Thomas Allnutt Brassey

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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 self-governing Colonies are nearly all rigidly protectionist, and it is said that all that they 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ Against raiding expeditions accompanied by a few troops which might escape our cruisers, Australia must be prepared to defend herself by maintaining a military force, not necessarily numerous, but certainly efficient and capable of taking the field against disciplined troops. An efficient military force in the Australian Colonies would not only render them secure against attack, but could also give valuable assistance to the common defence of the Empire by capturing the naval bases of the enemy in neighbouring seas. ”

“ Judging by the time that Irish affairs now occupy in Parliament, when there are so many other important things to be considered, the regulation of the internal affairs of Ireland alone is a sufficient task for any representative body, and I am sure that most people in this room will agree with me when I say that the domestic government of some 30,000,000 of Englishmen, a business which is now very much left on one side, would give ample scope to the energies and talents of any body of legislators, however energetic, and however capable. ”

“ While admitting that Free Trade, as conceived by Cobden, is in theory perfectly sound, I believe there are grave reasons for doubting whether it is the right policy to-day, from an Imperial point of view, or even from that of the United Kingdom. ”

“ It will be some years yet before we in the old country are able to draw the line between matters which are of Imperial, and matters which are of local, concern, as they do in Germany and in the United States. A delay of one or even two generations will give an opportunity for the population and resources of the Colonies to develop, and will place you in a position to enter into a political federation with the mother country on fairly equal terms. ”

“ Chamberlain, who took no part in the pioneer work of the Federation League, have been recently amongst the foremost champions of the idea of Imperial unity, which, thanks to the Jubilee celebrations, the centralising influence of the Monarchy, and, above all, to the spontaneous assistance rendered by the Colonies in the South African War, has indelibly impressed itself in the minds of the people of this country. ”

“ Growth of loyalty in Australia.In the second place, it is my profound conviction that the sentiment of loyalty to the mother country is far deeper in Australia to-day than it was when I was there ten years ago. Just as we in England have come to recognise, so have our fellow subjects in the Colonies become convinced, that their future greatness depends on our remaining firmly united under the British flag. ”

“ The trade to be attracted by any change in our fiscal policy is not the main volume which we possess already, but a small fraction. The chief object to be gained is that Australian, Canadian, and South African producers would receive an advantage in the markets of the mother country that would enable them to compete even more successfully than at present with other producers of food and raw material, whether in the Argentine Republic or the United States, and that this would increase the attractiveness of British Colonies as a field for British settlement and the employment of British capital. ”

“ Those people who have profited most hitherto by our system of education are drawn from the weakest races of India; and if we were to leave India to-morrow, those people who are loudest in their demands for representative Government would be the very first to go to the wall, overwhelmed by the strong fighting races of the north and north-west. The problem is full of difficulty, it demands the closest attention and the deepest study, which, under the present system of Imperial Government, it cannot have from those who are ultimately responsible for the solution. ”

“ I have always held that the Colonies, in their present stage of development, cannot give substantial monetary assistance towards the general defence of the Empire, or, in other words, that no contribution which they can at present afford would substantially lessen the burden which the Navy and Army estimates impose on the British taxpayer. ”

“ Those years saw many of our most important journals become ardent advocates of a national ideal which they had at first looked upon with distrust; they saw prominent men, who had long held aloof, gradually led to put themselves at the head of a movement which was profoundly influencing the national mind; above all, they witnessed the formation of a sound body of public opinion which accepted the central idea that the continued unity of the Empire is a question which rises far above most of the issues which divide our party politics ”

“ Nothing could have a greater effect on the widening of the Colonial conception of Imperial responsibility in matters of defence than the fact that there were Canadians, Australians, and South Africans serving in peace time, as they have done so nobly in time of war, side by side with Englishmen, Irishmen, and Scotchmen in all corners of the world. ”

“ We have an immense task to perform for the peace and civilisation of mankind, if we only have the will to undertake it. A united British Empire will represent interests so varied that it will be sincerely desirous of peace. ”