The Future Constitutional Relations of the Empire.
Though very difficult to say what they will be, I thought proper, for the better information of my French Canadian readers, to consider some of the suggestions which of late years have been repeatedly made.
Mr. Bourassa, in his recent pamphlets, reviewing the situation from his wrong and prejudiced standpoint, has decidedly come out in favour of Canadian Independence. The least that can be said is that the time was very badly chosen to raise the question. To select the moment when the Motherland was engaged in a fight for life or death, to propose to run away from the assailed home where we had lived many happy years, was certainly not an inspiration of loyal devotion and gratitude. I am glad to say that the wild proposition met with no countenance on the part of our French Canadian compatriots.
To the point raised in England, some years ago, that it was not to be supposed that the British Empire was destined to exist forever, one of the leading British statesmen of the day, then a member of the Cabinet, answered that, though it was likely to be true that the British Commonwealth would not be eternal, like many other great political societies of times gone by, it was surely not the particular duty of a British minister to do his best to hasten the day of the final downfall of the country he was sworn to maintain. The rejoinder was no doubt peremptory. It can very properly be used in answer to Mr. Bourassa's plea for the independence of Canada.
However, the question having been so unwisely raised, to say the least, for the obvious purpose of disheartening the French Canadians from their present situation and raising in their minds extravagant hopes of a change for the better, I believed it advisable to tell them not to be carried away by dreams of a too far distant possible realization.
In all frankness, I must say that I have never taken any stock in the suggestion made from time to time, for the last fifty years, in favour of Canadian Independence. It always seemed to me that our destinies were not moving along that way. In my opinion, which nothing has happened to alter, the steady growth of the consolidation of the Empire was yearly working against the assumption of the prospective independence of the Dominion.
But even supposing that the course of events would change and put an end to British connection, could we pride ourselves with having at last, though in a very peaceful way, achieved our national independence? I am more and more strongly impressed by the paramount consideration that, nominally independent, Canada would be very little so in reality. Situated as she would be, she could not help being under the protectorate of the United States. I have always thought so. I think it more firmly than ever, when I see looming larger every day on the American political horizon the fact that the neighbouring Republic will come out of the present war with flying Colours, taking rank as one of the most powerful nations on earth.
Be that as it may, there is every certainty that the question of Canadian Independence is not within the range of practical politics. Mr. Bourassa's proposition is doomed to the failure it deserves.
Consequently, it is much better to try and foresee what the future political conditions of Canada are more likely to be after the close of the hostilities. And this must be done with the only purpose of wisely, and patriotically,—in the larger sense of the word—contributing our due share to the sound and solid framing of the changes, if any, which the best interests of the Empire, generally, and of all her component parts, in particular, may require.
We have not, and I most earnestly hope and pray that we shall not have, to consider what new political conditions would be as the consequence of the defeat of the Allies, or even as necessitated by a peace treaty due to a compromise. We must only look ahead for the encouraging days to follow the victory won by the united efforts and heroism of the nations who have rallied to put an end to Prussian militarism.
One certainty is daily becoming more evident. All loyal British subjects will applaud the triumphant close of the war with the desire to do their best to maintain and consolidate the Empire they will have saved from destruction at the cost of so much sacrifices of heroic lives and resources.
No Taxation Without Representation.
The great objection raised by Mr. Bourassa against the participation of Canada in the wars of the Empire is that the Dominion is not represented in the Parliament to which the British ministers, advising the Sovereign on all matters of foreign relations, are responsible. He draws the conclusion that the Colonies are called upon to pay for the war expenditures of Great Britain in violation of the constitutional principle:—no taxation without representation. The principle is no doubt true. But it is altogether wrong to pretend that so far it has been violated to coerce the Dominion to participate in the wars which England has been obliged to wage. Our "Nationalists" would be right in their opposition if the Imperial Parliament had attempted to pass laws compelling the autonomous Colonies to contribute men and money to a conflict. Had they claimed the right to raise revenues in Canada by an Imperial statute, we would certainly have been entitled to affirm that not being represented in the British House of Commons, we could not be taxed in any way for any Imperial purpose—war or others.
Nothing of the kind has ever been done, ever been attempted, even ever been hinted at.
The argument falls entirely to the ground, shattered to pieces, from the fact that Canada has only participated in the wars of the Empire of her own free will, in the full enjoyment of her constitutional rights. Whatever sums of money the Dominion has to pay for the conflicts into which we have freely and deliberately decided to intervene, are perceived by the Canadian treasury in virtue of laws passed by our federal Parliament upon the advice of our responsible Cabinet.
Last year, the people of Canada were called upon to elect new members of our House of Commons. The citizens of the Dominion had the undoubted constitutional right to pass condemnation on the ministers and on the members of Parliament who had voted for the participation in the war with men and money. They could have elected a new House of Commons to discontinue such participation and recall our army from Europe. But had they not the equally undoubted right to do what they have done by such a solemn expression of a decided and matured opinion:—approve and order to fight until victory is won?
In accepting with deep gratitude the noble and patriotic support we, Canadians, were giving her in the most terrible crisis of her Sovereign existence, was England in any way violating any of our cherished constitutional privileges? No sensible, no reasonable, no unprejudiced man can so pretend. The case being such as it is, there is not the shadow of common sense in the assertion that Canada is taxed without representation for Imperial war purposes.
Colonial Representation.
If the question of Colonial representation is raised at the special Imperial Conference to be held as soon as possible after the war, Mr. Bourassa and his friends will not be welcomed to cry if it is settled very differently from their wishes, after their unwise clamour for an excursion into the unknown.
The question of the readjustment of the constitutional relations of the component parts of the Empire, when duly brought up, will very likely take a wide range, so far at least as consideration goes. What will be the conclusions arrived at, nobody knows.
Pending that time, any one is allowed to express his own views. I thought proper to explain mine in my book dedicated to the French Canadians. I now summarize them as follows:—
Would it be advisable to have the Colonies represented in the present Imperial Parliament? After full consideration of the question, I must say that I have finally dismissed it from my mind as utterly impracticable. Can it be supposed for a moment that the electors of Great Britain would agree to have the Dominions overseas and India represented in their House of Commons, to participate in the government of the United Kingdom for all purposes? With representation in the present British House of Commons, would the Colonies be also represented in the British Cabinet, to advise the Crown on all matters respecting the good government of England?
Would the Colonies be represented according to their population in the British House of Commons? If they were, India alone would have a number of representatives five times larger than all the other parts of the Empire.
Is it within the range of possibility that the people of Great Britain would consent to colonial representatives interfering, even controlling the management of their internal affairs, whilst they would have no say whatever in the internal government of the Colonies?
Would the colonial ministers in the British Cabinet be constitutionally responsible to the people of the United Kingdom without holding their mandate from them?
Such a system would be so absurd, so radically impossible, that it is not necessary to argue to prove that it would not work for one single year.
In my opinion, Colonial representation would be practicable only with the creation of a new truly Imperial Parliament, the present British Parliament to continue to exist but with constitutional powers reduced to the management of the internal affairs of the United Kingdom. If such is the scheme of the "Nationalists," then they are converts to that Imperial Federation which they have vehemently denounced for years, and to the largest measure possible of that Imperialism which has been cursed with their worst maledictions.
If ever complete Imperial Federation becomes an accomplished fact, how will it be organized? Will the new Imperial Parliament consist of one Sovereign, one House of Lords—or Senate—one House of Commons?
Would the Sovereign be King or Emperor? I, for one, would prefer the word Emperor. He might be titled His Majesty the Emperor of the British Commonwealth and the King of Great Britain.
With Imperial Federation—a regime of complete Imperial autonomy—the word "colonies" would no longer apply. Would Canada, Australia, South Africa, India, New Zealand be called Kingdoms, like Prussia, Bavaria, Saxony, Wurtemberg, of the German Empire?
Evidently, the constitutional powers of the new Parliament would be limited to external relations, to strictly Imperial affairs.
The new constitutional organization of the British Empire would combine Imperial, National and Provincial autonomy, each operating within the well defined limits of their respective privileges and attributions.
Under such a regime, there would be three sorts of responsible Cabinets: The Imperial Cabinet responsible to the whole Imperial electorate; the National Cabinets of the component Kingdoms of the British Empire responsible to the electorate of each one of those Kingdoms respectively; the Provincial Cabinets responsible to the electors of each province respectively.
The Royal—or rather Imperial—Prerogative to declare war and to make peace would be exercised upon the responsibility of the Imperial Cabinet.
To the new Imperial Parliament would undoubtedly be given the right and the duty to provide for Imperial defense. They would have to organize an Imperial army and an Imperial navy for the protection of the whole Empire.
The whole of the reorganized Empire would have to pay the whole of the expenditures required for Imperial purposes, defense and others, on land and sea, out of revenues raised by laws of the Imperial Parliament.
Under the new Imperial constitutional regime, would the Imperial Parliament be given the authority to regulate Imperial trade and commerce, the Imperial postal service, &c.?
Would the new Parliament have the exclusive right to approve commercial treaties sanctioned by His Majesty the Emperor, upon the advice of his responsible Imperial Cabinet, without reference whatever to the National Parliaments of the component Kingdoms?
How easily is it ascertained that numerous questions of paramount importance are at once brought to one's mind the moment the vast problem of a new and greater Imperial Commonwealth is considered. Shortsighted and inexperienced are the politicians and the publicists who imagine that it could be given a satisfactory solution after hasty and insufficient deliberations. It is very reassuring to know that the matter necessarily being suggested for consideration at the Imperial War Conference, last year, it was immediately decided, by a "Resolution," adopted on the proposition of the Canadian Prime Minister, "that the readjustment of the constitutional relations of the component parts of the Empire is too important and intricate a subject to be dealt with during the war."
What would be the real meaning of such a radical change? It is worth while to enquire at once.
The British Empire would no longer comprise a Metropolis holding autonomous Colonies and Crown Colonies, but would be organized in a new Sovereign State with an Imperial Parliament to which all the component parts—or Kingdoms—would send representatives.
Indeed it would be a grand, a magnificent, political edifice. But to find shelter under it, Canada would have to renounce her right to decide alone, and freely, to participate, or not, in the wars of the Empire, to determine alone what her military organization should be, to raise ourselves, without the intervention of a superior Parliament, the revenue which we consider proper to apply to Imperial purposes.
I, for one, do not foresee that such an important constitutional change, if ever it is made, will be suddenly brought about, in the dark, as the result of the machinations of a most mischievous Imperialism inspiring our "Nationalists" with shivering terror. It is positively sure that no one holding a responsible political position, or having a responsible standing in the British political world, will ever be mad enough to propose, suggest, or even hint, to build a new Imperial structure without the solid foundation of the deliberate consent of all the Colonies, of all the would-be component parts of such a vast Commonwealth.
How many years of serious discussion, of earnest consideration, did it not take to bring about the creation of the Canadian, Australian and South African Dominions. It cannot be reasonably imagined that the creation of the new and greater Imperial Commonwealth will be a much easier task to accomplish with the necessary conditions of successful durability.
I also thought proper in my French book to write a few lines on the important question respecting the mode of ascertaining the deliberate consent of the Colonies to any intended readjustment of the constitutional relations of the component parts of the Empire, specially if it was proposed to rear a new and larger political fabric. I did so because of late it has been frequently suggested to use the plebiscit or the referendum as the most opportune way to consult public opinion.
I must say that, without going to the length of denying that a public consultation may, in a particular case, be advantageously made by way of a plebiscit or referendum, I am not a strong believer in the efficiency of either proposition, and why? Because I cannot help considering them as more or less contrary to the solid constitutional principle of ministerial responsibility which they would gradually undermine if frequently appealed to.
I feel specially adverse to the plebiscit, because History proves that, by nature, it engenders despotism, cæsarism. Contemporary history offers two striking examples never to be forgotten.
Napoleon the First, whose power was the legitimate result of his wonderful genius and of his eminent services to France, wanted his dynasty to rest on the plebiscitary foundation. Millions of votes—almost the unanimity of French public opinion—answered enthusiastically to his call. He was not such a man as to refuse the chance offered him to exercise a supreme power so manifestly tendered to him. All know that he very soon unbridled his devouring ambition and ruled France with all the might of an absolutism strengthened by the glories of military campaigns truly marvellous. To any attempt at freedom of criticism, he could reply that his Imperial power—mightily supported by his commanding genius—was strongly entrenched on the unanimity of opinion of the French nation expressed by the result of the plebiscit.
Napoleon III, favoured by the immortal prestige of his glorious uncle, but far behind him in genius, though intellectually well gifted, as he proved it during his Presidential term of the second French Republic and during the first years he occupied the Imperial Throne of France, used the plebiscit to have his famous coup d'Etat of the second day of December 1851, prepared with consummate skill and carried out with great energy, ratified by the nation by an overwhelming majority of several millions of votes. He lost no time in drawing the final result of this first great success and in reaching the term of his ambition. The tide of popular enthusiasm was all flowing his way, carrying him to the Throne elevated for his uncle who had lost it after the hurricane which exhausted its strength at Waterloo. On the second of December of the following year—1852—the second French Empire was proclaimed to the international world. Following the example and the precedent of the first Bonaparte, Napoleon III also decided to use the plebiscit to legitimate his Imperial power. He triumphantly carried the day by some seven millions of votes—almost the unanimous voice of the French people.
Thus, in less than half a century, after having twice tried the Republican system of government, and, in both cases, having overdone by deplorable excesses the experiment of Political Liberty—more specially during the years of terrorism of the first Republic—France, by a regular reaction, went back to the other extreme, and reestablished arbitrary power not, in the two instances, upon the principle of the Divine Right of the ancient Monarchy, but on that of the Sovereignty of the people, as expressed by the certain will of the whole nation. But absolutism, whether the outcome of Divine Right or of popular sovereignty, is always the same and steadily works against the true principles of Political Liberty.
It is a great mistake to suppose that absolutism is possible only under monarchical institutions. The terrorist republican epoch, in France, from 1792 to 1795, was absolutism of the worst kind, really with a vengeance. As much can be said of the present political situation in Russia, which has substituted revolutionary absolutism to that of the decayed Imperial regime, suddenly brought to a tragic end by the pressure of events too strong for its crumbling fabric, shaken to its foundation by a most unwise reactionary movement which only precipitated its downfall, instead of averting it, as extravagantly expected by the Petrograd Court, which betrayed Russia in favour of Germany, and unconsciously opened the road which led the weak and unfortunate Czar to his lamentable fate.
In my humble opinion, plebiscitary cæsarism is not compatible with a system of ministerial responsibility for all the official acts of the Sovereign.
The frequent use of the plebiscit would certainly tend to diminish in the mind of political leaders the true sense of their responsibility. It would too often offer an easy way out of an awkward position without the consequence of having to give up power.
If I understand right the real meaning of the two words: plebiscit and referendum, the first would be used to try and ascertain how public opinion stands upon any given question of public policy, of proposed public legislation: the second would be employed for the ratification by the electorate of a law passed by Parliament. I have less objection to the second system which, in reality, is an appeal from Parliament to the Electorate. But to the well practised, the adverse vote of a majority of the electors should have the same result as a vote of the majority of the House of Commons rejecting an important public measure upon the carrying of which the Cabinet has ventured their existence.
Without the immediate resignation of the ministers meeting with a reverse in a referendum, I consider that ministerial responsibility would soon become a farce destructive of constitutional government. The defeat of a Cabinet in a referendum would be equivalent to one in general elections and should bear out the same consequence.
Surely, no one having some clear notions of what ministerial responsibility means, will pretend for a moment that a Cabinet who, on being defeated in the House of Commons, advises the Sovereign—or his representative in Canada—to dissolve Parliament for an appeal to the people, could remain in power if the Electorate approved of the hostile stand taken by the House of Commons.
I can see no difference whatever in the meaning of an hostile referendum vote and that following a regular constitutional appeal from an adverse majority of the popular House of representatives. In both cases, the downfall of the defeated ministers should be the result.
From the above comments, I draw the sound conclusion, I firmly believe, that any important readjustment of the constitutional relations of the Colonies with Great Britain, should be first ratified by the actual Parliaments of the Dominions and subsequently by the electors of those Dominions. But I am also strongly of opinion that the ratification by the electorate should be taken upon the ministerial responsibility of the Cabinet who would have advised the Sovereign and asked Parliament to approve the proposed readjustment. It would be the safest way to have the Cabinet to consider the question very seriously before running the risk of a popular defeat which would have to be followed by their resignation.
Another most important reason to quiet the fears of our "alarmists" at an impending wave of flooding Imperialism, is that any radical change in the constitutional relations of England with her Colonies for the unity and consolidation of the Empire, should be adopted by the Parliaments and the Electorates of all the Colonies to be affected by the new conditions.
Consequently, from every standpoint the Dominions and the Empire herself are guaranteed against the dangers of rashness in changing the present status of the great British Commonwealth.
The Far Off Future.
Though it may be of little use, and perhaps perplexing, to look too far ahead to try and foresee what the distant future has in store for the generations to come, still a simple call to common sense tells one that the political destinies of any Commonwealth are, in a long course of time, largely and necessarily shaped by the increases in population and wealth, irrespective of the actual more or less harmonious working of present and immediately prospective constitutional institutions.
Broadly speaking, was it to be supposed, for instance, that the two wide continents of America would have, when peopled by hundreds of millions, continued in a condition of vassalage to the European continent, though owing their discovery and early settlements to European genius and enterprise? No doubt the growing national families of the New World would have liked a much longer stay under the roofs where they were born, had they received better and kinder treatment from their fatherly States. But at best the hour of separation would only have come later, postponed as it would have been by the bonds of enduring affection made more lasting by mutual good relations. Do we not see, almost daily, desolated homes often the sad result of senseless misunderstandings, or of guilty outbursts of intemperate passions? Yet, family home life, even when blessed by the inspiring smile of a lovely wife, the sweet voice of a devoted mother, the manly and Christian example of a good father, the affectionate sentiments of well bred children, is far too short under the most favourable circumstances. And why? Because it has to follow the Divine decree ordering separation for the building of new homes, to keep Humanity advancing towards the final conclusion of her earthly existence.
Had the American colonies been favoured by the constitutional liberties the Dominion of Canada enjoys, they would not have revolted and British connection would have endured many years longer. Still, one cannot conclude that those British provinces, realizing the marvellous development all can witness, would have for ever agreed to be satisfied with their colonial status. When they would have grown taller and bigger than the mother-country, most likely Great Britain herself would have taken the initiative of a friendly separation followed by a close alliance which would have perpetuated the familial bond actually so happily restored.
As prophesied by Sir Erskine May, more than half a century ago, in speaking of the probable future of the then British colonies, the American Republic would have grown out of the dependencies of the British Empire.
And to-day, when the United States are doing such a gigantic effort, conjointly with the whole British Empire, to save Humanity from German cruel domination, England, to use the very words of the distinguished writer and historian just cited, "may well be prouder of the vigorous freedom of her prosperous son than of a hundred provinces subject to the iron rule of British pro-consuls."
The possibilities of the material development of the Dominions of Canada, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa—without counting India and the lesser colonies—on account of their immense natural resources, are such as to justify very great hopes for their future. The time will come when they will number together a much larger population than the United Kingdom. Will the British Empire, as foreseen by one of the greatest political minds Canada has produced, declared by his chief and worthy opponent the equal to the celebrated William Pitt, then develop into a grand Commonwealth of nations.
If so, as wrote Sir Erskine May, England "will reflect, with exultation, that her dominion ceased, not in oppression and bloodshed but in the expansive energies of freedom, and the hereditary capacity of her manly offspring for the privileges of self-government."
Several generations will certainly rise and disappear before such an important question, looming far off in the future, is likely to be—if ever—raised requiring a practical solution. But foreseeing such a distant possibility, it is still more our bounden duty to be true to our present and prospective obligations for many years to come, as foreshadowed by the actual course of events shaping themselves in the sense of the consolidation of the Empire which may never be really dissolved even by the separation of her manly offspring. Family bonds, strengthened by deep affection, are not broken because the faithful boy, grown up a healthy and strong man, leaves to go under his own blessed roof, taking with him to his last day the cherished recollections of the happy days he has passed in the equally blessed parental home.
One of our most ardent desires must be that our successive generations of children be so well trained to the intelligent and patriotic use of Political Liberty, as to accumulate, in due course of time, an admirable heritage of sound principles of self-government enriched by the honourable examples of our faithful loyalty to the Mother land never grudged to her, but given with overflowing measure, not only as a matter of duty, but also as a reward from grateful subjects for the regard and respect always paid to their constitutional rights and privileges.
If such is ever the natural outcome of our political achievements, the vast Empire reared with such a great success would truly survive separation, being merely transformed into a splendid galaxy of independent States still bound together by the strong ties created by centuries of reciprocal devotedness. It would constitute a real league of nations working in concert and with grandeur for the peace and the prosperity of the whole world.
A Machiavellian Proposition.
On reading Mr. Bourassa's pamphlet entitled:—Yesterday, To-day, To-morrow, I discovered what I have qualified a Machiavellian proposition. What Machiavellism means is well known. It expresses the views of that most corrupt and contemptible politician and publicist, called Machiavel, born at Florence, in 1649.
At page 140 of the above mentioned pamphlet, Mr. Bourassa wrote:—
"I will speak my mind openly—je vous livre toute ma pensée—: if in default of Independence, I claim Imperial representation, it is because it would weaken the military organization of England,—l'armature de guerre de l'Angleterre—precipitate the dissolution of her Empire, hasten the day of deliverance, for us and for the whole world."
Such are the loyal sentiments expressed by the "Nationalist" leader. He clamours for the Imperial representation of the Colonies, for the solemnly avowed object to use the privilege for the destruction of the Empire. To achieve this end he declares that the military power of England must first be weakened.
No wonder then that he started his "Nationalist" campaign by fighting with all his might the two successive proposals of contribution to the great military naval fleet of Great Britain.
No wonder that he opposed Canada's intervention in favour of England in the South African war.
No wonder that from the outbreak of the hostilities, in 1914, until the day when he was shut up by the Order-in-Council censuring all disloyal speaking and writing detrimental to the winning of the war, he has tried to move heaven and earth to prevent Canada's participation in the conflict.
He tells his countrymen that if he has become a convert to Imperial representation—in other words, Imperial Federation—it is because he considers it would be the best way of ruining the Empire and of delivering, not only Canada, but the whole world from British domination.
For fear that the French Canadians, whom he especially wished to influence, would not be very easily caught in the disloyal trap, he tries hard to prevail upon them by the following reasons:—
"If we are not sufficiently clear-sighted and energetic to work for this salutary object by the most constitutional, the most British, means at our disposal, others, happily, will do it for us.
"The English-Canadians, the Australians, the New Zealanders persistingly claim representation in the government of the Empire. When the war is over, their claims will be reaffirmed with increased ampleness and energy. The Indians (les Hindous) themselves will do the same. Shall we remain alone to rot stupidly (croupir béatement) in colonial abjection."
Without the slightest doubt, there are many English-Canadians, Australians, New Zealanders, South Africans, Indians, in favour of Colonial Imperial representation. The number is increasing and likely to increase. But Mr. Bourassa is absolutely, I might as well say, absurdly, mistaken, if he really believes that they do so for his own purpose of destroying the British Empire. They want the very reverse: their object is to consolidate the Empire, not to dissolve her. They will not accept as a very flattering compliment Mr. Bourassa's charge that their desire to strengthen the British Commonwealth proves that they prefer to continue stupidly rotting in colonial abjection rather than work for their deliverance from British domination.
But what in the world has brought the "Nationalist" leader to the conclusion that the surest way to save Canada from the peril of Imperialism was to secure Imperial representation for the treasonable purpose, on entering the fort, to pull down the flag and destroy the whole Empire? To frighten his French Canadian compatriots with terror at the slightest move in favour of an increased Imperialism, he waves before them, with wild gesticulation, any and every extravagant writings he lays his hand on preaching a ridiculous expansion of Imperialist aspirations. He is perhaps the only man in Canada who has read a most absurd work which he pretends to have been written by a General named Lea, and from which, in horror stricken, he summarized a few unbelievable views.
Mr. Bourassa said that General Lea, gifted with an astonishing foresight, predicted all that was happening in Europe and in the world. The General, again affirms Mr. Bourassa, has proved in a striking way that if England wishes to maintain her Empire and to continue exercising her domination over the world she must make the sacrifice of her political liberties and of those of her Colonies, abolish the Parliamentary and Representative Governments and resolutely adopt the ironed regime of the Romans of old, of the Germans of the present day.
Once so brilliantly inspired, General Lea went on in a splendid manner. He added, says Mr. Bourassa, that England must transform her Empire into a vast armed camp, must keep in her own hands all the powers of command, must subdue all the non-British races to the supremacy of the Anglo-Saxons united together by the unique thought of dominating the world by brutal force.
These views—so says Mr. Bourassa—are to be found in a book entitled: "The Day of the Saxon." If they have been really expressed with the full sense given to them by Mr. Bourassa's translation into French, I cannot say less than that they are most absurd, most extravagant. The Nationalist leader would have proved himself a much more sensible, a wiser man, if, laughing at such senseless notions, he had refrained from quoting those lines for the purpose of telling the French-Canadians that like all non-British races on earth they were doomed to be devoured—flesh and bones—by the voracious Anglo-Saxons bent on swallowing humanity. And to save them from such a cruel fate, he implores them to clamour for Imperial representation with the criminal intent of betraying their trust, and to use the honourable privilege they would be granted to ruin the Empire they would swear to maintain and defend. So far as the political program of General Lea is concerned, we have not yet learned that its benevolent author was doing much in the war to carry it out. If I had the honour to meet the General, being presented, I presume, by Mr. Bourassa, I would ask him, first, when and where he has discovered that England was dominating the world.
I know that there exists a great England holding a large situation on earth. Her Empire extends to almost a fourth of the globe. Her Sovereignty reigns over nearly four hundred million of human beings; a truly beneficient Sovereignty, because it rules according to the wishes, to the opinions of its subjects, managing their own affairs in virtue of the freest political institutions in the whole world.
I know of no England dominating, or even aspiring to dominate, the world. Such an England only exists in the heated imagination of that General Lea and in the minds of all those, like the Nationalist leader, who are, or feign to be, tortured by the bugbear of military Imperialism of the old Roman ironed type.
As long as three-fourths of the earth will remain independent of the British Empire, under numerous sovereignties, England's pretended domination of the world will ever only be an extravagant dream.
Wishing England to continue her domination of the world, General Lea, no doubt to please Mr. Bourassa, was bound to suggest the means to do so. Let us analyze them.
1.—England must make the sacrifice of her political liberties and of those of her Colonies.
2.—She must abolish parliamentary and representative governments.
It is beyond conception that Mr. Bourassa should have for one minute seriously considered such absurd notions.
I would enjoy attending large public meetings in Great Britain, where General Lea would propose to British free men the sacrifice of all their political liberties, to witness the rather warm reception he would be favoured with. I am sure he would have to rush out of the halls much faster than he would have walked in.
Where is the sane man who really believes that, dreaming of a domination of the world by brute force, British free men would consent to do away with their Parliamentary system to transform the whole of the Empire into an armed camp? Such a proposition was sheer madness, a most foolish talk, unworthy of the slightest attention from sensible people. Mr. Bourassa was very wrong in giving it publicity, and very unwise, to say the least, in using it to frighten his French-Canadian compatriots by blandishing before their eyes that ridiculous specimen of the phantom of Imperialism.
Is it to be supposed for one single instant that the British people, so rightly proud of their political liberties, and of their representative government, which after centuries of efforts and trials they have successfully brought to such perfection, basing its future permanency on the solid rock of ministerial responsibility, would consent to sacrifice them for the sake of a vain, a ridiculous, an odious and impracticable scheme to dominate the world by brute force?
It is ten times worse than madness to believe that the British people who have torn away from the British soil the last root of ABSOLUTISM, would, for any earthly reason, renounce their most legitimate conquests, to rebuild, on the burning ruins of their most sacred rights, an ironed political regime of the old Roman or present German type! Is it to be believed that they would agree to replace, on the glorious Throne which they protect with all the might of their loyal affection, their present constitutional Sovereign by a new Nero or another Wilhelm II?
If it is with the purpose of preventing such a dire calamity that the Nationalist leader became a convert to Imperial Federation, he is absolutely losing his time and his energy in promoting such a regime. If ever Imperial Federation becomes a fact, we can all rest perfectly assured that the new Imperial Parliament will not vote their own destruction to be replaced by an autocratic and tyrannical government.
I hope that Mr. Bourassa is the only believer, all over Canada, in the assertion of General Lea that England's aspirations is to dominate the world by brute force. It is a most injurious, I can say, calumnious, charge. All know, or should know, that England was the first nation to completely abolish slavery over all her Empire; that has granted, in the largest possible measure, Political Liberty to all her Colonies; that guarantees to all races the same rights and privileges, never interfering in colonial internal management. He is wilfully guilty of a calumnious charge the man who accuses the British race to aspire to dominate the world by an ironed regime, when he should know that Great Britain ran the risk of a crushing defeat, in refusing to organize a standing army of several millions of trained officers and men.
A Treasonable Proposal.
The Nationalist leader wants the French-Canadians to support his scheme in order to work for the salutary object of demolishing the British Empire by the so very constitutional means of Imperial Federation. How he has failed to realize the infamous kind of suggestion he was making will always be a wonder to all those reading it.
If, sooner or later, Great Britain and her Colonies are politically organized as an Imperial Federation, the Province of Quebec will have several French-Canadian representatives in the new Greater Imperial Parliament. The Nationalist leader wants those French-Canadian Members to go to London pledged to destroy the Empire to which they will have to swear allegiance and fealty before crossing the threshold of the House of Commons and taking their seats. Does he not understand that any French-Canadian doing what he wishes and recommends would deliberately perjure himself? Does he not comprehend that he was paying a rather poor compliment to his British countrymen from Canada, Australia, New Zealand and India, when he affirmed, without the shadow of truth, that they would elect to the Imperial Parliament members holding the mandate from them to work for the dissolution of the Empire?
I notice, with surprise, that in the enumeration he has drawn of the future destroyers of the future federated British Empire, he has not convened his friends, the Boers, to his holy task. Does he not consider them as farsighted and energetic as the others he has pompously mentioned with such childish illusion. Or, has he not, unconsciously, paid them the high compliment to suppose that they would be unable to accomplish the treasonable act which, with confidence, and even certainty, he expects from the others. Our countrymen, the Boers of South Africa, have, by a large majority, become so loyal to the Crown, to the Empire,—and they have so gloriously proved it since the outbreak of the war—that it is manifestly evident that they are very well satisfied with their present position, that they have dispelled from their minds all bitter recollections of the struggle which, a few years ago, finally brought them within the Empire they are doing such a noble effort to maintain and save from the German tyrannical grasp.
The following views, recently expressed, in London, by Mr. Burton, Minister of Railways and Harbours in the Government of South Africa, a leading public man of the far away sister Dominion, is refreshing reading after Mr. Bourassa's outrageous outburst above quoted. He said:—
"One of the motives which prompted South African support of the British cause was the fact, which appealed not only to the English-speaking population, but moved the Dutch population—the fact that the British cause had embraced all the progressive peoples of the world. It was not Britain's wealth, or influence, or power that appealed to them; it was the priceless privilege of the maintenance of our constitutional liberties. He could illustrate their attitude by a single incident which had come within his own experience in connection with a Transvaaler, born and bred, whom he had questioned as to his future in the military service in which he was an officer. The officer replied that he had been through the German South-West African campaign, that he was going through the German East African campaign, and when that was done he intended making for Flanders. He added: "I mean that as a man I could not act otherwise in view of the treatment dealt out to us by Great Britain. If she had not done what she did for us I should not have stirred hand or foot.""
No one need be surprised that the South African Dominion is suffering a little from the "Nationalist" fever, a disease infesting many countries, in various degrees, and with time cured by the safe remedy of the sound common sense of the people. We know too much about it ourselves, after nearly eighty years of free responsible government, to wonder at the fact that a small minority of the Dutch South Africans—from the Boer element—is not yet fully reconciled with their lot under the British Crown. They apparently dream of Republicanism, in sullen recollection of a recent past which only some of the present generation still regret, but which the next will strive to cherish only as the stepping stone to their actual status so full of good promises for their future. The few South Africans suffering from this virus are almost exclusively recruited amongst the populations of the late Republics of South Africa. The people of the provinces of Natal and Cape Colony, with a long experience of British rule, have no faith in the "republican nationalism" desired by some, which does not in the least appeal to their good sense and their sound political foresight. Mr. Burton believes "that the instigators of the movement are looking for votes more than for anything else."
Mr. Burton, moreover, truly said:—
"It was part of the history of all countries that what was called "Nationalism" made a powerful appeal to the finer classes of young men. It was an admirable sentiment, but what was complained of in South Africa was that the sentiment was expended upon a wrong conception of "nationalism" and what nationhood should be. In South Africa it was restricted, it was sectional, and practically racial. The energy and activity displayed were being spent upon a mistaken cause."
Every word of this quotation applies with still greater force to the "nationalism" of the Province of Quebec.
Mr. Burton goes on saying:—
"It was the cause of South Africa first—as it should be—but it was more than that. It was South Africa first, last, and all the time, and South Africa alone. He and those who were associated with him could not accept that view. It would mean ruinous chaos in South Africa. They had obligations to Great Britain. It was not merely that they had received recognition from the beginning that their Constitutional cause was just. It was not merely that Great Britain in its relation with South Africa had been actuated by that beneficent influence which the British system of liberty effected under the sway of its flag throughout the world, but it was that the people of the Union realized the true inward significance of the struggle in which the Empire was engaged. They knew that the world's freedom was at stake, and with it their own. The people in South Africa had long ago awakened to this great fact, and they were realizing it more and more as the war went on. When he had spoken of putting "South Africa first" as the motto of a party he wished it to be understood that he and the people of South Africa generally accepted it, as every nation was bound to accept it. But they also realized that their future as a nation and their freedom as a nation were at stake, and that their interests were bound up with those of the British Empire.
"It was because they realized that fact that the Government of the Union had in these troublous times nailed its flag to the mast. It was the honourable course, the right course, and they had stuck to it through good report and ill report, and through much trial and sacrifice. His last message as representative of the Union Government was: Upon that attitude of the Union Government they might depend to the very last. They might be forced—he did not see any present prospect of it—to abandon office, but so long as they were in office they would adhere absolutely in the letter and in the spirit to the undertaking they had given and would continue in the path they had followed hitherto."
Sensible, truly political and patriotic, noble words, indeed. Are they not the complete expression of the powerful wave of enthusiasm which spread throughout the length and breadth of the whole British Dominions overseas, when, after exhausting to the last drop her efforts to maintain peace, Great Britain, in honour bound, threw her gallant sword in the balance in which the destinies of the world were to be weighed during the frightful years of the most terrific thundering storm ever witnessed by man?
How weighty those words are is evident. They are still more so by the fact that they positively and firmly express the views and sentiments of the two most trusted and illustrious leaders of the Boers, who, both of them, took a very prominent part in the South African war, as generals commanding the forces of the South African Republics: General Botha and General Smuts.
General Botha is, and has been for several years, the Prime Minister of the South African Dominion. General Smuts is minister of Defence in General Botha's Cabinet. He is the representative of the Government of the Union of South Africa in the Imperial War Cabinet. In June, 1917, he was, moreover, "invited to attend the meetings of the British War Cabinet during his stay in the British Isles."
Both General Botha and General Smuts have often spoken about the present relations of their great Dominion with England. The press of the whole British Empire has published their speeches, most favourably commented by that of the Allied nations. In every case, they were brilliant with true and staunch loyalty, worthy of the real statesmen the speakers are, in every sense fully up to what could be expected from the illustrious military and political leaders of a valiant race deserving the respect of all by her heroism of the past and her loyalty of present days.
If ever Mr. Bourassa, as I hope he will, reads the above quoted lines, I am sure he will find therein every reason to be satisfied with his decision not to call upon the South Africans to join with him and those he has summoned, in the unworthy task of bringing on Imperial Federation for the very treasonable purpose of destroying the British Empire. For once, his judgment did not fail him.
Nobody knows if representatives from the whole present colonial Dominions and India will ever sit, in London, as members of a new Imperial Parliament. It is most unlikely, at all events, that any one, merely to please Mr. Bourassa, will help building such a political structure with the criminal and treasonable purpose of throwing it at once to the ground with a tremendous crash. But we can all safely join in the affirmation that in the event of such a great historical fact being accomplished as that of a federated British Commonwealth, the representatives of the Colonies overseas will meet in the Imperial Capital to do their duty with loyalty and honour. I have no hesitation whatever to pledge my word that the French Canadian representatives in London would be amongst the most loyal to their Sovereign and to the Empire, the most true to their oath.
I solemnly protest against the injurious imputation the Nationalist leader has addressed to my French Canadian compatriots in charging them with the desire to rot stupidly in colonial abjection. Let us repulse the unfounded accusation from an elevated standpoint. I feel the utmost contempt for all kinds of narrow prejudices, of blind fanaticism. Nations, like individuals, all pursue Providential destinies in this human world. There is no more abjection in the colonial status than in any other. Canada is a British colony by the decree of Providence. Every nation—like every individual—has duties to perform in any situation she may occupy in the course of historical events. Abjection is not the result of the faithful discharge of duty, however trying the circumstances may be. It would be in its violation with the guilty intent to betray.
A hundred times better it is to remain a colony as long as the Supreme Ruler of the world will so order, than to attempt to break through by the dark plot of an infamous conspiration.
Let our destinies follow their natural development, striving to the best of our ability and patriotism to have them to achieve the happy conditions which we enjoy. Any man aspiring to a legitimate influence on the mind of our compatriots, must encourage them, by words and deeds, to faithfully accomplish their daily task in showing them the advantages of their position. Inconveniences are the outgrowth of any political standing. In the true Christian spirit, trials are everywhere to be met with. Sacrifice, when necessary, ennobles national as well, and as much, as individual life.
It is very wrong on the part of any one to trouble the mind of our compatriots in purposely exhibiting to their view discouraging pictures of the difficulties of their situation. Their national existence is not, never will, never can be, exclusively rosy. Be it as it may, who can pretend, in good faith, that there exists, on the surface of the globe, a population, all things considered, happier than our own. Our race freely grows on a fertile and blessed soil which she cultivates with her vigorous and intelligent daily toils, which she waters from the sweat of her brow, to which she clings by all the affections of her heart, by the noblest aspirations of her soul. On week days, proudly working on her domains; on Sundays, kneeling before the Altars of her Church, fervently thanking Him for past graces and gifts, she prays to the Supreme Giver of all earthly goods to continue to favour her with peace, with order, in the legitimate enjoyment of her liberties, together with the moral, intellectual and material progress she is striving to deserve.
Guilty is the man who tortures them with chimerical aspirations, who advises them to conspire against the legitimate authority which she must, and will, respect in spite of the seductions attempted to have her to fail in her duty.