUy nothing to do, and thereby stultifying the desires of a whole people. For whatever may be, or might be, the true opinion of the people of the United Kingdom about Im- perial Preference, there can be no doubt what the majority of Canadians wish to see their country doing with regard to the naval defence of the Empire. Their minds are seriously bent upon taking an effective share in that defence, and on setting about it in no half-hearted or niggardly fashion. This feehng is not confined to the party at present in office, who are practically unanimous on the subject. It is equally strong in a large section, perhaps the majority, of the party at present in Opposition. For even the French Canadians on the Opposition side, though undoubtedly less enthusiastic about a naval poHcy than their British confederates, are yet by no means intractable with regard to it. There is no doubt a stubborn minority, which is keen to prevent any- thing being done. But the bulk of the French -Canadian Liberals were prepared only two years ago to accept with a good grace the naval programme put forward by their own party leaders. On the whole, it may truly be said that there is as large a measure of agreement, among Canadians generally, in favour of doing something substantial to increase the strength of the Empire at sea, as can ever reasonably be hoped for on any question of such magnitude and novelty in a community naturally disputatious, as all democratic British communities are. But does it follow that something substantial will be done ? By no means . The mind of the nation may be made up . The majority of its members may be essentially agreed. But this general agreement as to the end may nevertheless be defeated by a party squabble over the means. At the out- set, for a brief moment, the working of the political machine reflected the general agreement. Little more than three years ago the Parliament at Ottawa passed a unanimous resolution in favour of participation by Canada in the naval defence of the Empire. But then the question was brand- new, and the demon of party -spirit had not had time to make havoc of it. He is very ingenious in setting people by the INTRODUCTION xxiii ears and in inducing them, even when they want the same thing, to fall out over the way of doing it, and so grievously to exaggerate their differences of opinion about methods, that in the end they care more about their conflicting plans for attaining the common object, than they do about the object itself. This is precisely the danger which threatens the Navy Question in Canada at the present time. The game of manoeuvring for position, with a view to the next Greneral Election, is in full swing. And thus many pohticians are busy trying to persuade themselves, and a reluctant country, that there is some vital and essential difference between the pohcy of the two parties with regard to naval defence. As a matter of fact there is no such vital difference at all. The only real antagonism is between the great majority of Canadians, who want to see something done, and the minority, who do not. Among the former there are no doubt many differences of view with regard to details. There are many shades of opinion, but there is nothing hke a genuine contrast of two opposite convictions, miraculously coincident with the hne of party cleavage. The Conservatives are not in principle opposed to ' a Canadian Navy,' and they are quite as anxious as the Liberals that, whatever Canada does for the defence of the Empire, she should do not as a tributary but as a partner State. The Liberals, for all their nervousness about ' autonomy,' are just as desirous as the Conservatives that the Canadian Navy should help to strengthen the Empire and not merely to defend Canada. There is thus plenty of material for agreement on a common national policy, and all the more so as the present Prime Minister of the Dominion has shown himself capable of deal- ing with this big question on big lines, and has impressed not only Canada but the whole Empire by his largeness of view and sincerity of pmrpose. But in spite of these favourable circumstances, it is only too likely that the question will continue to be made the occasion for an em- bittered party fight, and that the Empire wiU lose, if not the material assistance, at any rate the still more valuable moral support, which hearty and unanimous action on xxiv THE NATION AND THE EMPIRE the part of Canada would have given it. Such a result would no doubt be contrary to the desires of the best men of both parties, and it would misrepresent the true feeling of the Canadian people, who are not by any means divided, on this subject, into two hostile camps of nearly equal numbers, and who will detest being made to appear thu§ divided to the outside world. There have been many evidences of the feehng of repulsion with which they would regard such a spectacle. Before the opening of Parliament last autumn, memorials bearing the signatures of influential men of both poHtical parties were addressed from various parts of Canada to the Premier and the leader of the Opposi- tion, urging them to meet in conference on the Navy Ques- tion and to try and arrange a settlement, which would obviate a party fight. And since Mr. Borden has unfolded his scheme, there have been repeated attempts, both in and out of Parhament, to arrive at a compromise which might give expression to the substantial unanimity of the bulk of the Canadian people — to their genuine desire to discharge, by whatever means, their duty to the Empire. There is something pathetic in this effort of a sincere and noble popular sentiment to escape from being distorted and mutil- ated by the normal operation of the party machine. But there is nothing novel or surprising in such an experience. Laocoon wresthng with the serpents is no unfitting symbol of the desperate struggle which Imperial patriotism has to maintain against the hydras of particularism and party spirit that everywhere enlace and threaten to throttle it. Not that the Imperial Movement is destined to meet with the fate of Laocoon. Its vitality is far too great and persistent. The ImperiaHsts of my generation have indeed met with many discouragements. They have seen chance after chance thrown away. Over and over again questions of great Imperial interest have been pushed off the board to make room for matters of infinitely minor importance, or, worse still, have been used as footballs in the party scrimmage. Imperial interests have suffered griev- ously from neglect ; they have suffered even more from the INTRODUCTION xxv wrong sort of attention. And yet Imperial sentiment and interest in Imperial problems, a sense of the solidarity of the scattered communities of the British race, have been growing steadily all the time. It is this fact, which gives hope of a better future, especially if we bear in mind that the distresses of the present time are due largely to defects of machinery — to our obsolete arrangements for ,the con- duct of Imperial affairs. But where good- will and a right spirit exist, such defects cannot be incapable of remedy. And, as a matter of fact, the remedy is not far to seek, though our deep-seated dishke of fundamental change makes us slow. to face it. Essentially what is wanted is discrimina- tion — ^the separation of Imperial from local interests in the sphere of politics and administration. The present chaotic jumble is injurious to both, but it is Imperial in- terests which are the greatest sufferers. They suffer from the lack of time and energy to devote to them on the part of Parliaments and Grovemments absorbed in other business. They suffer even more fatally from their entanglement with local politics. And yet the local autonomy, which all com- munities of the British race cherish, and justly cherish, so much — ^the right to manage or mismanage their own affairs, free from external interference — depends ultimately upon their capacity to stand together and present a united front to any possible aggressor. But for that end we require an Imperial Constitution, providing for the separa- tion of those branches of public business which, Hke Foreign Affairs, Defence and Ocean Communications, are essenti- ally Imperial, from those which are mainly or wholly local, and for the management of the former by a new authority, representative of all parts of the Empire, but undistracted by the work and the controversies which are pecuhar to any single part. We have already, in the United Kingdom, differentiated downwards, by relegating to new organs of government, such as Borough and County Councils, a great many duties formerly performed, or not performed, by the central Government. And the effect has undoubt- edly been salutary. We have yet to differentiate upwards, xxvi THE NATION AND THE EMPIRE throughout the Empire by entrusting to a body constituted ad hoc the matters of common interest, which are at present partially and spasmodically managed, or whoUy neglected, by the so-caUed ' Imperial ' Parliament and the Government dependent on it, and to some, though to a much smaller extent, by the Parliaments and Governments of the Doniinions. When that day comes, it does not indeed follow that Imperial affairs will be wisely conducted. But they will certainly stand a better chance of it than they do at present, for they wiU be in the hands of men whose principal business in life will be to attend to them, and who will have been chosen for that work because of their real or supposed capacity for dealing with it. And at the same time there will be a better chance of public opinion, in every part of the Empire, with regard to matters of Imperial interest, finding true expression. For it will then be possible, as it is not possible at present, for A and B, who may belong to different parties, and yet may be in complete agreement about questions of Imperial Defence or Trade, to oppose one another on the subjects on which they differ, and yet to co-operate with regard to the matters on which they are agreed. At the present time, if the Government or the party with which a man may be in general sympathy on questions of Home Politics, is at the same time pursuing a com'se in Imperial affairs, which appears to him unwise and even disastrous, what is he to do ? In order to be represented in the one direction, he must submit to being entirely misrepresented in the other : or else he must acquiesce in being reduced to com- plete impotence. It is only by a separation of the two spheres that a way can be found out of this dilemma. No doubt a great constitutional change of this kind is not easily effected. In any case it can only come about by successive stages. And it will never come about at all, unless a powerful and long -sustained movement of pubUc opinion in all parts of the Empire gives the necessary impetus, and compels pohticians to bestir themselves in a matter at once so difficult, and so aUen to their ordinary INTRODUCTION xxvii preoccupations. But then such a movement is now, as it seems to me, well on its way, and is steadily gaining in momentum. I can hardly be mistaken in this, for I have watched the currents of opinion on this subject for nearly forty years, and that with critical eyes and in no very sanguine temper. My own conviction indeed has never wavered, but I have had many doubts whether it was destined to be widely shared. Latterly, however, despite occasional set-backs, the believers in Imperial Unity cannot but have felt that their bark was floating upon a steadily rising tide. Progress in such a movement is nevfer continuous, and is peculiarly difficult to gauge. But when I look back upon the course of affairs since my College days, I cannot but realise the immense increase of interest everywhere in the problems of Empire, and the yet greater and more significant change in the popular attitude with regard to them. That change of mind has been much more marked in the last fifteen years than in the preceding five and twenty, more marked in the last five than in the preceding ten. And it is due to no accidental or temporary influences. It is the inevitable outcome of closer intercourse between different parts of the Empire, leading to a better appreciation of their importance to one another, and of all that the Empire stands for in the world. And every year this intercourse increases, and its lessons sink more deeply into the minds of men. The decisive factor in the case is the question of time. It is inconceivable that the British race, which, with all its faults, has never been lacking in fxindamental sanity, should throw away the advantages of its unique position in the world, of its hold on five continents, of its possession of economic resources more vast and varied than any that have ever before fallen xmder a single control, when once it has fully reahsed what that position means. But its meaning is not easily brought home to a number of separate democracies, Uving at a dis- tance from one another, confronted with very different local problems, and each naturally absorbed in its own local affairs. And until it has been brought home to them, until xxviii THE NATION AND THE EMPIRE their mental horizon has been widened by the growth of intercourse, and the education of contact with the outside world, which till recently was the exclusive privilege of a very Umited class, there is great danger of their drifting apart, to say nothing of the danger of their being severed by the intrigues, or the direct hostile impact, of jealous rivals. The history of South Africa is a case in point. With a shrug of the shoulders, not reaKsing what it meant, we allowed an alien flag to be hoisted within the British ring-fence, thereby inviting the intrusion of foreign influences, and we were soon within an ace of the permanent separation of all South Africa from the rest of the Empire. It needed a long and critical struggle, and enormous sacrifices, to preserve even the possibihty of that country becoming some day a free member of a British Imperial Union. Time fights on the side of Imperiahsm, but the question has always been whether enough time would be accorded to us. The duty of Imperialists in my day has been to hold the fort during the long indispensable process of education — to try and prevent our Imperial heritage from being dissi- pated before its meaning and value could be generally understood. It has not been in their power materially to hasten that process, or to forge new pohtical bonds of Empire, the necessity of which was not apparent to the majority of their contemporaries. All that they have been able to do is to preserve the materials of future union from being wasted or impaired. The erection of the edifice itseK has been reserved for another and a more fortunate generation. Yet there is no reason why these forerunners should feel dispirited. They have been privileged to watch the immense progress of the idea to which they have given years of service, though they may not hve to see its final triumph. They are pioneers, and, hke aU pioneers, they have some- times taken wrong turns and followed tracks which have not really led them any nearer to their goal. Those who come after them will profit not only by their discoveries, but by their mistakes. But, when all is said and done, the goal is nearer than it was. INTRODUCTION xxix It is true, that a real constitution of the Empire no more exists to-day than it has done at any time since the old bonds of Colonial dependence were abandoned, and nothing put in their place. But it is equally true, that a great, and latterly a rapid, expansion of political con- ceptions, both in the Mother Country and in the Colonies, has made the gradual establishment of a new and better Imperial constitution possible. Without such a growth of ideas it would have been unprofitable even to discuss it. To that growth of ideas I am encouraged to think that some at least of the addresses contained in this book have in a certain measure contributed. It is in the hope that they may continue to do so that I venture to republish them. Their utility may not be altogether lessened by the fact that they contain no deliberate or formal propaganda, and that they bear so unmistakably the stamp of their time, a time of transition, of preparation, of groping towards a still but dimly visible end. They may not even be useless as bearing witness, conscious or unconscious, to that malignant influence of party warfare upon the treatment of Imperial questions, about which I have said so much. A considerable number of the later speeches, though not all of them, were delivered from party platforms, and are no doubt of the same type as a good many others delivered under similar conditions, which my friend the editor, in order as far as possible to avoid repetition, has wisely omitted. They ought not to be, in respect of sin- cerity, unfavourable specimens of party oratory, for in making them I had certain advantages which party speakers do not often enjoy. Always avowedly a free-lance, and unhampered by the obligation to adhere strictly to the Unes of any ' authorised programme,' I could afford to devote myself to those subjects on which I really felt strongly. And, as it happened, there was, and is, so much in the policy of the present holders of power, with which I heartily disagree, that I never had to strain my conscience to find material for criticism. Yet, for all that, I feel now, as I read over these speeches, that the admixture of party XXX THE NATION AND THE EMPIRE polemics— not unfair, as party polemics go, or of a very virulent type — nevertheless detracts from my advocacy of the causes which I always had most at heart. The truth is, as it seems to me, that there is no object of supreme national importance at the present time, which can be at- tained by the method of party conflict. Imperial Union certainly cannot be, but no more can a sound system of National Defence, or the solution of the Irish Problem, or the repair of the mutilated constitution of the United Kingdom. The greatest political disaster of recent times was the break-down of the Conference of 1910. And if this is the case in the purely political field, it is surely no less true of the economic and social problems, of which all thoughtful men recognise the urgency. In none of these directions is there much to hope from the competition of rival bands of politicians in devising superficially attractive panaceas. This may be an entirely mistaken view, but it is one which has grown upon me in the course of a weU-meant effort not to appear too singular, but to work for the causes, which I beHeve in, without departing altogether from the conventional hues of party controversy. It is not pleasant to have, after all, to confess oneself an eccentric, stiU less to run the risk of being derided as a ' superior person.' So far from being justly regarded in that light, I am very conscious of my inferiority — certainly in effectiveness — to the ardent and whole-hearted party man. But then his chief strength hes in his conviction that the victory of his party means the salvation of the State. If all the objects one most cares about are hopeless unless they become national, if they seem utterly unattainable by the means of a mere party victory, it is difficult to throw oneself into the party fight with the necessary enthusiasm. Of course there is always the danger that, if you don't preach from a party platform, you won't get anybody to listen to you at all. But one has to take some risks in this world. And on the whole I am inclined to think that there is a sufficiently widespread and increasing weariness of the INTRODUCTION xxxi partisan treatment of every great national q^uestion to give the exponents of a different method a chance. The attempt to think out for himself, and to commend to others, a national pohcy as free as possible from party shibboleths, may disqualify a man as a candidate for office, and so deprive him of the most obvious opportunity of serving his country, but it need not exclude him from all influence in public life. Indeed I believe that the number of men profoundly interested in public affairs, and anxious to discharge their full duty as citizens, who are in revolt against the rigidity and insincerity of our present party system, is very considerable, and steadily increasing, and that they only need to stand together to make themselves felt. They may never attempt to form a new party of their own, indeed it is not a new party that is wanted. It is the encouragement of national as opposed to party spirit. What they could do with a httle organisation would be to play the umpire between parties, and to make the unscrupulous pursuit of mere party advantage an unpro- fitable game. Nothing would be more calculated to impose moderation on the warring factions in bidding against one another for popular support than the existence of a power- ful body of opinion — powerful enough to turn many votes — which was certain to be ahenated by tactics that were too unblushingly partisan. The growing influence of such a Jury might lead to the gradual removal first of one great national interest, and then of another, from the arena of party conflict, until what was left to fight over on the old lines would be only questions of no deep and permanent importance. What has actually happened with regard to the conduct of Foreign Pohcy in the last ten years is of hopeful augury. But there is room for much further pro- gress in the same direction. And if ever there was a question, which called aloud for consideration in none but a national spirit, it is the Imperial question. Indeed Imperiahsm, properly conceived, is just such a draught of oxygen as is needed to revitalise the used-up atmosphere of British politics. We are here in xxxii THE NATION AND THE EMPIRE - the presence of an influence which cannot but deeply affect the whole future of mankind. It is true that, owing per- haps to some of the associations of the word ' Imperial,' no great movement of the human spirit has ever been more completely misunderstood. But the misconception of it is being gradually overcome. Imperiahsm as a political doctrine has often been represented as something tawdry and superficial. In reahty it has all the depth and com- prehensiveness of a religious faith. Its significance is moral even more than material. It is a mistake to think of it as principally concerned with extension of territory, with ' painting the map red.' There is quite enough painted red already. It is not a question of a couple of hundred thousand square miles more or less. It is a question of preserving the unity of a great race, of enabhng it, by maintaining that unity, to develop freely on its own lines, and to continue to fulfil its distinctive mission in the world. As it happens, that race — owing to causes which are plain on the face of history and which need not be recited here — is- scattered over a large extent of the earth's surface. But this is accidental, not essential. Room for expansion is indeed essential, but there might be room for immense expansion within a smaller but more compact territory. It is true that this wide dispersion of the British race has certain great advantages — it has given us a unique range of experience, and the control of an unrivalled wealth and variety of material resources. But this dispersion is at the same time a source of weakness, and a source of danger, for it is owii;ig to it, and to it almost alone, that the problem of maintaining political unity is so difficult. Indeed it is only ' the shrinkage of the world,' due to the triumphs of mechanical science, which has rendered the solution of that problem possible at all. But now that a solution is possible, the failure to find it would be incredible foUy, and a huge disaster. That communities of the same origin, the same language, the same political and social structure, the same type of civilisa- tion, with all that they have to cherish, to develop, and to INTRODUCTION xxxiii defend in common, should fail to stand together, and should, owing to that failure, run the risk of falling severally under alien domination, would be as unnatural as suicide. And like suicide, it would mean dereliction of duty. For the British race has become responsible for the peace and order and the just and humane government of three or four hundred millions of people, who, differing as widely as possible from one another in other respects, are all ahke in this, that, from whatever causes, they do not possess the gift of maintaining peace and order for themselves. Without our control their poUtical condition would be one of chaos, as it was for centuries before that control was established. The Pax Britannica is essential to the maintenance of civilised conditions of existence among one-fifth of the human race. But this unique position, which is of inestimable value not only to the world but to ourselves, less perhaps for the material benefits which it brings us, than for its effect upon the national character — for it has helped to develop some of the best and most distinctive quahties of the race — is a position not easy to maintain. Interest and honour alike Impel us to maintain it, but the strain is great. Our share of ' the white man's burden ' is an exceptional share. No doubt it is good for us to bear it, if we can. And we can bear it, but — in the long run — only if we bring to the task the undivided strength of the British race throughout the world, with all its immense possibilities of growth. Sooner or later the burden must become too heavy for the unaided strength of that portion of the race which, at any given time, dwells in the United Kingdom. For the future growth of that portion is sternly restricted by physical conditions, and it has parted, and must continue to part, with much of its best blood and sinew to build up other lands. The population of these islands cannot greatly increase in numbers without dec linin g in quahty, and the quality of a large proportion of it — more of that directly — is already far below the standard which we ought to main- tain. A better distribution of the people between town xxxiv THE NATION AND THE EMPIRE and country, and greater attention to physical training, would allow of the healthy development of our present numbers, perhaps of shghtly larger numbers. But, with even the best of management, there is not much more elbow-room. Yet artificial restrictions on increase are undesirable. They are the beginning of decay. Moreover there is not the slightest reason in our case to limit increase — ^provided the stock be sound — as long as there are vast undeveloped areas under our own flag simply clamouring for more and ever more inhabitants. We can and we ought to supply that need, and as a matter of fact there is a constant outflow of many of the most vigorous and enter- prising of our people to these new Britains beyond the seas. This stream of emigration is not an evil in itseK. It is a good thing in itself. It would only become an evil if this precious human material, together with all that has gone before to the same regions, were to be lost to us and to the Empire. To prevent such a calamity, to keep the scattered communities of British stock, while severally independent within their own confines, one body-politic among the sovereign nations of the world, maintaining their common history and traditions, and continuing to discharge their common duty to humanity — that is the noble, the difficult, but by no means impossible task which Imperialism seeks to achieve. It may be said that in any case the self-governing Dominions can give no help to the Mother Country in the defence or the development of her vast Asian and Central African possessions. But that is a very short-sighted view. Directly, indeed, the Dominions may contribute Mttle to-day to the maintenance of the Dependent Empire, nor would it be reasonable, in the present stage of their development, to expect that they should. But indirectly they already contribute to it — and are zealous to do so in an increasing degree— by strengthening the Mother Country herself, and by helping her to uphold that maritime power which is the chief bulwark of the whole Imperial fabric. And then we are only at the beginning, in the very earliest stages, of INTRODUCTION xxxv awakened interest, among the peoples of the Dominions, in the problems of the Empire as a whole. Hitherto they have been almost entirely absorbed, and very naturally, in their own local affairs. But that interest is bound to grow ; in- deed it is already growing very fast, as their relations with the outside world become more numerous and important. And with that larger outlook they are also begiiming to take a pride in their membership of a world-wide Empire, while their increasing self-rehance and self-respect make them chafe at the idea of continuing to play a merely passive and subordinate role. This new leaven is bound to work great changes in their relations to the Mother Country and to one another, and to lead, if the Empire holds together, to their increased participation alike in its burdens and in its control. Throughout the foregoing statement I have emphasised the importance of the racial bond. From my point of view this is fundamental. It is the British race which built the Empire, and it is the undivided British race which can alone uphold it. Not that I underestimate the import- ance of community of material interests in binding the different parts of the Empire together. The following pages will show that I have emphasised it over and over again. But deeper, stronger, more primordial than these material ties is the bond of common blood, a common language, common history and traditions. But what do I mean by the British race ? I mean all the peoples of the United Kingdom and their descendants in other coimtries under the British flag. The expression may not be ethnologicaUy accm-ate. The inhabitants of Eng- land, Scotland and Ireland are of various stocks, and in spite of constant intermixtiure, strongly-marked differences of type persist, even when they are not, as in the case of the Irish, emphasised and nourished by poUtical dissi- dence. And yet to speak of them collectively as the British race is not only convenient, but is in accordance with broad pohtical facts. Community of language and insti- tutions, and centuries of life together under one sovereignty, xxxvi THE NATION AND THE EMPIRE have not indeed obliterated differences, but have super- added bonds, which are more than artificial, which make them in the eyes of the world, if not always in their own, a single nation, and which it will be found impossible to destroy. And among the influences which have made and make for such national unity, the Empire itself holds a foremost place. It is their common work. The con- querors and rulers of the Dependent Empire, the settlers who have peopled the self-governing Dominions, have been drawn indifferently from every part of the United Kingdom. Face to face with ahen peoples, or with the unpeopled wilderness, they have realised their essential unity. The jealousies, even the feuds, which divided them in the country of their origin, have fallen into the background. The common language and the coinmon flag have prevafled. It is true that in all the more popu- lous and more settled portions of the Dominions, where the struggle against hostile races or physical obstacles is over, the old distinctions are still to some extent main- tained and even cherished, but, with rare exceptions, they have now a purely social significance, and have lost all traces of bitterness and enmity. In any serious emer- gency the men of the several British stocks stand firmly together. I can testify to this from my own experience. During the South African War, Nationalist members in the House of Commons may have cheered disasters to the British arms, and a few stray Irishmen from the Old Country may even have thrown in their lot with the Boers. But the South Africans of Irish descent were as keen supporters of the British cause as the mass of their Scotch or EngUsh fellow- citizens. Indeed, some of the most ardent of them all were the sons of men who had been malcontents, and even rebels, in the land of their origin. It is true that the Irish of the Dominions — excepting, of course, the Orangemen — ^remain, for the most part, ' Home Rulers.' But that does not in- volve, in the great majority of cases, any feeling of hostility to the Empire. The contrast, in this respect, between them and the Irishmen who have passed under foreign flags — INTRODUCTION xxxvii the American Irish for instance — is marked, and is very- significant. From the Imperial point of view it matters comparatively little, of which of the British stocks the population of the Dominions is composed. English, Scotch, Welsh and Irish, they tend, without losing their distinctive characteristics, to develop, in essentials, a common sentiment. The idea of keeping in effective touch with men of their own race in the Old Country, or in other lands under the British flag, and of presenting a imited front to the world, appeals power- fully to them aU. What does greatly matter, on the other hand, is the relative strength of aU the British stocks col- lectively as compared with that of the people of other European races hving side by side with them. It is true that in Canada the latter are almost equal in number to their feUow-citizens of British origin, while in South Africa they are more than equal, and that nevertheless Canada exhibits a strong and growing attachment to the Empire, while even in South Africa anything like active disaffection to it is dormant, if not dead. South Africa indeed presents to-day the surprising spectacle of a British Dominion in which a non-British race, quite recently at war with the British Empire, is, by virtue of its superior numbers, in exclusive possession of aU political power, and there is yet no attempt to disturb the Imperial connection. The present dispute between two sections of the Boers is virtually a quarrel over the extent to which they should use their power, locally, for purely racial ends. Neither party aims, at any rate for the present, at detaching South Africa from the Empire. That such acquiescence should be possible, even for a time, affords, no doubt, striking evidence of the effect of free British institutions in allaying racial hostHity as well as of the attractive force of the Empire. But, for aU that, the position is far from being an ideal one. South Africa is, and will long remain, the weakest Unk in the Imperial chain, and she wiU be the last of the Dominions to enter an Imperial Union. I do not mean to say that, if the Mother Country and the other Dominions were to form such a Union, South xxxviii THE NATION AND THE EMPIRE Africa might not be drawn into it. Indeed I believe she ultimately would be, for, giv^n the preservation of local autonomy — which is a sine qua non of Union in all the Dominions— even the Dutch wotild not be insensible to the material and other advantages of a world-wide citizenship. But in the present conflict of centripetal with centrifugal forces South Africa must be reckoned among the latter. And she must be so reckoned, precisely because the British element in her population is comparatively so weak, and because we have thrown away the opportunity of strengthening it. In saying this, do not let me be thought to advocate the 'angUcisation' of the non-British races of the Empire, or to wish to force them into a British mould. Imperialism is something wider than ' Anglo-Saxondom ' or even than ' Pan-Britannicism.' The power of incorporating alien races, without trying to disintegrate them, or to rob them of their individuaUty, is characteristic of the British Imperial system. It is not by what it takes away, but by what it gives, not by depriving them of their own character, language, and traditions, but by ensuring them the retention of all these, and at the same time opening new vistas of culture and ad- vancement, that it seeks to win them to itself. The French Canadian need not cease to be a French Canadian, but he may be a British soldier or administrator all the same, and he will have absolutely the same scope and opportunities as his competitors of British blood. And the whole Empire is equally open to the enterprise and ambition of the Dutch South African. This principle of boundless tolerance has, like everything human, ' the defects of its quahties.' It may become a source of weakness by being carried too far. And it has been carried too far, in my opinion, not when we have granted the freest permissive use of their own languages to the incorporated races, but when we have allowed any of those languages to be put on a footing of absolute equaUty with English in official use, and its teach- ing and employment to be made compulsory, where there were no reasons of necessity or convenience to justify such a course. But whatever the shortcomings of the INTRODUCTION xxxix system, its merits far outweigh them. This broad in- clusiveness is one of the great secrets of the success of British rule. It is part of our moral capital as a nation, and gives us a title higher than mere force to the position which we occupy in the world. But the great point is, that this temper is distinc- tively British. It is peculiar to the British Empire among Empires, and to the British nation as an Empire-building race. Whether this is due to some original quality in the race itself — to its own composite character — or merely to the teachings of experience, I need not here attempt to deter- mine. I am not concerned with the causes of the fact, but with the fact itself and its consequences. It is not thus that Prussia has dealt with her Pohsh subjects, or Russia with the Poles and Finns. It was not thus that the early Dutch settlers in South Africa treated the Huguenots who took refuge among them. They stamped out the language and nationality of these feUow-Protestants and forced them all into their own mould. No doubt we could not, if we would, deal with the Dutch in like fashion. But it is equally true that we would not if we could. We have never at- tempted it. Respect for their language and individuahty, equality of citizenship between the white races, have been our principles from the first. Not only has this attitude become, in South Africa as elsewhere, a fimdamental tenet of British Imperiahsm, but it is rooted in the character of the British race. And if it is true, as it certainly is, that the spirit of liberality and tolerance, of respect not only for . personal freedom but for racial individuahty, is essential to the preservation of the Empire, it is equally true that that spirit finds its firmest supporters in the British element of the population. When the British flag was hauled down in the Transvaal in 1881, the principle of equal citizenship disappeared with it, and the spirit of uni-racial dominance and exclusiveness took its place. Fair play between the two white races was much more strenuously upheld by the government of Sir Starr Jameson than it has been by the governments which have succeeded it, even by that of a xl THE NATION AND THE EMPIRE man who is personally so broad-minded as General Bot It is not only because of their naturally keener attachmi to the British flag, but because of their greater congeni sympathy with the vital Imperial principles of even-hanc justice and ample tolerance, that a preponderance of peo of British stock is so greatly to be desired in all the s( governing Dominions. To durect a steady outflow of men of British stock to 1 younger countries of the Empire must thus be a const£ object of Imperial policy. But the serious pursuit of tl object leads us very far. It is not merely a question better control, of more careful arrangements for emigrati( Of greater importance stiU is the quality of the emigran And that depends upon the character of the nation fr( which they are drawn. Thus the consistent ImperiaUst inevitably led to concern himself with those influem which affect the condition of the mass of our people h( at home. He cannot help being a zealot for social i provement. But he wiU have a touchstone of his own, which to discriminate between the numerous and competi schemes for promoting it, of which our restless age is prolific. He will be inclined to judge them by their pi bable effect upon our national strength and Imperial positi( But is there, after aU, any better or more trustworthy c terion ? Judged by that test, there are no doubt ma popular nostrums which would not pass muster. B there is no vital movement, making for the greater essent soundness, physical and moral, of the mass of the peop which is not embraced by the ideal of national and Imper greatness, rationally conceived. I might defend this proposition by many illustrations, b I fear to weary the reader, who has had the patience follow me thus far. And I never set out with the ambitic desire to write a sociological treatise, but am simply trying explain a particular point of view. I will therefore confi myself to one or two instances to make my meaning clea Among the social movements of our time, which bear t stamp of wholesomeness, a high place must certainly assigned to the effort to restore the lost balance betwe INTRODUCTION xli town and country, so that rural occupations and interests, and the rural spirit, may once more count for something in our national life. It is true that within the narrow confines of these islands the balance can never be entirely restored, though it may be in the Empire as a whole. But even in these islands something substantial can stiU be done. This movement, in order to succeed, must have an economic basis, such as a reasonable measure of Protection would no doubt afford. But Protection being, at any rate for the present, out of the question, it may nevertheless find such a basis in improved methods of cultivation, and in better business management on the part of agriculturists, as the experience of some foreign countries, notably Denmark, and the success of Plmikett and his school in Ireland have clearly proved. But while the movement must have an economic basis, its purpose and effect are more than economic. They are social and ethical. To increase the number of people living on the land and by the land, and to give to that in- creased number a healthier, brighter, and more interesting life, and a greater influence upon the character of the whole nation, which needs this steadying counterweight to the more restless and excitable spirit of the towns — that is the real gist of the rural movement. And its bearing on Im- perial development is clear. Countrymen are the best settlers. They have formed the core of the Army and Navy as weU as of the administrative services of the Empire. The tenacity and stubborn endurance which carried Great Britain through the severest trials of the past, and made amends for many blunders, belong to a time when the country element was stiU predominant. No over-m:banised people would have lasted out the struggle with Phihp, or the struggle with Napoleon. Causes which, Uke the cause of Imperialism, have a far outlook, and require of their votaries a firm grasp of fimdamental principle and long persistence, would be the greatest gainers, if the temper of the countryside became once more a strong ingredient in the character of the nation. But no doubt, whatever may be the success of the rural movement, the great majority of the people of these islands. xlii THE NATION AND THE EMPIRE and especially of Great Britain, will continue to be urban, and engaged in commercial and industrial pursuits. And thus the sympathy of those, who keep ever before their eyes the ideal of a vigorous national hfe, must needs be enlisted on the side of every honest effort to counteract the evil effects of aggregation in large cities upon the stamina and morale of the population. But they will only be able to feel real enthusiasm for remedies which are, in the best sense of the word, radical — which strike at the root of the evU, and do not merely seek to mitigate its consequences. Among remedies of this character the long and honour- able chapter of our industrial legislation — from the first Factory Act to the Trade Boards Act of 1909— deserves a foremost place. This great body of law, still constantly growing, has done much to check physical deterioration, and has set an example which is being eagerly followed by the most progressive foreign nations. And there are two more recent movements prompted by the same spirit, which, it they strike root, will do much for the health and character of the people, namely the creation of Garden Cities and the organisation of the Boy Scouts. The latter indeed is pecu- liarly happy in its inspiration because it begins at the right end. It is in youth and adolescence that the greatest mischief is done, and such mischief is irreparable. Indeed, if there is one thing more needful than another, it is a bold and comprehensive treatment of the training of youth. How sorely we still lack a large conception of what is required to buUd up a sturdy and self-reliant, not to say an Imperial race ! Millions are indeed spent on education, and educational ideals are improving. But we remain far too timid in providing all that is necessary to make our system successful, and in carrying the work, which has been begun at such great cost, to its logical conclusion. And thus much of that immense expenditure is wasted. It is waste to provide elaborate instruction for children who have not the strength to assimilate it, whether their inability be due to underfeeding or to other physical defects, equally the result of neglect. In compelling every child to come to school, the State undertook, and rightly undertook, a INTRODUCTION xliii great responsibility. That responsibility is not discharged by the provision of a certain amount of more or less suitable instruction. Care for the health and physical develop- ment of the child, as perfect as money and science can make it, is equally imperative, if that instruction is not to be largely thrown away. And there is waste again, and fear- ful waste, in letting the education of boys and girls stop dead short, just when it is beginning to be formative, and allowing them to drift away, at much too early an age, into money-making employments, which have often no future, and to unlearn, before they are grown up, whatever know- ledge and discipline they had begun to acquire. The time will surely come when this vast output of half -trained young people, with no definite skUl in anything, will be recognised as a huge social and economic blunder, and when the State will keep a hold upon the lad until he is fit to earn, not a precarious pittance, but a decent and continuous hvehhood as a craftsman, and upon the girl, until she is capable of discharging the duties of a wife and mother. That, no doubt, is a reform of so fundamental a character, and in- volving changes of such magnitude in our social and in- dustrial system, that it wiU take time to accomplish. But if it was once recognised as the goal of national education, the difficulties could be got over one by one. It is in- definiteness of aim which is at the root of our troubles. At present it is really very difficult to say what we are driving at with all this immense expenditure of money and energy, or why, having gone as far as we do go, we suddenly stop. Up to a point everything is carefully regulated, then, at the most critical moment, all the rest is left to chance. Our object evidently cannot be the making of children into men and women fit to make their way in the world. And yet is it possible to conceive of education as anything less ? It may be said that to complete the training of the youth of the nation would be far too costly. But the answer is twofold. In the first place, we should thus get far better value for the immense expenditure to which we are already committed ; and in the next place, whatever the cost, it would be trifliag compared to the burden which we now xliv THE NATION AND THE EMPIRE carry in the shape of a great multitude of people, living perpetually in destitution or on the verge of it. It is true that there will always be some destitution, because there wiU always be a certain number of people who are hopelessly vicious or incompetent. But these causes do not account for a tithe of the men and women who at present can hardly keep body and soul together. They are not vicious or incapable of doing useful work. They are just unskilled. They have never been taught any definite trade, or given sufficient general training to pick one up for themselves, and they have, as a rule, begun to do inferior and unimprov- ing work too early. The existence of so vast a body of people in this condition is a disgrace to a country with such great resovirces and opportunities as our own. And there is no necessity for it in the nature of things. The evil can be remedied, but it can only be remedied in one way, and that is by the better training of the young, by not turning them loose upon the world before they are fit for anything in particular. No system which man can devise — ^not Social- ism or Collectivism, or any other — can permanently ensure a decent living wage to people who are not economically worth it. But there is no good reason why people of low economic value should be so numerous. There is plenty of work to be done in the world which can support in comfort the men who are capable of doing it — enough even in this crowded country, certainly more than enough in the out- side Empire. It is the capacity that is lacking, not the opportunities. The idea that the State should extend its care for the young beyond the age of chUdhood must not be confounded with a demand for the general extension of the school age. A perfectly organised system of National Education would no doubt involve a great increase in the number of Con- tinuation Schools, and much more complete arrangements for Technical Instruction. But education is not confined to schools, and there are many trades which can only be learned properly if the learners begin young. What public policy demands is not so much that young people should be kept at school, as that they should not be engaged INTRODUCTION xlv in work which is not, m the broad sense of the word, edu- cational, which is not fitting them for better work when they are grown up. And there is one other principle equally fundamental, namely that their work should not be of such a nature as to stunt their growth, and that they should have time and opportunity for physical development. The continuous physical training of the youth of the nation tUl they reach the age of maturity may be thought a counsel of perfection. But so was general elementary education fifty years ago. Fifty years hence the former may seem no less a matter of course than the latter seems to-day. Why should not every locality have its Boys' Brigade, and all lads between fourteen and eighteen be required to join it ? Exercise and discipline at that age are no less important, perhaps even more important, than they are in childhood. But if these blessings are to become general, the pioneer work of voluntary agencies will, as in the case of elementary education, have to be co-ordinated and supplemented by public action. It is possible that we may be led to this conclusion by another road. There is a great and growing anxiety among thoughtful men of all classes and parties about our national security, and it no longer seems as improbable as it once did that, in view of the enormous growth of the Armies and Navies of other Powers, we may be driven to adopt some form of universal military training in our own coimtry. I have said so much on this subject in several of the addresses contained in this book that I wiU not discuss the general question here. My own conviction has been and is, that while the United Kingdom does not need an Army of the same size or character as those of the great Continental nations, it does need such an increase of its mUitary strength as our present system can never give us. That necessary increase of strength can, I believe, only be obtained by calling on the whole able-bodied youth of the nation to undergo, on the threshold of manhood, a period of regular military training. But in order that that period of training may be effective, and yet not excessively long, the young men who enter upon it should be physically fit, and men- xlvi THE NATION AND THE EMPIRE tally alert, and accustomed to discipline. But these are just the quahties which we must desire them to have in any case, and which anything like a perfect system of National Education would aim at giving them. Thus the exigencies of National Defence may lead us to a readier acceptance of the ideals of educational and social reformers. This is one more illustration of the close connection which really exists between two objects, which are frequently repre- sented as aUen and even antagonistic to one another — ^I mean National Strength and Social Progress. Interest in the latter is not confined to men whose sympathies are cosmopolitan rather than patriotic. On the contrary, there is no stronger stimulus to exertion for the removal of the social evils, which sap the vitality of a people and dig deep trenches of cleavage between classes, than genuine pride of country. To those, in whom that sentiment is reaUy powerful, the existence of slums, of sweating, of health-destroying industries, and of all other conditions which lead to the degradation of great numbers of their fellow-countrymen, must appear an intolerable desecration of all that they hold most dear. I have travelled a long way in following the idea of Imperialism into some of its less obvious consequences, and have been led to touch, however fugitively, on many sub- jects which seem at first sight to have little relation to it. And this may be thought to be inconsistent with what I said at the outset about the necessity of discrimination, of keeping foreign and Imperial relations separate from subjects of a different character, with which they are now so constantly mixed up. But there is no real inconsistency between the two points of view. The field of public action, in that vast conglomerate of different communities which constitute the British Empire, is enormously wide. It can only be covered by a complete network of graduated authorities- municipal, provincial, national, and Imperial — to all of which, within their several spheres, it is desirable to leave the maximum of independence and free initiative. It is a complex problem to adjust their relations to one another and to keep each of them confined to its legitimate work. INTRODUCTION xlvii But while delimitation of functions is necessary, there is no reason why it should mihtate against unity of spirit and of aim. On the contrary, every form of pubKc activity is likely to be benefited, and every worker to gain a new inspiration from reaUsing the bearing of his individual efforts upon the welfare of the Empire as a whole. Defini- tion of spheres as between one pubMc authority and another, division of labour between pubhc men — these are salutary, and indeed essential. But aU this necessary division and speciaHsation — and it is constantly on the increase — must not make us forget that the body of any state, like the human body, is indivisible, however we may distinguish its different members and their several functions for purposes of study or of treatment. There is a constant interaction between the several parts. And then again the individual citizen remains the same human being, to however many different pohtical organisms — ^borough, county, province, country, or what not- — he may belong. It is reasonable to expect that he should be animated by some unity of purpose in aU his several capacities. He may be well advised to confine his main activity to a single sphere, and even to a single subject. But it is neither possible nor de- sirable that his interests and his sympathies should be equally restricted. He will inevitably, if he has any care for pubhc affairs at aU, be drawn tato many controversies, and forced to make up his mind on many questions, outside the subject which is specially his own. And that, if he wishes to be true to himself, is not always an easy matter. No doubt there are many people, not lacking in vigour or public spirit, who do not experience this difficulty. They seem capable of keeping their opinions in water-tight compartments, and of holding strong views on a number of more or less related questions, without attempting to harmonise them. They throw themselves now into one movement which appeals to them, and now into another, yet never stop to inquire whether their various activities are converging to any common goal. But there are others, and I confess to being one of the number, to whom such a position would be one of intolerable mental discomfort. Especially in a time xlviii THE NATION AND THE EMPIRE like the present, a time of ferment, of deep social unrest, of innumerable and competing agitations for radical changes in our poMtical system, they feel an imperative need of some clue through the maze, some guiding principle, which may save them from straying into blind alleys and frittering away energy upon a number of superficial ' reforms,' and which may help them to concentrate upon a few great and simple objects of pubMc endeavour. And if, as is likely, they fail to find such a principle in the programme of any political party, they have to try and evolve it for them- selves. It is in some such effort as this that I myself have been led to find a resting-place in the doctrine of Imperial- ism, which I have tried here very briefly, and no doubt very inadequately, to set forth. To what extent my conclusions may be of help to other people, it is impossible for me to know. Different men are animated by different ideals. All that can be expected of any of us is to remain true to his own. And for my own part I can imagine no higher ideal which can animate the citizens of my country at the present time than that of a great and continuous national life, shared by us with our kinsmen, who have built up new communities in distant parts of the earth, enabling them and us together to uphold our traditional principles of freedom, order and justice, and to discharge with ever- increasing efficiency our duty as guardians of the more backward races who have come under our sway. That ideal seems to me to embrace all the worthiest aims, whether of narrower or wider scope, which British statesmanship can pursue, and to give to all, who are engaged in any branch of pubhc fife, a central meeting-ground and a common inspiration. MILNER. March 1913. SPEECHES AND ADDRESSES SPEECHES AND ADDRESSES LOKDON.— March 29, 1897 [The following speech was dehvered in London before Lord — then Sir Alfred — ^Milner'a departure for Cape Town, to take up the post of Governor of the Cape, and High Commissioner for South Africa. His appoint- ment, Uttle more than a year after the Jameson Raid, at a time when the affairs of South Africa were attracting much attention and causing no Uttle anxiety, had excited an exceptional amount of public interest. The dinner at which this speech was made was given to him as a ' send off,' and was attended by a great number of the leading men of both political parties, including Mr. Goschen, Mr. Chamberlain, and Mr. John Morley, as well as by many distinguished representatives of the Civil Service, the Universities, and the professional and Uterary world. Lord Rosebery and Sir William Harcourt, though unable to be present, both wrote very strongly- worded letters of sympathy. Mr. Asquith, then in Opposition, but an old college friend of Lord Milner's, was in the chair, and proposed the health of the guest of the evening in a very felicitous speech, in which eloquent eulogy was reheved by some good-tempered badinage, and which was admirably suited for an occasion, when people of the most opposite opinions were uniting in an expression of personal sympathy, confidence, and good-wiU, towards a pubhc servant going to what everybody realised to be an important and difficult post.] The admirable and artistic manner in which the toast of my health has been proposed by Mr. Asquith renders it more than ever difficult for me to make adequate acknowledg- ment. I remember, Mr. Asquith, that an old friend of yours and mine, one whose memory I believe is held in reverence by many of those present here this evening — I mean Pro- fessor Jowett — once remarked in his terse way, ' Modesty is only a virtue in a young man.' I believe in my case it is a fear lest modesty might survive into advanced age, A 2 SPEECHES AND ADDRESSES [mar. 29, which has led my friends to do what they could to render such a calamity impossible. But fortunately for myself, there is one subject on which even my greatest eulogists have made express reservations. I have read a great many astonishing things about myself lately, but I have not read anywhere that I was a good speaker, and, therefore, whatever may be the difficulties of the future, I have no embarrassing reputation to live up to to-night. And that, if I may say so, is fortunate, because the feelings which are excited in me by this gathering, though they are very strong, are also very simple, and can best be expressed in simple language. I suppose no man going to a difficult post in his country's service has ever had a send-off for which he has had more cause to be grateful or more cause to be proud. But I am not so foolish as to suppose that the significance of this gathering is entirely personal. I am glad to feel that there is a personal element in it. With my old friend of college days in the chair, and a whole posse of his and my contemporaries in all parts of the room, with my kind friend Mr. Goschen so near me (to whom, as Mr. Asquith has truly said, I owe my introduction to the public service), and with so many others present who have given me unmistakable proofs of affection and good- will, I cannot but feel that a kindly interest in myself per- sonally has had a great deal to say in bringing you all together. But if I am not mistaken there is another influ- ence which has also had much to do with it, and that is the desire, the generous desire, to give every possible support and encouragement to the man, whoever he may be, who is called upon to do what in him lies to maintain the honour and the influence of Great Britain in a country in which Englishmen are so much interested as they are at present in South Africa. I can assure you that no greater encourage- ment could have been given to a man in my position than that which you have given me to-night. When I think of this assembly, representing as it does both political parties, containing men of the highest public eminence on both sides in politics, then I feel that, however humble 1897] LONDON 3 may be the view I take of myself, at any rate my credentials are extraordinary. And, not so much on my own account as on account of the great public interests which are involved, I am sincerely grateful for that fact. I hope, however, that on this occasion I may be excused from any reference to the future. Whatever may be the qualities required of the Queen's representa- tive in South Africa — and I have seen a very formidable list of them — ^there are two at least which I believe every one will regard to be essential — I mean tact and judgment. I should conclusively prove my complete lack of those qualities, if on this occasion I were to express any half- formed and ill-considered opinions on matters of the greatest importance. But, perhaps, if it does not appear too egotistical, you will allow me to make a personal pro- fession of faith, which in a friendly gathering of this character may not be out of place. A great number of people have said to me within the last few weeks something of this kind : ' We do not know whether we ought to congratulate you ; you are going to face a very ugly business,' or words to that effect. Well, to all these cheering remarks I should like to make one answer : ' Do not congratulate me, cer- tainly. Let congratulations wait, even if they have to wait for ever, until I have done something to deserve them. But still less condole with me : for no man is to be pitied, whatever happens, who in the best years of his life is not only permitted, but is actually called upon to engage in work into which he can throw himself with his whole heart and with a single mind.' A public servant must go where he is wanted. He is singularly fortimate if he is wanted for that kind of business to which he is most willing that all his energies should be devoted. That is my case to-day. One class of public questions interests one man, and another class another. I do not attempt to estimate their relative importance. AU I know is, that for myself personally, no questions have ever had at all the same attraction as those relating to the position of this country in the outside world, and especially to the future of Greater Britain. May I be 4 SPEECHES AND ADDRESSES [mar. 29, permitted on this occasion, Mr. Asquith, to recall another evening spent by us at the Oxford Union, more than twenty years ago. It is no inappropriate reminiscence in a company like this, which includes no fewer than eleven ex-presidents of the Union, and, if I may be allowed to add myself, a round dozen. On that occasion you, as now, were in the chair, and the subject of debate was the possibility of strengthening the ties which unite this country to her great Colonies, and them to one another. The subject excited less interest than most of the subjects which we debated in those days ; far less, I am glad to think, than it would excite at the present moment. But there were some half- dozen of us who hammered away — I dare say we bored our audience — at these ideas : that the growth of the Colonies into self-governing communities was no reason why they should drop away from the Mother Country or from one another ; that the complete political separation of the two greatest sections of the Enghsh-speaking race was a dire disaster, not only in the manner in which it came about, but for coming about at all ; that there was no political object comparable in importance with that of preventing a repetition of such a disaster, the severance of another link in the great Imperial chain. The greatest local inde- pendence, we then argued, was not incompatible with closer and more effective union for common purposes. I am in- terested to remember that our leader on that occasion, and the man who made by far the most powerful and effective speech on our side, was not an Englishman at all, but a Canadian — a member, that is to say, of a community which has solved the problem of uniting, on the basis of absolutely equal citizenship, men of different races and languages, who have remained bound by ever-strengthening ties of loyalty and affection to the Mother Country. Well, my lords and gentlemen, the opinions which I then feebly attempted to support have only grown stronger in me with the lapse of years. I admit that on some public questions my views may have been faint and indistinct, that, as Mr. Asquith has suggested, I may have been a wobbler. I 1897] LONDON 5 have a fatal habit of seeing that there is a great deal to be said on both sides of a case. I admit that there are some subjects of political controversy upon which I have not been able to form an opinion at all. In that Greek state in which, if I remember rightly, a man was bound to take one side or the other upon pain of death, I should have had my head cut off before I was twenty-five, and should have died a martyr to my principles. But there is one question upon which I have never been able to see the other side, and that is precisely this question of Imperial unity. My mind is not so constructed that I am capable of under- standing the arguments of those who question its desir- abihty or its possibility. I admit that the sentiment, the desire, to strengthen the ties which unite the different portions of the Empire, though rapidly growing, may not yet be so powerful or so miiversal as to make any great forward step possible in our time. What we can do, and what we ought to do, is to maintain religiously the ties which exist, to seize every opportunity which naturally offers itself of developing new ones, to spare no effort to remove misunderstanding and mistrust, where they have un- fortunately arisen, and to trust to time and the absolute reasonableness of our ideal, to bring about its ultimate complete triumph. Such, at least, is my personal convic- tion. And this being so, I feel that it is a great privilege to be allowed to fill any position in the character of what I may be, perhaps, allowed to call a civilian soldier of the Empire. To succeed in it, to render any substantial service to any part of our world-wide State, would be aU that in my most audacious dreams I have ever ventured to aspire to. But in a cause in which one absolutely believes, even failure — ^for the cause itself is not going to fail — even per- sonal failure would be preferable to an easy life of comfort- able prosperity in any other sphere. I wiU only say, in conclusion, that I feel that no words of mine can possibly convey an adequate sense of my gratitude for the magni- ficent welcome, the magnificent fareweU, which you have given me to-night. My special thanks are due to my old 6 SPEECHES AND ADDRESSES [mar. 3. friends, Mr. Brodrick/ Mr. Ciirzon,^ and Mr. Gell, who, though all of them very busy men, have devoted so much time to the laborious and not altogether grateful task of organising this meeting, and to you, Mr. Asquith, for the kindly manner in which you have presided over it. My thanks are also due to all who have done me the honour to come here to-night. I am sure I shall be forgiven, if for this and many other kindnesses I am unable to express my thanks to each of them individually. To-night will always be most memorable in my life — ^perhaps the most memor- able occasion which I have yet experienced. I can only express the fervent hope that I may be able to do some- thing to justify your confidence, as I certainly can never be unmindful of your kindness and good-will. GRAAFF REINET.— Mabch 3, 1898 [This speech, which at the time when it was made caused a considerable stir in South Africa, was the first speech of anything like a controversial character delivered by Sir A. Milner in that country. When he first arrived at Cape Town in the spring of 1897 there was great political tension. The differences between Great Britain and the Transvaal had reached an acute phase, and there was a, very bitter feeling between the Dutch and the British in Cape Colony. But the impartial and concilia- tory attitude of the new Governor, who visited the most distant parts of the colony and made friends with all sections of the people, while declining to be drawn into political controversy, gradually led to a subsidence of racial and party polemics, and the latter months of 1897 were a period of comparative tranquiUity. In the beginning of 1898, however, the political horizon again became clouded. The Government of the Transvaal persisted in its old illiberal policy towards the Uitlanders, and the agitation among the latter once more gathered force. In the Cape Colony a general election was impend- ing, and the party fight was being conducted largely on racial lines, and with much more reference to the situation in the Transvaal than to any local issues. It was under these circumstances that Sir A. Milner uttered this, his first warning, to the Bond party in the Cape Colony, not to allow their racial sympathy with the Boers of the Transvaal to carry them to the length of actively supporting the reactionary policy of Kruger, and thwart- ing the efforts of the British Government to obtain, by peaceful means, * Now Viscount Midleton. ' Now Earl Curzon. 1898] GRAAPF REINET 7 these reforms in the Gtovernment of the Transvaal which everybody, including the Colonial Dutch themselves, knew to be urgent.] I SHOTJLD have been glad to avoid any reference to political questions to-night, but I have been put into a position in which it is impossible for me entirely to ignore them. I caimot, without discourtesy, disregard altogether the terms of the address which was presented to me to-day by the local members of the Afrikander Bond. That address pro- tested in somewhat vehement terms against the charges of disloyalty, which it alleged had been directed against the Bond, and it suggested that I should take steps to clear the character of that organisation. Really, gentlemen, I think the request a Uttle unreasonable. We are just enter- ing upon a season of electioneering. If, in addition to discharging my ordinary business (which pretty well fiUs up my day), I had to correct all the unfair and exaggerated statements which at election times are made by every party against every other party, I should not only have to work all day, but to sit up all night. I really think I am much better in bed, for remember that if I once begin to take up this agreeable occupation of putting everybody right, I shall not only have to clear the Afrikander Bond of charges of disloyalty, but I shall also have to clear other people of the charge which I have often heard, and which is at least equally unreasonable, of wishing to oppress the Dutch subjects of Her Majesty in this colony. As a matter of fact, there is no party and no person who has any such desire. No, gentlemen, it is perfectly evident to me that it is the Governor's duty to keep as clear as he can of all this partisan mud-throwing, and not to give it additional importance by dwelling upon it. Let him rather use what- ever influence he may happen to possess to promote harmony, mutual respect, and the co-operation of all parties for those objects of general utihty which are so numerous and so urgent. Let him attempt to direct men's thoughts and attention to their great interests in the development of the coimtry, for which almost everything still remains to be done, and in the intellectual and moral elevation of its 8 SPEECHES AND ADDRESSES [mar. 3. various races — ^not only of the two great white races, but also of the coloured races — for which there is certainly- still much to be done. Of course I am glad to be assured that any section of Her Majesty's subjects are loyal, but I should be much more glad to be allowed to take that for granted. Why should I not ? What reason could there be for disloyalty ? You have thriven wonderfully well under Her Majesty's rule. This country, despite its great extent and its fine climate, has some tremendous natural disadvantages to contend against ; and yet, let any one compare its position to-day with what it was at the commencement of Her Majesty's reign, or even thirty years ago. The progress in material wealth is enormous, and the prospects of future progress are greater still. And you have other blessings which by no means always accompany material wealth. You live under an absolutely free system of government, protecting the rights, and encouraging the spirit of independence, of every citizen. You have courts of law, manned by men of the highest ability and integrity, and secure in the discharge of their high functions from all danger of external inter- ference. You have, at least as regards the white races, perfect equality of citizenship. And these things have not been won from a reluctant sovereign. They have been freely and gladly bestowed upon you, because freedom and self-government, justice and equality are the first prin- ciples of British poUcy. And they are secured to you by the strength of the power that gave them, whose navy protects your shores from attack, without your being asked to contribute one pound to that protection, unless you yourselves desire it. Well, gentlemen, of course you are loyal. It would be monstrous if you were not. And now if I have one wish, it is that I may never again have to deal at any length with this topic. But in order that I may put it aside with a good conscience, I wish, having been more or less compelled-to deal with it to-night, to do so honestly, and not to shut my eyes to unpleasant facts. The great bulk of the population of this colony, 1898] GEAAFP REINET 9 Dutch as well as English, are, I firmly believe, thoroughly loyal, in the sense that they know they live under a good Constitution and have no wish to change it, and that they regard with feehngs of reverence and pride the august lady at the head of it. If we had only domestic questions to consider, if political controversy were confined in this colony to the internal affairs of the country, there would no doubt be a great deal of hard language used by conflict- ing parties, and very likely, among the usual amenities of party warfare, somebody would call somebody else dis- loyal. But the thing would be so absurd, so obviously absurd, that nobody would take it seriously, and the charge would be forgotten almost as soon as uttered. What gives the sting to the charge of disloyalty in this case, what makes it stick, and what makes people wince under it, is the fact that the political controversies of this country at present unfortunately turn largely upon another question — I mean the relations of Her Majesty's Government to the South African Repubhc — and that, whenever there is any prospect of a difference between these two parties, a number of people in the colony at once vehemently, and without even the semblance of impartiality, espouse the side of the Republic. Personally, I do not think that they are dis- loyal. I am familiar at home with the figure of the politician — often the best of men, though singularly injudicious — who, whenever any dispute arises with another country, starts with the assumption that his own country must be in the wrong. He is not disloyal, but really he caimot be very much surprised if he appears to be so to those of his fellow-citizens whose inchnation is to start with the exactly opposite assumption. And so, in this case, I do not take it that people are necessarily disloyal, because they carry their sympathy with the Government of the Transvaal (for, seeing the close tie of relationship that unites a great portion of the population here with the dominant race in that country, such sympathy is perfectly natural), to a point which gives some ground for the accusation, that they seem to care much more for the independence of the 10 SPEECHES AND ADDRESSES [mar. 3, Transvaal than they do for the honour and the interests of the country to which they themselves belong. For my own part, I believe the whole object of those people in espousing the cause of the Transvaal is to prevent an open rupture between that country and the British Government. They loathe, very naturally and rightly, the idea of war, and they think that, if they can only impress upon the British Government that, in case of war with the Transvaal, it would have a great number of its own subjects at least in sympathy against it, that is the best way to prevent such a calamity. But herein they are totally wrong. For this pohcy of theirs rests on the assumption that Great Britain has some occult design on the independence of the Transvaal— an independence which she herself has given ; and that she is seeking causes of quarrel, in order to take this independence away. But that assumption is the exact opposite of the truth. So far from seeking causes of quarrel, the constant desire of the British Government is to avoid causes of quarrel, and not to take up lightly the complaints (and they are numerous) which reach it from British subjects within the Transvaal ; for the very reason that it wishes to avoid even the sem- blance of interference in the internal affairs of that country, while, as regards external affairs, it insists only on that minimum of control which it has always distinctly reserved, and has reserved, I may add, solely in the interests of the future tranquillity of South Africa. That is Great Britain's moderate attitude, and she cannot be frightened out of it. It is not any aggressiveness on the part of Her Majesty's Government which now keeps up the spirit of unrest in South Africa. Not at all. It is the unprogressiveness, I will not say retrogressiveness, of the Government of the Transvaal, and its deep suspicion of the intentions of Great Britain, which causes it to devote its whole attention to imaginary external dangers, when every impartial observer can see perfectly well that the real dangers which threaten it are internal. Now I wish to be perfectly fair. Therefore let me say 1898] GRAAFF REINET li that this suspicion, though absolutely groundless, is not, after all that has happened, altogether imnatural. I ac- cept the situation that at the present moment any advice that I could tender, or that any of your British feUow- citizens could tender, to the Government of the Transvaal, though it might be the best advice in the world, would be instantly rejected, because it was British. But the same does not apply to the Dutch citizens of this colony, and especially to those who have gone so far in the expression of their sympathy for the Transvaal, as to expose them- selves to these charges of disloyalty to their own flag. Their good-will at least cannot be suspected across the border, and if all they desire — and I beheve it is what they desire — is to preserve the South African RepubHc, and to promote good relations between it and the British Colonies and Government, then let them use all their influence, which is bound to be great, not in encouraging the Govern- ment of the Transvaal in obstinate resistance to all reform, but in inducing it gradually to assimilate its institutions, and what is even more important than institutions, the temper and spirit of its administration, to those of the free communities of South Africa, such as this colony or the Orange Free State. That is the direction in which a peaceful way out of these inveterate trouh'^es, which have now plagued this country for more than thirty years, is to be found. I am afraid that I have spoken to-night at inordinate length. It is not often that I make a speech of any dura- tion. But I have laid down for myself two rules about such unfortunate differences as may and do arise between parties in this colony. One is, not to mention them at all if I can help it — to keep my eyes continually flxed upon the great common interests which unite men of different races, rather than upon the differences which divide them. My other rule is that, when I am forced to speak on these sub- jects, I shall do so frankly and without reserve. I am not sure if that is the way to win immediate popularity, although I seem to be getting on fairly well to-night. But, what- 12 SPEECHES AND ADDRESSES [june 24, ever may be the personal consequences, I feel sure that this course is the best way to clear the air, to remove in- veterate misunderstandings, and to promote in the long run those objects which all good men and loyal citizens have at heart. CAPE TOWN.— June 24, 1899 [In the interval between the Graaf Reinet speech and the present one, the pohtioal situation in South Africa had become more acute than ever. The quarrel between the Uitlander population and the Transvaal Govern- ment had developed to a point at which twenty thousand of the former peti- tioned Great Britain as the suzerain Power for assistance in obtaining the redress of their grievances. In the British Colonies the population of British race sympathised intensely with the Uitlanders, while the Dutch ranged themselves increasingly on the side of the Transvaal Government. A conference between President Kruger and Sir A. Milner, at which the latter urged strongly the enfranchisement of the Uitlanders, was held at the end of May 1899 in Bloemfontein, and ended in failure. On Sir A. Milner's return to Cape Town, a powerful deputation of the Colonial British waited upon him to express approval of his pohcy, and urge the necessity of the Imperial Government continuing to support the claims of the Uitlanders. This speech was dehvered in reply to their address.] Me. Eeden and Gentlemen, — I need hardly say that I am deeply grateful for your expression of sympathy and support. It is rather difficult to choose words in which to reply to it. At a time of anxiety like the present, one is anxious to avoid any word which could possibly do harm. At the same time, a few words may do good if they tend to clear the issue. As you are aU aware, the recent Conference led to no result. It led to no result because the whole dis- cussion turned on the question of the franchise, and on that no agreement was possible. It may be asked, Why was so much weight attached to this one question ? Well, I fuUy admit the franchise is only a means to an end, and the end is to obtain fair play for the Uitlander population in the South African Republic. That is the main concern which Her Majesty's Government has in view — the protection of the Uitlander population, containing as it does so large a 1899] CAPE TOWN 13 proportion of British subjects. My view was, and is, that the best way to help these people, best for them, best for the Repubho, and best for the good relations between the Republic and Her Majesty's Government, is to put them in a position to help themselves. It may be that I conceded too much, it may be that I went too far in giving other questions the go-by for the moment, and directing all my efforts to secure for the Uitlanders a position within the State. But my view was this : it was a unique opportunity. To have pressed for the redress of Uitlander grievances one by one, to say nothing of other subjects of difference, would have been to engage in an irritating controversy, and to spoil the chance of an amicable compromise on broad lines going to the root of the differences. That controversy, which I was so anxious to avoid, may have to come yet, but my object at the Conference was to avert it. It seemed best to strike straight at the root of the evil by giving the people, whose interests Her Majesty's Government is bound to defend, such a share of political power as would enable them gradu- ally to redress their grievances themselves, and to strengthen, not to weaken, the country of their adoption in the process. But just because I was relying on a single remedy, it was absolutely essential that that remedy should be a radical one. It was useless, indeed worse than useless, and would only have led to worse trouble later on, to have accepted a scheme so framed, I do not say so designed, as not to bring people in, but to keep them out — a scheme hedged in with restrictions of the most elaborate kind, and hampered with a condition which I knew that numbers of people would never accept, and which one could not reasonably urge them to accept.^ If this Reform Bill was not going to ' I.e. the abandonment, by a man desiring to naturalise, of his old citizen- ship for seven or seven and a half years, before getting full rights under his new citizenship. Because of this principle, ' the majority ' — says Sir E. T. Cook, Eights and Wrongs of the Transvaal War — 'would not naturalise, while even if they got naturalised, no considerable pro- portion of old residents would obtain the vote in less than five years.' Further, ' the measure of redistribution was very small. A large majority 14 SPEECHES AND ADDRESSES [june 24, bring a considerable number of Uitlanders into the State, if the enormous majority, including all the leaders, were still to remain outside, how was it possible to feel any con- fidence in such a solution, or accept it as a comprehensive settlement ? As against this, it is urged that my simpler plan would have deluged the State with new citizens. I am convinced that this is not so. Having regard to the obligations of burghership, and to other reasons which will, in any case, deter many Uitlanders from applying for it, and to the conditions as to length of residence and proper quahfica- tion which I was quite prepared to make, I feel sure that the number of new citizens would not have been anything like so great as was supposed. And however numerous they might have been, the old citizens would have con- trolled for a long time the bulk of the constituencies. They, too, are increasing rapidly in number, and long before they could have been outnumbered, if they ever were out- numbered, the process of fusion would have begun to set in. Moreover, it is not as if the Uitlanders were all of one kind or one mind. They are of various nationalities, and represent different interests and opinions. The President told me (he was very strong indeed on the point) that he had a petition from Uitlanders, in favour of the Govern- ment, signed by an even greater number of people than signed the petition to Her Majesty. Well, then, what was there to fear ? Half the new-comers, on his own showing, would have been on his side, and many, I am sure, who are now opposed to him — opposed, as you may say, to the State because they are excluded from it — would be loyal citizens the moment they were in the State. No doubt it is a difficult business to get different races to of the inhabitants contributing nearly the whole revenue would be represented by five members (or seven ultimately) out of thirty-one. Lastly, even if a considerable number of Uitlanders accepted the condi- tions of naturalisation, they would find themselves hindered by a long series of barbed-wire impediments.' 'These conditions,' in the words of Mr. Bobson, K.C., M.P. — ^now Lord Robson — ' were of such a character aa to make the period of qualification utterly unimportant. It might as well be seventy years as seven. ... A grotesque and palpable sham.' 1899] CAPE TOWN 15 pull together inside one body-politic. That is the problem over all South Africa. But it is solved in other parts of South Africa, more or less. It would be solved altogether and for ever, if the principle of equality could be estab- lished all round. It is the one state, where inequality is the rule, which keeps the rest in a fever. And that is bound to be universally recognised in time. Meanwhile, for the moment, the attempt to get things put on their true basis has not succeeded, and we have to face the resulting situation. Some remedy has still to be found to remove, at least in some measure, the grievances of the Uitlanders, and to allay their discontent. I am absolutely convinced that those grievances, though sometimes stated in exaggerated language, are very real. It has over and over again been my duty to call attention to the fact. And there is another aspect of the case which has been forced upon me as High Commissioner, having to bear in mind the interests of South Africa as a whole. Is it consistent with the position of Great Britain in regard to this country — ^nay, is it consistent with the dignity of the white race — that a large, wealthy, industrious, and intelligent community of white men should continue in that state of subjection, which is the lot of the immigrant white population of the Transvaal ? That is a position which we have, by some means or other, however gradual, however pacific, to get them out of. I see it is suggested in some quarters that the policy of Her Majesty's Government is one of aggression. I know better than any man that their poUcy, so far from being one of aggression, has been one of singular patience, and such, I doubt not, it wiU continue. But it cannot relapse into indifference. Can any one desire that it should ? It would be disastrous that the present period of stress and strain should not result in some settlement to prevent the recurrence of similar crises in the future. Of that I am stiU hopeful. It may be that the Government of the South African Republic will yet adopt a measure of reform more liberal than that proposed at Bloemfontein. If not, there 16 SPEECHES AND ADDRESSES [apr. 12, may be other means of achieving a desired result. In any case it is a source of strength to those who are fighting the battle of reform, and will, I believe, contribute more than anything else to a peaceful victory, to feel that they have, as they never had before, the unanimous sympathy of the British people throughout the world. CAPE TOWN.— April 12, 1900 [In the interval between tke preceding speech and this one, war had broken out, the British Colonies had been invaded, and, encouraged by the initial successes of the Boers, ten thousand British colorusts of Dutch extraction had gone into rebellion and joined the enemy. Then, follow- ing the arrival of Lord Roberts in South Africa, the tide of war turned ; Kimberley and Ladysmith were reUeved, and at the time when this speech was delivered. Lord Roberts had captured Bloemfontein, the capital of the Orange Free State, and was preparing to march on Pretoria. The issue of the war was no longer doubtful, but great anxiety existed among the British colonists lest the Boer RepubUcs should be allowed to con- tinue to exist. A deputation of leading Nonconformists in Cape Colony waited upon Sir A. Milner to urge the necessity of annexing the Republics and bringing the whole of South Africa directly under the British flag.] I THANK you for coming here to-day to present me with this address. Emanating as it does from a body of men so representative, whose deliberate opinion on a question of the highest public importance is entitled to so much weight, I cannot but feel that it is an event of unusual importance. You represent, I think, all the great Non- conformist religious bodies of this town and neighbour- hood. Your attitude is typical of the unequalled unanimity and strength of conviction which exists among the Non- conformists of South Africa, with regard to the great struggle at present convulsing this country. The men whom I see here to-day, and their fellow ministers throughout South Africa, are not in the habit of obtruding their opinions on political questions. It is a unique crisis which has brought them into the arena, and the exceptional character of their intervention lends additional weight to the temperate, but strong and clear, statement of their posi- iQoo] CAPE TOWN 17 tion which has just been placed before me. As regards myself personally, I cannot but feel it is a great source of strength at a trying time, to be assured of the confidence and approval of the men I see before me, and of all whom they represent. You refer to my having to encounter misrepresentation and antagonism. I do not wish to make too much of that. I have no doubt been exposed to much criticism and some abuse. There has, I sometimes think, been an exceptional display of mendacity at my expense. But this is the fate of every pubHc man who is forced by circum- stances into a somewhat prominent position in a great crisis. And, after aU, praise and blame have a wonderful way of balancing each other if you only give them time. I remember that, when I left England for South Africa three years ago, it was amidst a chorus of eulogy so exces- sive that it made me feel thoroughly imcomfortable. To protest would have been useless — ^it would only have looked like affectation. So I just placed the surplus praise to my credit, so to speak, as something to live on in the days — which I surely knew must come sooner or later if I did my duty — ^when I should meet with undeserved censure. And certainly I have had to draw on that account rather heavily during the last nine months. But there is stiU a balance on the right side which, thanks to you and others, is now once more increasing. So I cannot pose as a martyr, and what is more important, I cannot complain of any want of support. No man placed as I have been in a position of singular embarrassment, exposed to bitter attacks to which he could not reply, and unable to explain his conduct even to his friends, has ever had more com- pensation to be thankful for than I have had in the constant, devoted, forbearing support and confidence of all those South Africans, whether in this colony, in Natal, or in the republics, whose sympathy is with the British Empire. In the concluding paragraph of your address you refer, in weighty and carefully considered terms, to the condi- tions which you deem necessary for the future peace and B 18 SPEECHES AND ADDRESSES [apr. 12, prosperity of South Africa, and for the ultimate harmony and fusion of its white races. I can only say that I entirely agree with the views expressed in that paragraph. The longer the struggle lasts, the greater the sacrifices which it involves, the stronger must surely be the determination of all of us to achieve a settlement which will render the repetition of this terrible scom-ge impossible. ' Never again ' must be the motto of aU thinking, of all humane men. It is for that reason, not from any lust of conquest, not from any desire to trample on a gallant, if misguided, enemy, that we desire that the settlement shall be no patchwork and no compromise, that it shall leave no room for misunderstanding, no opportunity for intrigue, for the revival of impossible ambitions, or the accumulation of enormous armaments. President Kruger has said that he wants no more Conventions, and I entirely agree with him. A compromise of that sort is unfair to everybody. If there is one thing of which, after recent experiences, I am absolutely convinced, it is that the vital interests of all those who have to live in South Africa, of our present enemies as much as of those who are on our side, demand that there should not be two dissimilar and antagonistic political systems in that which Nature and History have irrevocably decided must be one country. To agree to a compromise which would leave any ambiguity on that point, would not be magnanimity. It would be weakness, ingratitude, and cruelty, ingratitude to the heroic dead, and cruelty to the unborn generations. But when I say that, do not think that I wish to join in the outcry, at present so prevalent, against the fine old virtue of magnanimity. I believe in it as much as ever I did, and there is plenty of room for it in South Africa to-day. We can show it by frank recognition of what is great and admirable in the character of our enemies, by not maligning them as a body, because of the sins of some, perhaps even &f many individuals. We can show it by not crowing excessively over our victories, and by not thinking evil of every one who for one reason or another igoo] CAPE TOWN 19 is unable to join in our legitimate rejoicings. We can show it by striving to take care that our treatment of those who have been guilty of rebellion, while characterised by a just severity towards the really guilty parties, shall be devoid of any spirit of vindictiveness, or of race pre- judice. We can show it above all, when this dire struggle is over, by proving by our acts that they libelled us who said that we fought for gold or any material advantage, and that the rights and privileges, which we have resolutely claimed for ourselves, we are prepared freely to extend to others, even to those who have fought against us, when- ever they are willing loyally to accept them. CAPE TOWN.— April 20, 1900 [From a speech in reply to an address from ' The Guild of Loyal Women ' of Cape Colony. The situation at the time when these words were spoken was practically the same as that described on page 16.] What I specially welcome about the statement of prin- ciples contained in your address is its wide outlook, its appreciation of what is meant by citizenship of the British Empire. That is what we all need so greatly, not only in Cape Colony, or in the Colonies generally, but quite as much in Great Britain itself, the wider patriotism. Do not think it is inconsistent with local patriotism. Quite the reverse. The latest political red herring is an attempt to confuse the minds of men about the real issue at the bottom of the present struggle — ^which is simply whether this coimtry shall be inside or outside the British Empire — ^by representing it as a struggle between patriotic South Africans and men whose interests and sympathies lie out- side this country. In future, we are told, we are only to have two parties here — South Africans and Uitlanders. But the difficulty of this ingenious idea is that it takes -two to make a fight. Before you can get two bodies of men to engage in combat they must both exist, and, as it happens, there is no such thing in existence, either here or 20 SPEECHES AND ADDRESSES [may 22. in Great Britain, as an Uitlander party, if that means a party which wishes to see South Africa governed in any other interest than its own. I am, I beUeve, supposed to be a typical Imperiahst. Speaking as an Imperialist, I can only say that it is not only consistent with my political creed, but it is an essential part of it, that South Africa should be governed in the interest and by the agency of the people whose lives are bound up in her, who feel for her, and who work for her, as their home. But the spirit of local patriotism, which I, for one, desire to see strengthened, not weakened, is liable to two aberra- tions. It is a mistake to think that such patriotism can only be found, or only exist in full measure, in bom South Africans. Nothing can be more unwise in a young country than to make distinctions between those who are born in it and those who have come from outside, provided they are equally attached to it, equally prepared to serve it as their home. And it is even a greater and more fatal mistake to regard devotion to South Africa as inconsistent with, much more as antagonistic to, devotion to the British Empire. If there is one thing of which I am absolutely convinced, it is that the highest interests of South Africa herself make for her inclusion in that great association of free and self-governing communities, known as the British Empire, the existence of which, as a unit of invincible power, is essential to the maintenance of the political ideals which these communities have in common, and which mean so much for the whole future of humanity. CAPE TOWN.— May 22, 1900 [From a speech replying to an address presented by the Salt River Work- men. The date of this speech, of which only the following passage is pre- served, is a little later than that of the two preceding ones. In the interval the tide of war had been moving steadily in favour of the British. It was obvious that the Boer forces had been broken up, and no one as yet sus- pected that two years of guerilla warfare were still to be gone through before the resistance of their scattered bands could be finally overcome. igoo] CAPE TOWN 21 Sir A. Milner, who from the time of the Bloemfontein Conference onwards had been violently attacked by the Afrikander Bond party in Cape Colony, and by the pro-Boers at home, now became the object of many demon- strations of sympathy and support, accompanied by exhortations to persist in his pohoy, from the British and Dutch loyalists. One of these was a deputation from the workmen at the Salt River Railway Works, the largest body of organised artisans in the colony, who, like the industrial population generally, were mostly British by race and very British in sympathy. On the day when this deputation waited on the Governor, it was widely rumoured and generally behoved that Mafeking had been reUeved, though authentic news of its relief had not been received. Sir A. Milner about this time was as much concerned to restrain the exulta- tion and excessive optimism of his supporters as he had been a few months earlier to keep up their drooping spirits.] But I think there is another feeling besides admiration for heroism which we have towards the defenders of Mafeking. We admire heroism I hope, even in those of our enemies who have displayed it, and there are many of them. Do not let us forget when we condemn, as we rightly condemn, acts of treachery and barbarity, which have undoubtedly been committed, that these have been on the whole exceptional, and that the conduct of the enemy, in the main, has been that of brave men, fighting, indeed, in my opinion, for a very bad cause, but for a cause which many of them beheved to be a right one ; and that they therefore are entitled to respect. I am not sure if this is altogether a popular sentiment just now, but it is a right one. But I say there is another feeling besides admiration, which we must have towards the defenders of Mafeldng, I mean gratitude for their enormous services, not only to this colony but to the Empire. These services can never be forgotten. I believe as firmly as any one that they are all right at Mafeking, but whatever happens there, its defenders have rendered services for which you and I have got to be grateful to our last day. I notice in your address and in the speeches delivered that you refer to the future before this country when the war is over. I do not anticipate a time of great prosperity coming with all that rapidity which some people seem to 22 SPEECHES AND ADDRESSES [june 28, anticipate, but I do know this, that, sooner or later, a time of great prosperity is undoubtedly assured to South Africa, and is so assured in consequence of the war and of the manner in which the war has resulted. When I say that, I am thinking not only of the future that lies before this country in the way of material development, but of the enormously improved social and pohtical conditions under which that development will now proceed. I am not thinking only what a wonderful country, one of the most wonderful in the world, South Africa is going to be for skilled workmen, whether they be skilled in manufactures or in the practice of agriculture. I am thinking of the fact, that in future they are going to flourish in this country and develop as freemen, that education is going to make a great start, and that the development before us, far from being confined to material conditions, is going to be intellectual and moral also. However we may deplore the war, its result will be to remove an enormous incubus which rested upon the moral no less than the material progress of this great country. And if this be so, what do we not owe to the men who kept that Boer army hammer- ing away at Mafeking for months, while we down here were practically undefended, who gave the reinforcements from home time to come, and who even at the last moment held a large force of the enemy idle and useless for the general purposes of the campaign, in its vain attempt to overcome their invincible resistance and endurance ? We owe much to Mafeking. CAPE TOWN.— June 28, 1900 Sale of Intoxicating Liquor to Natives [Among the deputationa waiting on Sir A. Milner about this time— see note to previous speech— was one which came to urge the necessity of putting a stop to the sale of liquor to natives in the territory of the Boer Repubhcs. At the date of this deputation the Orange Free State had just been formaUy annexed to the British Empire, under the title of the ' Orange River Colony,' but no similar step had as yet been taken with 1900] CAPE TOWN 23 regard to the Transvaal, which still remained ' The South African Republic' Sir A. MUner, as appears from the following speech, was not a littte embarrassed at this time, when the war was still in course, and the con- quest of the Boer states far from completed — as a matter of fact it took nearly another two years to complete — by the number of suggestions showered upon him with regard to the future administration of countries which were not yet in any sense under his jurisdiction. He had, how- ever, no doubt as to the policy of preventing the sale of liquor to natives, and at a subsequent stage, when he actually was Governor of the Transvaal, one of his first acts was to give eflect by legislation to the promise with which this speech concludes.] I NEED hardly say that I shall have very great pleasure — in fact I shall regard it as a duty — ^to transmit this petition to the Secretary of State for submission to Her Majesty, and I am sure that it will be considered at home with all that regard to which the labours and experience of those here present entitle it. I had some doubts, when first asked to receive this deputation, whether I ought to do so now, because I think aU discussions as to the future legislation and administration, certainly of what is still the South African Republic, and to some extent even of the Orange River Colony, are a little premature. But I reflected that between the date of the presentation of a petition of this kind, and the moment when it has passed through all the necessary official channels and actually reaches the people whom it is intended to influence, a con- siderable time must elapse ; and, therefore, I thought it was perhaps only just to give you this amount of start in bringing your views before the Government and the people of England. I can help you to that extent, and perhaps having said so much, I ought to say no more, indeed any- thing more that I may say is a matter of self-indulgence, because really I have no locvs standi in this case other than that of the transmitter of your message to those who have it in their power to decide on the question of policy. At this moment I do not know in the least what system of administration Her Majesty's Government propose to intro- duce into the new territories, nor who the agents of that administration are likely to be. Therefore, in what I am 24 SPEECHES AND ADDRESSES [june 28, going to say, I shall speak for once with a pleasing sense of comparative irresponsibility, and with the feehng that I am pledging nobody but myself. My words will have no more weight than those of any other person speaking with a certain amomit of knowledge of the conditions of South Africa. Now, addressing you in that simple character, I can say that I absolutely and entirely agree with the views put before me. This is a subject on which I feel very strongly. I have always felt it a tremendous responsibility which the white races of South Africa took upon themselves, when they claimed to be masters and rulers of the black races. Of coiu'se they are so by virtue of their superior strength. But I suppose none of us as Christians would be content to feel that we governed merely by virtue of our superior strength, and that there was no moral justifi- cation for the rule which we exercised. You can only justify the rights that white men in this country claim over black by using those rights for the benefit of the subject race, and not merely for your own convenience. And there can be no doubt, in this case, which course is most in the interest of the subject race. I believe it is the imiversal experience of those who are best acquainted with the conditions of native life, that there is nothing in the world more important for the preservation and the eleva- tion of the native than to prevent him from coming into contact with intoxicating liquors, and if you cannot pre- vent that contact altogether, then to restrict it as much as possible. Now there are very many questions affect- ing the black races in South Africa which are extraordinarily difficult, because of the supposed conflict between the interest of the blacks and the interests of the whites ; but this seems to me to be a question in which there is no such conflict, for everything that the moralist and the philan- thropist and the Christian can urge in favour of prohibi- tion from his point of view, is enforced and supported by what the captain of industry and the economist has to say from his. I think there is really very seldom a conflict igoo] CAPE TOWN 25 of interest between black and white, if questions are pro- perly understood, but at any rate there is no conflict in this instance. And therefore, unlike many problems which South African government presents, this question does not appear to me a difficult one to decide, in principle. I think our duty with regard to it is particularly clear, and I think our duty is comparatively easy. So much for the question of principle. Looking at it as a matter of practice, we find that in the Orange River Colony there is a good law on this subject, well enforced ; and, speaking as a practical man, I cannot suppose that Her Majesty's Government, with so much that is rotten in the state of South Africa to claim their attention, will be anxious to disturb anything that has been found by experience to be sound. In the Transvaal the situation is different. I am not so well acquainted as I ought to be with the details of the legislation of the Transvaal on this subject, but I take it that the authorities who are most competent to speak with regard to it are pretty nearly unanimous that the law itself is a good law. But it is a matter of common knowledge that it has been very badly administered, and consequently the condition of intoxication which prevailed among the natives was one of the greatest scandals under the late Government. Well, gentlemen, we made a great row about it, I amongst others. I have spoken in dispatches — I do not know whether they have been pubhshed or not — over and over again very strongly about the gross scandal of the illicit liquor traffic in the Transvaal, and others have spoken in the same sense. Of course we were told that our criticisms were exaggerated ; of course we were told that it was one of the innumerable tricks of the capitalists and their tools — hke myself — to throw discredit upon the Republican Government, and get up a quarrel between it and the Government of Great Britain, and that we did not really care about the condi- tion of the natives. But I did and do care most intensely. There is no subject on which I have felt more strongly. There is nothing which has grieved me more than to know 26 SPEECHES AND ADDRESSES [Nov. 9, of the existence of that terrible demoralisation, and to feel that Her Majesty's Government, which, after all, never intended entirely to abandon the natives in any part of South Africa, was miable to do anything to check it. What I said on that subject I meant, and I mean it now, and nothing that my voice or influence can do shall be left undone, in order that that scandal may not continue under British rule. I beheve every Englishman would be ashamed if it were to continue even for six months under the flag of Great Britain. CAPE TOWN.— November 9, 1900 [Towards the close of 1900 the second phase of the struggle in South Africa, the guerilla war, had assumed formidable proportions. The pro- longation of resistance in the newly-annexed territories was accompanied by a recrudescence of sedition and agitation throughout Cape Colony. The first rebellion in that colony, which followed the initial successes of the Boer armies, had promptly collapsed on the victorious advance of Lord Roberts. Martial law was withdrawn immediately on the surrender of the rebels, although at a later stage it was once more found necessary to have recourse to it, in a more stringent form and for a longer period. The leniency thus shown to the surrendered rebels, and the prompt return to ' constitutional ' government, encouraged the Bond party in the colony to fresh exhibitions of their sympathy with the enemy across the border. Violent attacks continued to be made in the Press and on the platform upon the conduct of the British troops, the policy of the British Government, and upon Sir A. Milner personally. This agitation culminated a few months later in the second rebellion in Cape Colony, which greatly extended the area of gueriUa warfare, and enhanced the difficulty of putting an end to it. That task had now fallen to Lord Kitchener, who, on Lord Roberts's return to England, had just assumed the chief command of the British forces in South Africa. The agitation of the Bond led to counter-manifestations on the part of those who sympathised with the British cause. The ' League of Loyal Women,' at a meeting of which Sir A. Milner made the following speech, was one of the most active organisations on the loyahst side.] It is nearly five months since my first and last appearance at a meeting of this Guild. I am glad to congratulate you igoo] CAPE TOWN 27 on the immense progress which you have made in the interval. The manufacture of sedition in this colony goes on merrily as before. Powerful bellows are always being blown to fan the flame of race hatred, and to play upon the passionate prejudice against Great Britain which exists among a large section of the population, and which is the legacy of an unhappy past. That fire is destined to bum itself out, despite aU the efforts of the bellows-blowers. But in the meantime it is going to cause much havoc. It is your part to do what you can in the interval to quench the flames, and to circumscribe their ravages. I know it is no easy task. We must all feel a deep sympathy with the scattered loyalists in certain parts of this colony where they are a small minority, without whose efforts the voice of reason and of truth would never reach the ears of the majority of the people of those districts, knowing as they do only one language, and hearing only one side of the story. Such efforts often entail great hardships upon those who make them. In some cases their sufferings may only amount to social discomfort, but in others, I am sorry to say, they reach the pitch of serious persecution. It is difficult under such circumstances to hold the straight course and avoid opposite errors : on the one hand, never to compromise with the sedition-mongers — there has been too much toying with treason in the past ; on the other hand, never to lose patience with, never to cease making allowances for, those who are misled. The future of loyalty in this country is after aU mainly a question of education. You have got to teach, and no good teacher ever loses her temper. Let us leave the monopoly of hysterics to the other side. Hard words break no bones. If they did I should not have a whole bone left in my body, and yet, as you observe, mine are absolutely intact. No, let us leave hard words to others. It is for us, for you and for me who believe in the reason, who believe in the justice, who believe in the victory of the cause of Queen and Empire, to show the temperateness of strength, the temperateness of profound conviction, the spirit which should animate 28 SPEECHES AND ADDRESSES [dec. ii. all the men and women who mean to persevere to the end, in the struggle for an absolutely good cause. Only one word more and I have done. South Africa to-day is pass- ing through a crisis of extraordinary severity and of great duration. To the suffering of regular warfare has suc- ceeded an undiscipHned, straggling, purposeless resistance, involving all, and more than all, the horrors of war without any of its dignity. It is difficult to appreciate the motives of the men who are urging their fellow-countrjmien on to that hopeless struggle, kept up by deceit and leading to nothing but destruction. But I think it would be a mistake to take too despondent a view of this additional calamity. The forces of Her Majesty the Queen, which are engaged now in establishing order and laying the foundation of a stable peace in South Africa, are called upon to confront a totally new problem, and new methods have to be devised to deal with it. These methods are being devised and they will succeed. Let us frankly confess that we have all been too apt to think we were at the end of our troubles. But I see now some tendency to fall into the opposite error. Let us acknowledge that we are by no means out of the wood, but don't let us have the least doubt that the jimgle is not impenetrable. And above all, the greater our troubles to-day, the stronger must be our conviction of the necessity of efforts like those on which you are engaged, efforts to prevent for ever a recurrence of these terrible events, by gradually converting the minds and hearts of our opponents from their present hopeless pohcy, which can lead to nothing but perpetual discord, to a frank acceptance of the position of citizens of the free-est Empire in the world, and to co-operation with us in building up a better South Africa. CAPE TOWN.— December 11, 1900 [The following speech was delivered at the height of the Bond agitation in Cape Colony, which preceded and led to the second rebellion. During igoo] CAPE TOWN 29 the later months of 1900 guerilla warfare was going on in almost all parts of the Orange River Colony and the Transvaal, but it had not as yet extended to the Cape Colony. The ground for that extension was, how- ever, being assiduously prepared by the vehement and inflammatory language of the leaders of the Bond, and especially by the Dutch clergy, who were unwearied in denouncing the conduct of the war on the British side, and in manifesting their sympathy with the enemy. The agitation culminated in the Annual Congress of the Bond, which was on this occa- sion held at Worcester in Cape Colony. The Resolutions of that Congress were subsequently presented to Sir A. MUner at Cape Town by a deputa- tion of leading Bondsmen, with the request that they should be trans- mitted to Her Majesty's Government. The Resolutions were as foUows : — (1) ' We, men and women of South Africa assembled and represented here, having heard the report of the people's deputation to England, and having taken into earnest consideration the deplorable con- dition into which the peoples of South Africa have been plunged, and the grave dangers threatening our civilisation, record our solemn conviction that the highest interests of South Africa demand — (1) A termination of the war now raging, with its untold misery and horror, as well as the biu:ning of houses, the devastation of the country, the extermination of a white nationahty, and the treat- ment to which women and children are subjected, which was bound to leave a lasting legacy of bitterness and hatred, while seriously endangering the future relationship between the forces of civilisation and barbarism in South Africa ; and (2) the reten- tion by the Republics of their independence, whereby alone the peace of South Africa can be maintained. (2) ' That this meeting desires a fuU recognition of the right of the people of this Colony to settle and manage its own afiairs, and expresses its grave disapproval of the policy pursued and adopted in this matter by the Governor and High Commissioner, Sir Alfred Milner. (3) ' That this Congress solemnly pledges itself to labour in a constitutional way unceasingly for the attainment of the objects contained in the above resolutions, and resolves to send a deputa- tion to His Excellency Sir Alfred Milner to bring these resolutions officially to the notice of Her Majesty's Government.' After hearing the deputation, the High Commissioner repUed] : — I ACCEDE to your request to bring these resolutions to the notice of Her Majesty's Government. I think it is doubtful whether I ought to do so, but in view of the prevailing 30 SPEECHES AND ADDRESSES [dec. ii, bitterness and excitement it is better to err, if one must err, on the side of conciliation and forbearance. And, having regard especially to the fact that one of the resolu- tions is directed against myself, I wish to avoid any appear- ance of a desire to suppress its companions on account of it. But having gone thus far on the road of concession, I take the liberty, in no unfriendly and in no polemical spirit, of asking you quite frankly what good you think can be done by resolutions of this character ? I am not now referring to the resolution directed against myself. That is a matter of very minor importance. The pith of the whole business is in resolution number one, a resolution evidently framed with great care by the clever men who are engineering the present agitation in the colony. Now that resolution asks for two things — a termination of the war, and the restoration of the independence of the repubhcs. In desiring the termination of the war we are aU agreed, but nothing can be less conducive to the attainment of that end than to encourage, in those who are still carrying on a hopeless resistance, the idea that there is any, even the remotest chance, of the policy of annexation being reversed. I am not now speaking for myself. This is not a question for me. I am simply directing your attention to the repeatedly declared poUcy of Her Majesty's Govern- ment, a poUcy just endorsed by an enormous majority of the British nation,^ not only by the ordinary supporters of the Government, but by a great number of those ordinarily opposed to it. Moreover, that policy is approved by all the great self-governing colonies of the Empire, except this one, and in this one by something hke half the white population, and practically the whole of the native. And this approving half of the white population, be it observed, embraces all those who, in the recent hour of danger, when this colony itself was invaded and partially annexed, fought and suffered for the cause of Queen and Empire. I ask you is it reasonable to suppose that Her Majesty's Government is going back upon a policy dehberately * At the General Election of 1900. igoo] CAPE TOWN 31 adopted, repeatedly declared, and having this overwhelm- ing weight of popular support throughout the whole Empire behind it ? And if it is not, I ask you further : What is more Mkely to lead to a termination of the war — a recog- nition of the irrevocable character of this policy, or the reiteration of menacing protests against it ? And there is another respect in which I fear this resolution is little calcu- lated to promote that speedy restoration of peace which we have all at heart. I refer to the tone of aggressive exaggeration which characterises its allusions to the conduct of the war. No doubt the resolution is mild compared with some of the speeches by which it was supported, just as those speeches themselves were mild compared with much which we are now too well accustomed to hear and to read in the way of misrepresentation and abuse of the British Government, British statesmen, British soldiers, the British people. But even the resolution, mild in comparison with such excesses, is greatly lacking in that sobriety and accuracy which is so necessary for us all to cultivate in these days of bitterly inflamed passions. It really is pre- posterous to talk, among other things, about ' the exter- mination of a white nationality,' or to give any sort of countenance to the now fully exploded calumny about the iU-treatment of women and children. The war, gentle- men, has its horrors— every war has. Those horrors increase as it becomes more irregular on the part of the enemy, thus necessitating severer measures on the part of the Imperial troops. But, having regard to the condi- tions, it is one of the most humane wars that has ever been waged in history. It has been humane, I contend, on both sides, which does not, of course, mean that on both there have not been isolated acts deserving of condemna- tion. Still the general direction, the general spirit on both sides, has been humane. But it is another question whether the war on the side of the enemy is any longer justifiable. It is certainly not morally justifiable to carry on a resist- ance involving the loss of many lives and the destruction of an immense quantity of property, when the object of 32 SPEECHES AND ADDRESSES [may 7, that resistance can no longer, by any possibility, be attained. No doubt, great allowance must be rnade for most of the men still under arms, though it is difficult to defend the conduct of their leaders in deceiving them. The bulk of the men still in the field are buoyed up with false hopes — they are incessantly fed with lies, lies as to their own chance of success, and, still worse, as to the intentions of the British Government with regard to them should they surrender. And for that very reason it seems aU the more regrettable that anything should be said or done here which could help still further to mislead them, still further to encourage a resistance which creates the very evils that these people are fighting to escape. It is because I am sincerely con- vinced that a resolution of this character, hke the meeting at which it was passed, like the whole agitation of which that meeting is part, is calculated, if it has any effect at aU, still further to mislead the men who are engaged in carrying on this hopeless struggle, that I feel bound, in sending it to Her Majesty's Government, to accompany it with this expression of my strong personal dissent. CAPE TOWN.— May 7, 1901 [Shortly after the preceding speech, in the last days of 1900, some of the guerilla bands operating on the north of the Orange River broke back into Cape Colony. The Dutch population of the northern districts of the colony, who had been violently excited by the Bond agitation already referred to, joined the invaders in considerable numbers. The experi- ences of the previous rebellion were forgotten — all the more readily perhaps because of the great leniency shown to the rebels after its sup- pression—and most of the young farmers of Dutch race in the north and north-west of the colony took the field on the Boer side. The conse- quence was a great extension of the area of guerilla warfare in South Africa, which was kept up thenceforward by roving bands, now at one point and now at another, throughout almost the whole extent of Cape Colony, until the very close of the war. A very large British force had consequently to be employed in that colony; martial law was pro- claimed, first in one district and then in another, till it finally embraced igoi] CAPE TOWN 33 the whole country ; constitutional government was completely suspended ; and during the whole of 1901 the Cape Parliament did not meet, expendi- ture being defrayed by Governor's warrants in anticipation of Parha- mentary sanction. Early in 1901 Sir Alfred MUner was transferred from the Governorship of the Cape Colony, in which post he was succeeded by Sir Walter Hely Hutchinson, to that of the two new colonies, but retaining the High Com- missionership, so that the supreme control of British civil administra- tion in South Africa stiU rested in his hands. He left Cape Town for Johannesburg, which now became his official place of residence, in the beginning of February. His first business was to engage, in conjunction with Lord Kitchener, in negotiations with the Boer leaders, who, at the instance of GJeneral Botha, showed some disposition to desist from further resistance to the British army. The negotiations, however, broke down, owing to the refusal of the Boers to accept the incorpora- tion of the Republics in the British Empire. After the failure of negotia- tions. Sir Alfred Milner spent several months in organising the civil adminis- tration of those portions of the new colonies, including all the principal towns, which had been definitely occupied by the British, and in preparing for the extension of that administration to the whole of the country, as soon as the war should be over. In May, however, he returned to England for some months, nominally on leave, but really in order to confer personally with Mr. Chamberlain and other members of Hia Majesty's Government on the South African situation. On his way through Cape Town he was entertained by the Town Council. The majority of the citizens of Cape Town had always sided strongly with the British cause, and at this juncture, and indeed right up to the end of the war, they, in common with the other South African loyalists, were not a little uneasy lest the pro-Boer agitation in England should shake the British Gtovernment in its determination to bring the whole of South Africa definitely and irrevocably under the British flag. These sentiments found vigorous expression on the occasion in question, and it was in reply to them that Sir A. Milner spoke as follows] : — Let us look away from the ever-changing froth on the surface of public opinion to the silent depths beneath. Nothing in the whole of this weary business is more remark- able, nothing is more profoundly satisfactory, than the manner in which the British nation throughout the world, when at last awakened, have set their teeth in unmistak- able earnestness to put an end, once for all, to the uncer- tainty, the conflict of incompatible ideals which made 34 SPEECHES AND ADDRESSES [may 7. peace and progress in South Africa under the old system impossible. Flinching from no sacrifice, daunted by no disappointment, turning a deaf ear to the babel of voices for ever tending to confuse and smother the one cardinal point under a number of side-issues, they have gone straight on the way on which they were set from the first, — to make an end of this business, to bring one country under one flag, with one system of law and government — a liberal and a just one ; and to leave no room for the recrudescence of the ambitions that have plunged us into those terrible disasters from which we are now slowly emerging. If I were not absolutely confident of that, I should not be taking a return ticket to-day. Were any evidence needed — and I do not see how the careful observer could need any evidence of this unshakable purpose of the British people — I think it would be found in the reception which has been accorded to the communications which recently passed between the Commander-in-Chief and General Botha. For one voice which was raised to blame Lord Kitchener or myself, or His Majesty's Government, for having adopted too stiff an attitude, there were scores of protests against what were regarded — ^wrongly regarded, I beHeve — as S3miptoms of a tendency to purchase peace by a dangerous compromise. Mind, I do not admit for one moment that these protests were justified. I believe they were due almost entirely to a misunderstanding of the actual posi- tion. I merely refer to them as evidence of the fact that, so far from there being any weakening in public opinion, the unmistakable bent of that opinion is to be even over- anxious lest anything should be done which could possibly jeopardise the stability of the future settlement, even for the great object of putting a stop to fm-ther bloodshed and devastation. I confess that I can sometimes hardly repress a smile when I get letters — and I get plenty of them just now— impressing upon me that it is the interest of the loyahsts that ought first to be considered. Well, gentlemen, if ever there was a case of carrying coals to Newcastle ! Here have I been preaching for years, in igoi] LONDON 35 season and out of season, and in the teeth of bitter obloquy, the duty of the Empire to the South African loyalists. Times out of number I have called attention to the utter folly of the fatal old trick of for ever giving away your friends in the idle hope of conciliating your enemies. But where I perhaps differ from some of my friends is in a tendency to look ahead, in a habit of trying to form a mental picture of the time when those who have been our enemies in the past — and many of those who are our enemies even to-day — will no longer be our foemen but our fellow- citizens, and many of them I believe sound and true ones. It is my impression — I may be wrong, but I do not think so — ^that not a few of those who have been the sturdiest in their allegiance to their old flag, when once the conflict is over, when once they have accepted the situation, will be equally faithful to their new allegiance. And if that is so, then surely it is a point of honour for us to let them see that we have absolutely no vindictive feeling as regards the past ; that if they are once prepared frankly to accept their position as citizens of our Empire, the same rights and privileges, ay, and the same solicitude for their welfare on the part of the Government, will be extended to them as to their older fellow-citizens. Once let them be frankly and whole-heartedly within the pale, and there should be no distinction. The old and the new citizens have got to coalesce into one nation ; and all I can say is, that if for cherishing these hopes I am called weak and gullible, 1 must just bear the reproach with such equanimity as I can, and trust that it will do me no more harm than aU the things I have been called in the opposite camp, such as heartless, bloodthirsty, arrogant, a prancing pro-consul, an Egyptian satrap, and all the rest of it. LONDON.— May 26, 1901 [On his arrival in England on leave, on May 25, 1901, Sir Alfred Milner was welcomed at Waterloo by the Prime Minister — ^Lord Salisbury — Mr. Chamberlain, and other leading members of the Government, and 36 SPEECHES AND ADDRESSES [may 26, received at Marlborough House by Hi3 Majesty, who raised him to the peerage. The following day he was entertained at a luncheon, at which H.B.H. the Duke of Cambridge was in the chair, and when again aU the principal member of the Government were present. In replying to the toast of his health Lord MUner said] : — YotTR Royal Highness, Mr. Chamberlain, my Lords, Ladies, and Gentlemen, — ^I am so taken aback by the reception which has been given to me yesterday and to-day that I cannot find words, and, what is more, I am afraid I cannot find ideas altogether suitable to the occasion. To teU the honest truth, I am rather ashamed to be here at all with a big unfinished job awaiting me and with so many men, my feUow-workers, but in positions far more dangerous and more physically exhausting than my own, who are not able to take the rest which they both deserve and need. In these circumstances it would have been more pleasant to me, and, I believe, in a rational world it would have seemed better to all of us, that I should have arrived, and stayed, and returned in the quietest possible manner. But I fuUy recognise that, in an age when it seems impossible for many people to put a simple and natural interpreta- tion upon anything, my doing so would have been mis- construed, and misconstrued in a manner and to a degree which would have been injurious to the interests of the State. If the fact that the leave that I asked for — accorded certainly in the kindest manner, but with the most evident reluctance on the part of His Majesty's Government — if this hard-begged holiday could be represented as a veiled recall, then, of course, it was obvious that, had I taken the proverbial hansom from Waterloo to my old chambers, that very harmless action woidd have been trumpeted over two continents as evidence of my disgrace. It is hard, it is ludicrous that some of the busiest men in the world should be obhged to occupy their time, and that so many of my friends and well-wishers should be put to inconveni- ence—and on a day, too, when it would be so nice to be in the country— merely in order to prove to persons with an ingrained habit of self-delusion that the British Govern- igoi] LONDON 37 ment will not give up its agents in the face of the enemy, and that the people of this country will not allow themselves to be bored into abandoning what they have spent millions of treasure and so many precious hves to attain. All I can say is that if it was necessary — I apologise for it, I am sorry to be the cen