Thomas Allnutt Brassey

“ Chamberlain will, I trust, receive the serious and unprejudiced consideration of the people of this country. That it should be made the subject of party controversy, that it should be discussed on political platforms without regard to recent experience or present-day facts, and that the truth should be obscured by misrepresentation and exaggeration, as has been the case with the corn duty, would be deplorable. The decision which the people will be presently called upon to take is of vital moment to their own future, the future of the Empire, and the future of the world. ”

“ The Colonies, as you know, are all rigidly Protectionist. On the other hand, it is said that all that the Colonies hope for from a connection with the mother country is the enjoyment of trade advantages. I am a staunch believer in the economic advantages of Free Trade to this country, even on the present one-sided system; but, in my opinion, it is well worth considering whether we should not gain more than we lose if, by entering into reciprocal trade arrangements throughout the Empire, we induced the Colonies to bear their fair share of the cost of Imperial defence. ”

“ Some people will tell us that Ireland is not, and cannot be, a unit in herself, that she is only a portion of the United Kingdom, and that Englishmen and Irishmen can be governed under the same laws and by the same body. That is an argument that has been often put to me, but if it is a sound contention, how comes it that measures are brought in to apply to Ireland, which are not applied to England, how comes it that measures are passed which apply to England and Wales, and which do not apply to Ireland? ”

“ For a great Empire to be absolutely at the mercy of one single foreign country for the supply of raw material for one of its greatest industries—cotton goods form a quarter of our total exports—is deplorable. The remedy is to encourage the growth of cotton under the British flag.
Decline of agriculture. It is not necessary for me to enlarge upon the way in which British Agriculture has suffered in the past sixty years. Every one who has the least acquaintance with agriculture must know that farmer after farmer has been ruined after struggling against bad times. ”

“ Though a war between the two great branches of the English-speaking race is year by year becoming a more remote contingency, and though leading men on both sides of the Atlantic are looking forward to a time when the relations of the two peoples will become closer than they are now, it cannot be forgotten that at the present time we are absolutely at the mercy of the United States, because the quantity of wheat we draw from her is so large that it could not be made good at once from any other source. ”

“ Let me say in conclusion that it is the highest ambition of my life to help to bind the Colonies and the mother country more closely together, and whatever may be my political career, I can undertake that my best energies will be devoted to that object. This is no more than could be expected from the son of your Governor, who, at a time of life when many men are looking to rest from their labours, left his home and his children, who were settled round him, to serve his Queen and his country for the sake of the cause which we both have so much at heart. ”

“ But if you take the figures of a longer period—and I maintain that to arrive at a right conclusion, you must take a longer period—you will observe that our trade is subject to periods of prosperity and of depression, and that at the end of each decade our exports have reached about the same figures as at its commencement. Taking the last thirty years, our exports of manufactured goods have remained practically stationary; while those from France, Germany, and the United States have enormously increased since they adopted a protectionist policy. ”

“ In a paper read before the Colonial Institute in November last, I pointed out that a commercial federation which did not impose a duty on foreign foodstuffs for the benefit of the Canadian wheat-grower, or the Australian meat-producer, would be of little value to our Colonies. Mr. Chamberlain has frankly acknowledged that preferential trade means a tax on food. The question therefore which the British people have to ask themselves is whether there are any reasons which make it worth their while to submit to a tax on the necessaries of life with a possibility of a rise in price. ”

“ On the Navy we depend for the defence of our shores from invasion, for the protection of our commerce, and for the security of our trade routes. The part which the British Army can play in war with any first-class power except Russia and the United States is only a secondary one, but it is still important. It is our chief weapon of offence. With the assistance of the Navy, it must lend its energies to the capture of the Colonies and coaling stations of the enemy, more indispensable now than before the introduction of steam to the success of their depredations on our commerce. ”

“ They say, and they say with some justice, 'It is idle for us to contribute to the maintenance of the Imperial Navy when Britain would be forced to make peace within a few weeks of the outbreak of war from fear of starvation.' To render our food supply in time of war reasonably secure, to enable the British people to enter into an alliance with the American people on equal terms, it is essential that we should not be dependent for our food on any foreign country to such an extent as to render it impossible to make good from other sources the supplies which we draw from that country. ”

“ The training of the School Board, the County Council, or the Trade Union may be admirable for one who seeks to take part in domestic legislation; but something more is required from the member of a Parliament which deals with the great questions of Imperial and Colonial policy. To those who have travelled much in the Empire, the assurance with which some men speak on the Imperial and Colonial questions, of which they have no special knowledge, is amazing. Nowhere is this more conspicuous than in the treatment of the great question of the moment—the war in South Africa and its conduct. ”

“ Let us recognise in the case of Ireland, that Irishmen know how best to manage their own local affairs, but, while keeping before us the first principle in any future Home Rule Bill, let not the other two principles of Imperial Government be forgotten. Ireland must have a Parliament of her own for the transaction of her own special business, but, at the same time, she must continue to take her proper share in the management of Imperial affairs, she must continue to bear her fair share of the cost of the Army and Navy, which are to defend her as well as Scotland and England. ”

“ Whatever be the result of the present debate, those issues remain.
Meanwhile, I welcome this opportunity to record my conviction, formed from much study of national problems and close observation of public opinion at home and abroad, that no political party can hope to command the support of the British people at large which does not make a broad Imperial policy, based on the idea of an Empire always becoming more closely knit together in all its parts, the very corner-stone of its programme. Such a national policy should not be the heritage of any single party in the state. ”

“ Parliament is practically absolute in dealing with India, and considering the imperfect knowledge and the insufficient opportunities of acquiring knowledge of Indian questions possessed by most Members of Parliament, it is perhaps a matter of congratulation that the Government of India is so largely left in the hands of that noble body of civil servants, who do now, as they have done for many years past, constitute one of the finest services that the world has ever known. ”

“ It was my privilege during those years to come closely in touch with popular feeling both in Britain and in the Colonies, and I have always thought that the gradual change from indifference to keen interest, from an attitude of critical questioning to one of accepted conviction in regard to the main principles which the League put forward, furnishes one of the most singular and encouraging instances in our history of a decisive evolution of political opinion without the aid of party conflict. ”

“ We wish to see Greater Britain well governed, but we do not wish to have the time of our representatives in Parliament occupied with the better government of Greater Britain to the exclusion of questions which intimately affect ourselves. Irish, Welsh, and Scotch affairs on the one hand, Imperial affairs on the other, will delay for many years those much-needed reforms which form part of the programme of the great Liberal Party (to which I am proud to belong) if our present system is unchanged. ”

“ In the House of Commons England has such a preponderating voice that the necessity for a separate legislature to deal with his business does not come home to an Englishman with the same force as to a Scotchman, an Irishman, or a Welshman. Though there is already a considerable body of opinion in favour of devolution of business from the House of Commons in some shape or other, it is undoubtedly in England that most educational work must be done before there can be a prospect of carrying a measure of Federal government for the United Kingdom. ”

“ Prosperity cannot continue for ever. Trade moves in ever-recurring cycles of prosperity and depression, and when the depression comes, as it must come ere long, we in the mother country shall begin to feel that the burden of defending the Empire is becoming too heavy for the taxpayers of these islands alone. When Colonies are in their infancy it is the duty of the mother country to charge herself with their defence, but our Colonies are now rapidly growing from youth to manhood. ”

“ I am confident that there are few Englishmen who can read the history of the building up of this Empire of ours without a feeling of just pride. Does not the growth of Canada and Australia, the work above all which we have done in India, awaken the most serious consideration as to the moral responsibilities of our race? We have shown we have a genius for self-government, and for the government of native races, which no other nation has possessed ”

“ The Government of Scotland, and the Government of Ireland, have been centralised in its hands. The population of the country has multiplied, and with the growth of population have come increasing demands for legislative and administrative action. Not until the British people recognise the impossibility of transacting the business of the Empire and of these islands with less machinery than 300 years ago, not until they appreciate that a distinction can be drawn between Imperial and domestic questions, will they be able to understand what is meant by Imperial Federation. ”

“ The external affairs of the great Colonies are in the hands of the Colonial Office, subject to the more or less imperfect scrutiny of Parliament. We all know that a Government office will do almost anything to avoid inconvenient questions in the House of Commons, and its action is largely governed by the principle of ‘let sleeping dogs lie.’ The Colonial Office is no exception to the rule. Colonists have no constitutional way on ordinary occasions of making their voices heard. ”