SOME FRUITS OF FEDERATION.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XVII, Issue 50, 4 April 1890, Page 7

SOME FRUITS OF FEDERATION.

(By Sir Charles Qavan Duffy, in the Speaker.)

The Marquis of Hartington has more than once quoted a sentence or two of mine written forty-five years ago, in a forgotten Irish controversy, as expressing my settled judgment against the policy of a federal union between Great Britain and Ireland. If the obiter dictum of an immature ynung man on such a question were of any importance, I might show that the opinion cited was rather a counsel on what was proper to be done then and there, when two contradictory policies were proffered to Ireland, than an abstract declaration of principle. But 1 have handled public affairs for nearly half a century since that time, and have sometimes mixed in debate where constitutional questions of this character were carefully considered ; and if the noble marquis does me the honour to regard my opinion as of any value, it is very much at his service. I believe that the federation of Great Britain and Ireland alone is an undertaking surrounded by difficulties which it would require extraordinary judgment and foresight to overcome, but that the federation of the entire Empire is a wise and salutary design, open to no serious objection, and marvellous in its simplicity and integrality. It is instructive, by the way, to note how many difficulties which perplex the Marquis of Hartington, and other gentlemen of his opinions, would entirely disappear if the design of organising the Empire were frankly faced. I shrink from debating the question in its larger issues — what the Empire would gain, for example, by federation and wbat it may lose in some unlucky hour by the want of it ; but a great design, whether it be good or bad, bas commonly unexpected results of a kindred character, and I will venture to run over a few smaller and secondary gains we should all obtain, in dealing with current politica, if England, like Prussia, agreed to accept the primacy of a great organised Empire in lieu of an incongruous system in which European and parochial politics are treated by the same men, on the same scale, and often in the same narrow spirit. One of the difficulties Lord Hartington has sometimes foreshadowed is a contest with the House of Lords over Home Rule. The peers, he is persuaded, will stand a siege longer than that of Troy or Sebastppol ; and it may be so, but will it not terminate some day or other like these memorable exemplars— in a complete surrender ? No one will dispute that the exact limit of the veto which the Upper House is entitled to exercise in legislation is a critical and imminent question ; and if it be fiercely fought out, it may seem easier to dispense with the Second Chamber than to bring it into permanent harmony with the one which ha 9 been reformed. Wbat a dißcreet statesman fears in such a contest, I fancy, is not that it will be long and doubtful, but that the victory when it comes will be too complete. For few statesmen are prepared to withdraw the serviceable check of a Second Chamber from legislation, or leave angry questions to the eudden impulse or unbridled will of a single assembly. But mark how federation might solve this difficulty. A Federal Senate would probably be recruited to a considerable extent from the House of Lords, and when Imperial questions were transferred to the Federal Legislature, the people of Kngland — of whom the peers would remain, I presume, tbe Upper House — might reform the chamber or leave it unreformed. at their discretion. If there were no new provocation, it is not improbable that it would remain unaltered for many a day ; but, in any case, its reform would be a purely local question, with which Ireland, Scotland, or Wales would no longer have any right to interfere. It would provoke no fierce passions, and might be settled as tranquilly as the essentially kindred question of substituting County Councils for the hereditary gentry in local affairs. Lord Hartington is troubled over the powers which ought to be conferred on an Irish legislature, if an Irish legislature should come. His policy seems to be to give as little as possible— a cure method, by the way, to rob a boon of all grace, and to keep the old wounds green and open. This policy is naturally met by a determination on the other side to get as much as possible, irrespective of any consideration of proportion or fitness. What endless controversy and conflict will gather round this question ! But federation would free us of the whole coil of perplexing details at a stroke. What are the powers which ought to be conferred on the Irish legislature under a federal system? Why, exactly thote conferred on the local legislatures of England, Scotland, and Wales. No more, certainly — and no leBS, certainly. Their functions might be considered as dispassionately as a Railway Bill. The question would excite no national animosities, for the powers wonld belong to each member of the confederacy alike. We know what questions Prussia, Belgium, Switzerland, and the United States reserve for their supreme legislature, and questions they devolve upon the local bodies. We have more than a century's experience of the working of this system, and if there have been mistakes or omissions, let our statesmen amend them. Happily this is the shortest road not only to the present but to the permanent pacification of Ireland. From the native patriotism fostered by local institutions would finally grow a patriotism extending to the whole Empire. Why not, iodeed .' Irishmen have had their full share in the battles with enemies and the conflict with nature «md circumstances, by which the Empire was founded, and they will be proud to recall that honourable share when the love which always begins with the family, the clan, and the nation, is no longer denied its natural gratification. The party of which Lord Hartington is the banner-bearer have sometimes felt alarmed lest the power conferred on the democracy should be exercised rashly or wantonly on the questions of higher politics of which they have elight knowledge or experience. If (his danger exists, here again federalism is the remedy ; for foreign politics, national defences, and probably taiiffs, would belong exclusively to the Federal Parliament. And the Upper House in federal constitutions is commonly protected against this identical risk by double election or some more stringent precaution. The United Siates senators are choseu by both Houses of the State Legislatures, and the senators of France in a large degree by the departmental councils. Is it too heavy a strain on public faith to assume that double election, which the two great republics find sufficient to exclude crude theories and

angry prejudices from their senate in countries where crude theories grow ia extraordinary abundance, would be as effectual in Westminstar as it is in Washington or Paris? Lord Salisbury recently bade us note the tendency in our times for neighbouring nations to get more massed into prodigious empires. The tendency not only exists, but is perhaps the most formidable and menacing fact in contemporary history ; for with great states coma not alone great armies and immense resources, but the constant temptation to employ them in some brilliant aggression. It depends just now upon a young man still intoxicated by a premature rise to supreme power, and a middle-aged man disturbed by the constant fear of assassination, to let loose on mod era civilisation armies such as were never before mustered on the earth. But surely the moral which Lord Salisbury draws from these facts is not the natural one. If the world is to groan under the burden of great empires, it is the statesman's business to strive that his empire shall not be merely a bloated frame, but a vivid organisation. Ia not federation the remedy? Would, it not awaken, as nothing else can, local vigilance and local patriotism within an area which they could adequately guard and tend ? Waa it not States smaller than Scotland or Wales, but distinct divisions of a great people, who bequeathed to the world the arts, literature, and science which it cherishes most 1 and when these boons of heaven were submerged under the barbarism of great empires, was it not other such States which revived and restored them ? For it is local patriotism which doubles and quadruples the numerical force in a people. Lord Harrington, in one of his latest speeches, drew a lively sketch of the Irish members c eciding the public policy of their country in a Dublin Parliament, free from all English interference, and then rushing to Westminster to decide the policy of England in total disregard of the wishes of the English people. This is a fancy picture, but here again is not the remedy federation ? Whatever difficulties surround the retention of Irish members in the House of Commons will entirely disappear if they are only retained in a federal Parliament fairly representing the three kingdoms and forty colonies which constitute the Empire. They will have nothing to do with the special policy of England, but only with the general policy of the Empire of which their country is an integral part. There is no need that such a body should be numerous — it only need be proportionate. And colonial representatives who would be lost amoDg 670 members of the House of Commons would have their just share of power in such a legislature. The supremacy to which her population and history entitle England would naturally be maintained, as it is maintained for Prussia in the Imperial Reichstag, while proportionate justice, we may hope, would be secured for each member of the confederacy. " But," cries the vestryman of the House of Commons, "we don't want colonial representatives ; we will never permit Montreal or Melbourne to determine the policy of England." Brave words, in sooth ; but how long, Oh legislative vestry maa, will Montreal and Melbourne allow you to dictate their policy in peace an war in complete ignorance of their interests and wishes ? 1 will not say that this is my confession of faith on Imperial Federation, for the most important considerations have not been touched on at all ; but it suggests some of the reasons which forbid me to fall into the category where Lord Hartington would place me. lam for confederation of the Empire, and as speedily as possible, under the strong conviction that if it be postponed till after a foreign fleet has bombarded Sydney, Melbourne, and Cape Town, there will be only broken fragments of our colonial possessions left to federate.

The German Government has introduced a standard time throughout the German Empire.

It is not wondertul that Mr. W. O'Brien fainted last week (ending February 1), but it ia that he has not entirely broken down, considering the treatment to which he has been subjected by Mr. Balfour's minions. I (Trutli) do not kuow a man who looks more physically weak than Mr. O'Brien, or one whose brave spirit enables him to do more hard work. Last year we went together to a meeting in Yorkshire. In the train we talked, and by the time that we bad reached the town where we had to speak I was somewhat hoarse ; for I know nothing more trying than talking in a train loud enough to be heard. The meeting was a large one, and we were told that as there was an overflow meeting near, we were each expected to speak at both. Mr. O'Brien spoke at the principal meeting with exceeding energy for an hour, and then betook himself to the other meeting. After I had spoken at the first I was almost speechless, and so 1 could not follow his example. We ,then betook ourselves to a friend's house, and I looked forward with pleasure to a good night's sleep. Not so Mr. O'Brien. At 2 a.m. be started off by a cross-country train to g«t to Holy head, as he had to speak the next evening somewhere near Dublin. This sort of thing would soon kneck up a strong man, and how be was equal to it has always filled me with astonishment.

The London correspondent of the Nottingham Express sends the following story to his paper : — A fact which curiously illustrates Ministerial recognition of the uncertainty of political life has just come to my knowledge. Mr. Gladstone, wanting a present for his son's bride on her marriage, bethought him of a pair of magnificent porcelain vases, and sent to obtain them — where do you think ? In Downing-3treet. And herein we have the key to that very curious fact with which I started. When he left office upon the fall of his Government in 1886, Mr. Gladstone stored away in his official residence, No. 10, Downing-street, most of his bric-a-biac and other household goods, and there in truth they have remained to thin day. Obviously Mr. Gladstone felt amid the political transformation in 1886 that the day would indubitably come when he should be again installed in Downing-street. Bo far from having disputed this confident prevision, it was treated by the right hon, gentleman's successors quite as a matter of course. It ia really very curious, and if I were not satisfied of its accuracy I should hesitate to accept the story. The vaßes have been removed to the ex- Premier's new residence in St. James's Square. The other treasures remain under lock and key, to be removed apparently only with the death or retirement from public life of their remarkable owner