Lord Rosebery on the Colonies.

Evening Star, Issue 7431, 28 January 1888, Page 2 (Supplement)

Lord Rosebery on the Colonies.

At the Service banquet Lord Rosebery, in proposing the toast of the evening, said:— The great discovery, as it seems to me, of the nineteenth century has been the British Empire. I do not mean to pretend that the world, was not aware previously to tills cen* tury of the existence of the United Kingdom and of certain fortified places in Europe which belong to that kingdom. They were aware, moreover, of that place which occupies a sort of separate shelf in their minds—the Empire of India. They knew of it as governed by a private company, as a land of mythical wealth, which

sent Homs occasionally nabobs, and some; times a statesman or a conqueror. Id another category they placed the colonies as regions in no particular connection wtth the United Kingdom, but as regions of unbounded territory which gratified the national vanity on the map, which supplied comfortable places to some politicians, not perhaps in their first prime—(laughter)— and which afforded facilities for trying social experiments in that seclusion which is so desirable. That was the condition of tilings not many years ago. In those days false prophets in sheeps’ clothing went about preaching up and down the country — first, that it would be well for the country to be rid of its colonies; and, secondly, as far as their voice could be heard by the colonists, that it would be well for the colonics to be rid of the Mother Country. But about forty years ago—less than that a new and awakened sense of Imperial responsibility dawned on the people of this country. A bloody mutiny called the attention of the Government of the Empire to the responsibility that it had in India. It assumed the responsibility and annexed India directly to the British Crown ; and since then we have had in the colonies a new sense of our responsibility too. No one can deny that the teachings of those false prophets to whom I have alluded iiave entirely failed to produce their effect. There have been various causes for this, but there is one which is perfectly clear. In the first place, steam and electricity have done their work. The news of London today is the news of Toronto or Melbourne the same day. But the communication by rail has been of much greater importance still. The roving spirit of the British race thas found development for itself in wandering through its own Empire. Our countrymen have learned to appreciate the charm of a Canadian winter, of an Australian summer, as well as the cool season of India. They have gone out often to hunt, but they have invariably returned having received large and important impressions, having made friends in the regions they have visited, and they have returned to form not unimportant links in the chain which binds the Empire together. I have said that the discovery of the British Empire has been a great discovery. It dawned on the British citizen some thirty or forty years ago. I feel some sort of shame in saying that 1 believe there has been no such discovery on the part of our colonial fellow-subjects. They at least have always been aware of the British Empire. They have been sensible of their responsibility, and they have been more than sensible of the home to which they have had a continual and peimanent title. Let me say one more word of this discovery of the British Empire. It has only dawned on British subjects, but it had not dawned on them even at the first. Ido not know anything more striking as an exemplification of the way in which various events have called the attention of the world to that Empire than the voyage of Baron Hiibner through that Empire. I dare say some gentlemen here present had the privilege of meeting Baron Hiibner in Australia. Well, what did that mean? It meant that an elderly Austrian statesman, brought up in the school of Metternich and in the strictest Conservative philosophy of that school, after journeying round the world on his own account, had been so impressed by the sudden bound of the British Empire that be had made a journey expressly to travel through it and to learn the nature of it. The result of that travel you will fiud in a book which, to my mind, is the most vivid and most interesting of all books on the British Empire, as it shows the impression on a foreign and Austrian statesman of what the nature and capacities of that Empire really arc. As regards this matter of travel, I once took the liberty in a short speech to urge on the attention of my fellow-countrymen, so far as I could urge anything, that it would be desirable, if it were possible, that persons should not be called to administer to the Government of this Empire without some personal kxowledge and study on the spot. I thought I had made a remark not particularly dangerous in itself; but when I returned to London, having at that time the honor of being in the then Cabinet, I was very coldly received by my colleagues. They said to me, “ What Js this you Lave been saying in Edinburgh*?” I repeated the remark, and then replied: “We have been going through the matter with some care, and we find that the Cabinet would be confined to Childers and yourself.” They denounced me in unmeasured terms for pretending to utter a general truth and attempting to snatch at a monopoly of power in conjunction with Mr Childers. You see that a person’s best intentions with regard to our Empire have met with continual difficulties. But that is not the only difficulty. Suppose a gentleman engaged in English politics chooser to go and visit some parts of Her Majesty’s dominions. He is at once affably reproached on his return with a wish to escape some difficulty and critical question which he is not prepared to face at the present moment. Well, this is not the case in Australia. That is the point I was coming to in connection with this question of political travel. Political travel has told not merely in favor of England by sending Englishmen to see other parts of the Empire, but, to my mind, it has told even more in bringing Australian statesmen into touch with the statesmen of the Mother Country. This is a privilege of which they avail themselves without stint and without reproach.