MR GLADSTONE ON THE COLONIAL ANALOGY.

Press, Volume L, Issue 8485, 17 May 1893, Page 5

MR GLADSTONE ON THE COLONIAL ANALOGY.

MR FITZGERALD'S LETTER.

In moving the second reading of the Home Rule Bill, on April 6th, Mr Gladstone devoted a good deal of attention to the colonial analogy, especially quoting the letter of Mr FitzGeraid, C.M.G., the New Zealand Auditor-General, which has also been referred to in the papers. The following is an extract, for which we are indebted to the London correspondent of the Argus:—-

It may be said, and said truly, that the case of the colonies is not applicable to that of Ireland, and does not resemble it; that the fact of the Legislative Union preventa it; the nearness of Ireland compared with the remoteness of the colonies prevents it. But there is a saying of Mr Bright's that if Ireland could be towed out 2000 miles towards America, you would then find that there was a considerable resemblance between the case of Ireland and that of the colonies. (Cheers.) It is not so, and in consequence identical treatment ia not proposed. The treatment proposed for Ireland —I am happy to Bay with with the free consent of Ireland—(cheers)—differs in many essential particulars from the treatment accorded to the colonies. In tho first place, the colonies share in the work of their own defence, but Ireland surrenders to tho Imperial power the whole regulation of defence. She is content to rest the safety of her people, of her families, her fathers and mothers, and her children—to the wisdom of the Imperial Parliament. The colonies pay nothing to the Imperial Exchequer—not a farthing, 1 think, in the case of self-govern-ing colonies, at any rate; Ido not think there is any question about it. The colonies make their own trade laws. Ireland freely gives to you the entire making of her trade laws. The colonies not only make their own trade laws, but they make them in Buch a way, and with such an exercise of liberty, that in certain cases they impose differential duties agaiust British products. These are the differences which I allow; I am not sure whether they are not the beginning of even other differences. By this Bill we exclude Ireland, and most properly, from all diplomatic proceedings and everything connected with foreign affairs. We have begun in the case of Canada to allow Canada, within certain restrictions, the opportunity of prosecuting what she,,.thinks to be her own substantial interests, and Bubject, of course, to Imperial control, the business of prosecuting her own substantial interests in connection with an important foreign state. So that we do not deny the distinction between the cose of the colonies and the case of Ireland; but we affirm that there are three grand, governing, commanding features which determine substantial resemblance not to be denied as conclusive to the purpose wh'ch I have now in view. The first is the old disease—the disease which few of you witnessed, and the existence which no man can doubt—and that disease was disaffection especially in the British colonies—pervading the mass of tho people. My second is the remedy for that disease—in one word, domestic self-government. The result of that was harmony instead of discord between the colonies and the mother country. Is this proposition to be denied or is it not ? I have said that there are few of those who hear mc who have had local and personal experience of this in all its Btages; but I, at any rate, have had that experience, and even had a small share in the changes which have been brought to bear upon this question. I may say quorum pare parvafui. It is very nearly sixty years since I held office at the.Colonial Office when tbe older system prevailed. At that time Lord Aberdeen was Secretary of State for the Colonies, and I have here an extract from the interesting biography which has just been published by the filial piety of his son. (Hear, hear.) It is a letter written in 1835 by Lord Aberdeen to a correspondent, and in it he said, "Asa lover of your country you will be glad to hear that "Heligoland is quiet and contented. This it is something to be able to say, for of no other colony can it be said." (Loud laughter.) That was the state of the colonies when they were governed from Downing street, as Ireland is governed from Dublin Castle. ("No.") Will the House forgive mc if I read a longer extract from a letter written by a gentleman whom I had the privilege of knowing fifty years ago, Mr FitzGeraid? Ido not know whether he was an Irishman. (Laughter.) It is possible he was, but I can assure you he was a Protestant. Mr FitzGeraid went out to New Zealand as a colonist fifty yearsago, whenlhad thehonour of calling him my friend, and the friendship has been kept up sinoe that time. He has been all that time a leading man, a thorough colonist, and a thorough Imperialist. lam going to read an extract from a letter Which he wrote six months ago, not to mc, but to a friend of mine—not to an Irishman, not to a Home Ruler, not to a commoner, but to a peer—(laughter)—a Tory peer— (l-ughter)—who is a most excellent man, and whom I rejoice also to call my friend, and from whom I have obtained permission to read this passage. It is a description of the colonies as they were and as they are; and, for my own part, 1 adopt every word of it:—" If 1 were called on," says Mr FitzGeraid, "to make a speech on the Irish question, I would describe the state of all the colonies iiarfll have known them in my lifetime; £ -He With Lord Aberdeen, k ".The .rebellion in Canada, the uprising'atr the JOa-pe* and the attempt to force convicts on them; the Press of every Australian colony and of New Zealand for so many long years teeming with abuse of the English Government; I could tell of Governors hissed in theatres, and of one Governor of New Zealand accused of burning down the Government House, I suppose to get the insurance money. (Laughter.) I would describe the speeches at public dinners and public meetings, and the unrestrained vindication of every man attached to the Government of the day." Such were the colonies at the time when Mr FitzGeraid himself became a colonist. " I would then describe the colonial world around mc now—an exuberant and sometimes absurd display of loyalty to the Queen and mother country, and even the growing desire of closer ties hy federation, at all events by the masses, though I fear there are leaders who look on federation as only a step to separate nationality ; and 1 would ask my hearers wHat has been the magic spell which effected this wonderful transformation scene? It is all expressed in the words ' Home Rule.' (Cheers.) Now, for fifty years two great experiments have been going, on before our eyes. One has been carried on in Ireland and the other in the colonies. One, indeed, has been tried for many times fifty years. The one has been a miserable failure, and the other has been a miraculous success." (Cheers.) I hope it will not be thought personal if I finish the passage; but I trust I may be allowed |to read these few words without its being understood to imply criticism on right hon. gentlemen opposite. Mr FitzGeraid goes on to say:—" What shall we say of statesmen ; who persist in continuing to puraue the unsuccessful experiment, and in refusing to try that wbich has marvellously succeeded ? " That is the whole case in a nutshell. (Cheers.) I shall say nothing more ;on the question of the colonies, or of the great lessens in antonomy which are to be derived from a wide, varied, and comprehensive experience of the colonies, both of other countries and of onr own.

Sir Michael Hicks-Beach, who followed Mr Gladstone, did not speak at any length upon the colonial question, but he pointed out the success which had attended the Imperial colonial policy lay in the fact that the mother conn try had generously handed over to the colonists all those power- over trade and finance which had been throughout the history of the world fruitful cause of quarrel between nations. They had deliberately abandoned to the colonies all legislative power in such -matters.