COLONIAL POLITICAL VIEWS.

Auckland Star, Volume XX, Issue 91, 17 April 1889, Page 4

COLONIAL POLITICAL VIEWS.

On Sir Howard Vincent's return to Engjand after his tour of the colonies, ho was frequently questioned as to what were the political views of the colonists. He frankly confessed that it was almost impossible to

express' the same by any ordinary party name, though he said, "Speaking geneillv the colonists are Radicals to a man." a j ' Tins was said in replying to an interviewer from the " Pall Mall Gazette." He capped ifc, however, by saying that "he was literally overwhelmed by the severity and the enmity with which Mr Gladstone's Government was condemned by every Englishman beyondthe seas,': and that although portraits of Lord Beaccupfieid were to be .seen everywhere, those of Mr Gladstone were conspicuous by their absence. In speaking of the colonial condemnation of the late Gladstone Government, Sir Howard was, of course, more particularly referring to the condemnation of that Government's colonial policy, winch appeared to encourage the disintegration rather than the federation of the Empire, and not to their home policy of Liberal reform, which, being " Radicals to a man," they could not but endorse. What is understood by extreme Radicalism in England is something very different to that which goes by the same name in the colonies. The backbone of the great Liberal party are the Nonconformists, but extreme Radicalism at Home is more or less associated with republicanism and atheism ; not that the one necessarily implies the other, but from the fact that several of toe most prominent popular leaders of that party have openly advocated republican and atheistic doctrines, their followers have been to a certain extent compelled to swallow tho whole programme, though actually not endorsing it in toio bir Howard Vincent, on the other hand, noticed (and many other Englishmen on their travels havo also noticed) that colonial radicalism is associated with intense loyalty to the Crownand an almostPuntartical respect and reverence for holy things andtimo-bououred customs and institutions, ThU latter peculiarity e«' impressed Mr G.

A. Sala that he coined a new word to enable him to express his feelings on the subject. He said we were too " Sundayfied." Seeing that Sir Howard Vincent left England a Liberal of the old school —one of those who considered that the time must come when the colonies of Great Britain would, one by one, break off their allegiance to the mother country and strike out on a career ot" independence, and that it was the manifest duty of all true Liberals to assist and hasten the process of disintegration—it will be noted by the following remarks made by him, how entirely tiavel had altered his views on this momentous political question. He said: " I have seen in the course of my hasty journey from colony to colouy almost every colonial Minister, and almost every colonial member of Parliament. I have mixed wivh all sorts and conditions of men ; 1 have sailed over seas in which I saw no flag but that ef Enpland, and passed from port to port without even hearing any language other than that of my mother country, and I oanuofc convey to you by any words that I can utter how the conception of the greatness of the might and the majesty of England and the English people has grown within me day by Say until it dwarfs ail other ideas into comparative iusignificance. But ab the same time that I have formed this conception of the splendour of the destiny which Providence has in store for our race, I feel none the less convinced that if within the next few years decisive measures are not taken to federate this scattered Empire, it will dissolve. As an Empire we must federate or perish. In all our colonies I only found one man who was avowedly an opponent to federation. All tho rest of them were enthusiastic in their loyalty to the mother country, while not disguising in the least the fact that it will be Impossible for these great and growing commonwealths to continue much longer in v state of absolute subjection, so far as questions of foreign, naval and military policy are concerned, to a Government resting solely upon tho choice of the electors of the three kingdoms."