CHAPTER VI.
Unity of the Empire.
1. It cannot be said that such is the unity of the British Empire that go where you will in it, you will find the same amount of liberty as at home, and exercise as large a share in the making of the laws. That can only be said if you go to one of the self-governing colonies, like Canada and Australia. But wherever you go within the limits of the empire, you may be pretty sure of being governed by law and not by caprice, and if wronged, of getting justice in a court of law. The empire stands for law and justice. These are two strands of the cord that unites the whole empire, independently of race and colour.
2. But the colonies which are peopled mainly by our own kinsmen enjoy with us the advantage of liberty in its fullest sense. It is worth while considering what is included in that word liberty. It means the right to form our own opinion on all subjects, and to express the same freely, without injury to others, in speaking or writing. It means the right for employers and workmen, like buyers and sellers, to settle their own terms without interference. It means the right to worship God according to conscience without having to suffer penalties or disabilities on account of our religion. It means the right to be governed according to law, and to be judged without fear or favour; and above all, the right to take part in levying taxes and making new laws by means of our representatives in Parliament.
3. So far as a people enjoys the right last named, it may in a real sense be said to govern itself. And it is this self-government which constitutes the crown of liberty. Only it must be remembered that it is not every nation, nor all in any nation, that are fit to govern themselves. Some nations are like children, not wise enough to know what is for their own good. Every nation, indeed, passes through the stages of childhood and youth before it reaches an age when it becomes capable of managing its own affairs with discretion.
4. In the colonies where men of our own race have chiefly settled, the period of childhood and youth has soon passed away, because I suppose their ancestors had spent a long period in these stages in the old country. It is astonishing on looking back a hundred years to see how much remained to be done in the cause of freedom even in England, which is now able to boast of being free and the mother of free nations. The mention of a few of the evils then existing will show how far we have travelled on the path of freedom since the centenarian of to-day was born.
5. The slave trade still went on, and slaves were still employed in our colonies; Roman Catholics were still at a serious disadvantage on account of their religion; children were permitted to work in mines and factories, however young, and even to climb chimneys for the purpose of sweeping them; crimes like stealing a sheep or a horse were punishable by hanging; trade was in fetters—scarcely was a thing imported duty free, even wheat from abroad was heavily taxed.
6. For a nation to be free the law must be supreme, and the people must have a share in making it through their representatives. Yet, a century ago, such large towns as Leeds, Manchester, and Birmingham, sent no members to Parliament at all; whilst old decayed boroughs sent two. And the franchise, or right to vote at Parliamentary Elections, was limited to a privileged few. Thus one class of the people made the laws which all were expected to obey. These blots were removed by three Reform Bills, which were passed at intervals of twenty or thirty years.
7. It is worth observing from this example how gradual have been the changes made in our Constitution, or system of government. We seem to have learnt the lesson that true freedom can only be obtained when it is allowed to grow, when time is given for it to strike its roots deep in the life of the people. For the enjoyment of real freedom the law must be adapted to the wishes as well as the needs of the governed; that is to say, it must be moulded by public opinion, and the two must grow together so as to fit in with each other.