Unjust "Nationalist" Grievances Against England.
At the end of the very first page of Mr. Bourassa's pamphlet, entitled:—What do we owe England?—in French:—Que devons-nous à l'Angleterre?,—The following lines are found:—(Translation.)
British Imperialism, in its concrete and practical form, can be defined in ten words: the active participation by the Colonies in the wars of England. It is almost precisely the definition I gave of it as early as the days of the African war. It is exact. Considered from a larger point of view, from its profound causes and far reaching consequences, British Imperialism calls for a more ample definition. Its object is to have Great Britain dominate the world by means of the organization and concentration of all the Military Forces of the Empire—both Sea and Land Forces—; it means the gradual annihilation, or at least the enslaving of all the divers nationalities constituting the British Empire, in order to bring about the World's supremacy of the Anglo-Saxon race, of her thoughts, of her language, of her political conceptions, of her commerce and her wealth. Its object is to crush all competitions, all internal and external oppositions. It is the German Ideal; it is the Roman Ideal. It is the Imperialism of all countries, at all times, enlarged to the limits of the monstrous pretensions of Pan-Anglo-Saxonism.
All the propositions of the above quotation do not bear, for one single instant, the light of historical research, of reason, even of common sense.
I challenge Mr. Bourassa, and any one else, to read the speeches and the writings of all those who have studied the great question of the future of the British Empire, and to detect therein one single word to justify the assertion that the organization and concentration of all the Military Forces of the Empire have for their object to help England to dominate the world.
I have already abundantly proved that England never aspired to dominate the world. I answered Mr. Bourassa's unfounded propositions as follows:—
1—I will surely be allowed to say that for nearly the last fifty years, I have done my best efforts to keep myself well informed with the opinions expressed by the most authorized political men of the Mother Country—of all parties—by the most renowned publicists, by the most distinguished writers of the great English press. I have yet to read one sentence leading me to suppose that the mind of any one of them was haunted by the foolish hope of Great Britain's domination of the world. Many of them have spoken and written to persuade their countrymen of the growing urgency to consider the most effective measures to be adopted to defend the Empire, in view of the efforts of other nations—notably Germany—to strengthen their military organizations. No one advised them to incur the most heavy sacrifices in order to dominate the world. They had too much political sense to believe that such a ridiculous scheme could ever be carried out.
2—What the "Nationalist" leader calls British Imperialism never had for its objective the gradual suppression, or at least the enslaving of the divers nationalities constituting the British Empire.
Such an assertion is nothing less than a stroke of the imagination which recent history utterly refutes, proving, as it does, the very reverse, as follows:—
A—The creation, by Imperial Charters, of the great autonomous federal Canadian, Australian, South African Dominions.