The Colonial Premiers

The Colonial Premiers

Mr. Osborn offers a sketch of the seven colonial premiers now in attendance on the Imperial conference. A forecast is given of the stand which every consultant will take at the convention.

E. B. OSBORN IN month-to-month evaluate

THERE may also be little doubt as to which of the 4 "fundamental topics" on the agenda paper of the Imperial convention, which met on April 15, is considered as most vitally vital through the seven Premiers from past "the dim strait wall of wandering wave," who are to be the nation's visitors. the majority of them are smartly aware that only the materials for Empire-building, and never an specific Empire, are indicated by means of the scattered purple patches on the realm's map. It follows, within the opinion of this majority, that the time for establishing an Imperial Council is not yet come, and that no co-ordinated scheme of Imperial defence is conceivable for the current. it is a waste of time talking over the kind and matter oí a constitution for a polity that is as yet basically an Empire in becoming. The cloth bonds which connect the sister States and the mother country need to first of all be strengthened, and that conclusion can simplest be completed effectually by way of capacity of treaties of mutual selection. That a executive created via the unthinking mob anticipating panem et circenses (the massive loaf and skilled football) is unwilling to accept as true with their proposals severely should not stay away from us from when you consider that our visitors as protagonists of Imperial choice, the techniques of each on that tremendous topic being extra or less coloured via his political ambiance.

British North the usa is the oldest wing of the Empire, for which cause precedence over the relaxation will be granted to its representatives in the war towards insular free exchange. additionally, not one of the dwelling files of Imperial historical past is' rather so entertaining as Sir Wilfrid Laurier, who has now held the Canadian Premiership for eleven years. it is a characteristic of the Canadian americans to select the first rate man for their Premier, if there be a person who's obviously enhanced than the relaxation of the gang

within the political arena, devoid of troubling much concerning the birthday party label which he wears. a little anecdote will serve as an example this factor. After a well-known election all the way through the lengthy reign (187&-96) of the Conservative party, an elector in a small Ontario city, who disapproved of the country wide coverage for the time being, changed into asked by means of a friend to explain why he had long gone back on his political moral sense and voted for the Conservatives. "Political sense of right and wrong and the Conservatives be hanged !" changed into the reply ; "I voted for Sir John A." In 1896, when the Liberal party, which liad been cold welded into harmony by long years in Opposition, changed into lower back to energy, Sir John A. Macdonald had been useless for five years and his successor, Sir John Thompson, the equal of his more famous chief in knowledge of political strategy, though inferior as a tactician, had also handed away. There turned into no commanding personality on the Conservative facet, no personage who might carry the malcontents into line and hold them in the front of the battle. Sir Charles Tupper did his heroic ultimate. seeing that his age and the proven fact that he had been high Commissioner— it's to claim, Canada's Ambassador to the mom nation—and out of politics for many years, the lengthy sequence of his lively crusade speeches proved him possessed of a more than Gladstonian vitality. but he had lost touch along with his celebration ; the energy of political instinct—a high quality no longer just about different from the journalistic instinct—had been misplaced throughout his tenure of an workplace which is above and past the standpoint of a party leader.

The option of the individuals fell on Mr. Wilfrid Laurier, who had performed the thankless assignment of main the Opposition due to the fact that the resignation of Mr. Edward Blake with eloquence, tact, and a satisfactory courtesy which won him the regard, virtually the affectionate regard, of his

most efficient opponent. before he undertook that tricky assignment—infinitely more difficult for a Canadian and a Roman Catholic that it would have been for Sir Richard Cartwright or for the late Mr. Mills, the handiest other possible candidates for the Liberal management—his top-rated of happiness had been that of Edmond Scherer : "to work, to content material

one's self with a bit, to lose with out bitterness, to develop ancient devoid of remorseful about." perhaps no higher praise may well be paid to a frontrunner of the Opposition within the Dominion residence of Commons than to claim that, despite the stress and be concerned of growing his party anew, he saved that most useful in public life. I even have been informed via a continuing observer of his conduct within the Dominion apartment of Commons that he never aroused the wrath of Sir John Macdonald, as changed into often executed by using lesser men with lesser arguments. His ave atque vale for that eager-sighted flesh presser and much-sighted statesman is possibly probably the most memorable of all speeches ever made in the apartment. He admitted the greatness of his opponent, whom he compared with Pitt—one of the crucial most fulfilling ancient parallels ever cautioned—and analyzed it in a method which proved that he knew the historic lion by way of heart. actually to u nderstand the massive and considerable spirit of the man in the days before he grew to become Premier, it is at the least indispensable to read this valedictory—it is to be found in Pope's lifetime of Sir John Macdonald—and his 1877 oration on "Le Liberalism Politique," uttered at Quebec during the ultramontane response, which latter is given in full in Mr. Willison's impressive biography of the Speaker. "En effet," runs a passage in that pivotal utterance, "nous Canadiens francais, nous sommes une race conquise. . . Mais, si nous sommes une

race conquise, nous avons aussi fait une conquête—la conquête de la liberte." it's, and always has been, the executive axiom of Sir Wilfrid Laurier's political creed that the 2nd conquest restores to his people all that changed into misplaced by means of the primary—and something greater. using this axiom as the foundation of his political apply, he stood out from his environment on the eve of the usual election in 1896, when the Manitoban faculties ques-

tion might have revived the old bitterness of a racial and non secular antithesis, as the only viable reconciler of FrenchCanadian and British-Canadian aspirations. at the moment, when it become additionally clear that he had repented of his one incredible mistake—the advocacy of a better business reference to the us—not as a result of repentance changed into a ecocnomic policy, but as a result of he had turn into satisfied that the leading current of Canadian commerce need to run from west to east, and not from south to north, there became no cause "why he may still not be favourite even to one of the "Fathers of Confederation" by a era which notion that the half changed into being performed in too heavy a style. younger Canada gave the more youthful man the possibility he desired, and there is no denying that he has used it with big difference.

Let his checklist right through the past eleven years be considered. within the first place, he has succeeded in settling the query of separate faculties within the Western Provinces. The agreement has been a compromise, which naturally doesn't fulfill the Quebec heirarchy. but it surely averted extra friction between the Federal authority and the Provincial Governments of a very good and growing to be group, and gave gigantic impact to a choice of the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council. additionally, the settlement as embodied within the statutes of Manitoba has worked satisfactorily on the complete. hence a short lived breakdown of the difficult machinery of Confederation was prevented, and a pressure taken off a constitutional hyperlink between super Britain and Canada—i.e., the legal authority of the Privy Council. That the people of Quebec regarded the agreement as equitable for the Roman Catholics of the West turned into demonstrated at the everyday election of 1900, when out of a total representation of sixtyfive he carried fifty-eight seats, as in comparison with forty-eight in 1896, regardless of the indisputable indisputable fact that the Frenchspeaking Canadians did not approve of sending troops to South Africa. In his attitude in Imperial concerns Sir Wilfrid Laurier ha« at all times followed the by way of media between the opinion of Quebec

and the opinion of the bulk in the leisure of the Dominion. As regards the query of a hard and fast contribution in money or guys or warships against the can charge of Imperial defence, his place is that of the typical Canadian, who doesn't yet remember the British Navy, along with its developed touchdown-birthday party—it is to assert, the British army—is the best protection for the integrity of Canada's territory and her business independence. In two concerns of significance in regard to Imperial defence Sir Wilfrid Laurier's excessive warning—a fault of the statesmen of compromise which has grown on him of late years—has definitely prevented him from making the surest use of an opportunity. When ever}* British Canadian from the Atlantic to the Pacific changed into anxious that Canada may still take the lead in providing a contingent for South Africa, he hesitated—and lost a part of his status in all of the Englishspeaking provinces.

once more, in the Dundonald affair he missed a great possibility. In view of the unconstitutional variety of Lord Dundonald's protest against Mr. Fisher's intervention within the appointment of militia officers, he became compelled to dispense with the soldier's features. The speech wherein he justified that determination became, in matter and manner, a rebuke to those of his supporters who amassed in regards to the Minister of Agriculture, after the delivery of his imply and low-pitched rationalization, and sang "he's a daisy." There may also be little doubt that Lord Dundonald selected the ultimate capability to an excellent conclusion when he perpetrated his ancient act of insubordination. The King's coat is not any longer considered, in follow and even in concept, as part and parcel of the Canadian minor flesh presser's patronage. the use of the note "foreigner" in this controversy, so one can at all times be forged up against Sir Wilfrid, turned into a mere sl ip of the tongue of 1 who every now and then thinks in French even when he speaks in English. Sir John Macdonald would definitely have dismissed Lord Dundonald, however he would even have dispensed with the functions of Mr. Fisher— after a decent interval had elapsed to keep the face of the agricultural knowledgeable. As re-

gards preferential exchange, Sir Wilfrid can't justly be accused of an extra of caution. The British option changed into granted via him at the earliest possible second, despite the disapproval of the cupboard Ministers from Quebec, and his first outspoken announcement in want of the precept of Mr. Chamberlain's proposals—it is clear that he thinks a achievable scheme of commercial federation can also be regularly built up with the aid of concurrent legislations or co-ordinated "treaties of commerce"—came at the psychological moment as a full reply to Lord Rosebery's reasoned misinterpretation of Canadian fiscal coverage. On the whole, he need to be reckoned a higher Imperialist than any' Liberal during this nation. since the executive work of his lifestyles —the affirmation of the entente cordiale between the French and British Canadians—is now finished, we ought to now not bitch if he leaves to Mr. W. S. Fielding, heir-apparent to the Liberal management, the le ngthy labor of teaching Canada to feel and act Imperially. within the Canadian confederacy Quebec, more than two thousands and thousands pondering politically as one and enlarging their sphere of political have an impact on devoid of discontinuity, tons as a spash of ink spreads in blottingpaper, continues to be the predominant companion. no one can appreciate the greatness and take into account the limitations of Sir Wilfrid Laurier with out descending to the political standpoint of the habitant who's in, but no longer of, the Empire. take a seat Wilfrid Laurier, as politician, is superb because he can at all times count on the aid of the Quebec countryman, who sees in him a magnified picture—a Brocken spectre, because it have been—of his personal character. he's by means of some distance the optimal man on the planet for that elementary-refined rustic. but as a statesman Sir Wilfrid Laurier is exceptional—the highest quality of all French Canadians which are or had been —a s a result of by sluggish levels, diplomatically, with endless pains, he is main the habitant into a much better aircraft of political considering. There was a time when Sir Wilfrid Laurier become accused of "veiled treason" and a want to spoil the Imperial connection. The charge was false, notwithstanding it continues to be uttered by partisans. but there never become a time when Sir

Wilfrid Laurier became not responsible of a discreetly disguised Imperialism in his dealings with Quebec. Quebec isn't yet transformed to a much wider outlook through his fabulous inconsistency. She sent a mere handful of townsmen to South Africa : she is neither for nor against the consolidation of the Empire. but, if Sir Wilfrid Laurier lives lengthy ample, Quebec will turn into more than passively Imperialist. it will probably well be that the subsequent generation should be energetic in Imperialism. meanwhile we need to be aware that, all stated and accomplished, the French Canadian would sooner die than be drawn into the "orbit" of the USA and swallowed up in that wide welter of mortality, as had been his fellow immigrants in Louisiana.

Howsoever reluctantly, Newfoundland, the first of the' insular stepping-stones to . the transcontinental colony, must some day7 become the tenth province of the Dominion. unless the constructing of the transinsular railway and the institution of steamship traces bringing the "outports" into regular communique with St. John's and the Canadian haven of North Sydney7—all this changed into the work of Mr. R. G. Reid—Newfoundland changed into a mere circuit of fishing hamlets, shut off from the outer world. Then the Newfoundlander appeared eastward toward St. John's, the window wherein the phantasmagoria of British politics may be dimly discerned. His huge lower back became turned flatly on Canada—a land of foreigners, as he believed, who would use his little ones for gun-wadding if he consented to enter Confederation. Now he appears westward for employment between one fishing season and the subsequent, or for capital to use in his small business, and the historic horro r of the mainland and its inhabitants has diminished into mere distrust. The removing of the French condo and the breakdown of the fishing monopoly knowm as "Water road" (from the identify of the "down-along" thoroughfare of the capital) have given him prosperity and a new sense of nationality and renewed courage in the brilliant assignment, the importance of which is not yet favored in his mom Country7, of declaring his appropriate to the possession of the Grand

Banks. That first-rate submerged plateau, thronged with the swift silvery squadrons of innumerable cod, is the Rand of the world's fisheries. it's a British possession with the aid of appropriate of discovery. within the day7s of Elizabeth it became also the scene of a very good annual market, for the reason that the Norman, Breton, and Basque fishing-vessels journeyed thither not handiest to trap cod, the staple victualling for the armies and navies of that age, but also to exchange goods with the English fishing masters by means of means of the make the most of this twofold company, Bristol and different ports of the west country grew into greatness as citadels of commerce and faculties of admiralty. each acre of that plateau is a sunken English churchyard ; every wave out of the white mist is a wandering grave, a shaken pall ; indistinct hie jacets, within the delicate' tongue of Devon or Cornwall, are heard in the wind's passing. I recall to mind the story of the grasp of a "banker" who noticed the ghosts of three fishermen from his personal father's city in Devon sitting on a passing wave and warming themselves within the moonlight. We by no means won a naval fight during which seamen educated amid the perils of these pregnant w7aters didn't play a wonderful part. there have been lots of in Nelson's fleet at Trafalgar, and not a couple of in Villeneuve's. The individuals of Newfoundland, that "sea-girt Devon," are a garrison planted there by way of the forethought of England's genius to watch over and keep for us an business it truly is crucial for the Empire's salvation. To-day the Grand Banks (with the subsidiary shore-fisheries) are more than ever the realm's foremost faculty of seamanship, a component now not to study by means of German drill-books. If Newfoundland "will furnish, below proper laws" (I quote the words of Admiral Sir T. 0. Hopkins, who previously commanded on the North American station) "a tithe of its fa bulous seafaring inhabitants as a naval reserve, it is going to produce a force in volume and first-class unsurpassable anywhere." considering that there has certainly not yet been a desktop-made naval victory in the entire annals of maritime battle, it could be the top of folly if we fail to aid Sir Robert Bond in his efforts to secure for the Em-

pire the control of the Grand Banks fishing business, which takes men of iron and transmutes them into the metal of sea-vigor. it really is the key to Sir Robert's coverage of retaliation against the U.S., which must at some point power the Gloucester fishing trust, an financial parasite, from Newfoundland's territorial waters. The second half of that policy—tariff discrimination towards American imports— will add at least two threads to the nexus of Imperial selection which already encloses the complete of superior Britain—a cocoon which is growing to be wings. The Newfoundland Premier is an suggest of Imperial option, notwithstanding, when the creator met him in 1903 on a journey from St. John's to Toronto, he did not see what the island might provide to clinch a bargain. He is aware of enhanced now. Of all Colonial statesmen, he's essentially the most English and the least abstruse though the fundamental straightforwardness of the man is veiled by means of a curious ly decorative courtesy which proved as "pleasing" to the London shepherdesses within the gala year of 1902 as it changed into "fascinating" to the envoy-collecting hostesses of eclectic Washington. There have to be a lot stuff in a baby-kisser who awakens feminine curiosity in each London and Washington, who is additionally as a lot a chum of the salted fisherfolk of Newfoundland outports as of Theodore Roosevelt. one way or the other he suggests to me a transplanted variant of Viscount St. Aldwyn, and no doubt both guys have the great of pliant obduracy, the need that bends but can't be damaged.

As within the case of British North the united states, so in that of Australasia—the Premiers of a continental and of an insular colony, which have man}' interests in average, are here to bring yet an additional assault on the blind towers of Cobdenism. but there are the reason why New Zealand, unlike Newfoundland, isn't more likely to merge its character in that of its mightier neighbor. Newfoundland can never turn into economically self-aiding—the lands of its indoors, the pasturage of the caribou, are unsuitable for agriculture—whereas New Zealand can produce all of the necessities and indispensable luxuries of up to date civili-

zation within its own sea-frontiers. In such concerns, once more, the degree of proximity counts for a great deal ; the sea voyage between New Zealand and Australia is fourteen instances provided that that which separates Newfoundland and Canada. nobody in Australia or New Zealand, so far as i do know, now advocates the union of the two colonies. indeed, Australian politicians could be extra strongly antagonistic to this kind of step than those of "Maoriland," given that it remains no easy remember to preserve the States of the Commonwealth corralled inside the constitutional ring fence, and the inclusion of "The Colony" (as Mr. Seddon usually known as his political principality) would vastly add to the confusion of native ideals. As yet the Australian Commonwealth—just like the Canadian Confederacy in the seventies—is a political computer in place of a social organism, and Mr. Deakin is the best Australian statesman—now not excepting Mr. G. H. Reid, in whose waistco at pocket on the left aspect a Cobden membership gold medal still shines balefully—who has purged his intellect of sectionalism. they say in Victoria that he isn't pretty much as good a Victorian as he was within the 'eighties, and that is a really excessive praise, although not meant to be so regarded.. He has a personality which provokes the making of epigrams, all of which might be of a pleasant nature. hence it become observed of him as a frontrunner-author that even the (Melbourne) Age couldn't stale his limitless variety ; he has been described because the Balfour of colonial politics, and a rival speaker as soon as asserted that he might "throw a halo of attraction across the orifice of Hades" —a commentary which, by the way, illustrates the existing fault, a weak point for the "thunderous huff-snuff" of Australian minor oratory. Mr. Deakin has always been more anxious to do his work than to catch the spolia opima of political victories. he is a great authority on irrigation, and i turn up to grasp that his "Irrigated India," a longtime textual content-e-book on moist farming, has been an concept to President Roosevelt within the framing and undertaking of that "irrigation policy" which is turning the American southwest into a fer-

tile checkerboard with myriads of squares, every square a farmer's home. He became a great element in the Federation flow, which may have failed but for his mediation between the extremists. indeed, he has all the time been the person with the political oil-oan, injecting right here and there and all over the place the sluggish-falling words of soothing courtesy which prevent friction between incongruous personalities looking for the same conclusion. but it is as the uncompromising advocate of Imperial selection that he is optimum time-honored in superb Britain. right here is his creed, a spoken passage which every tariff reformer may still recognize through coronary heart :

"it is usually entreated that the British workman, or the colonial customer, will ought to pay greater. I do not admit that. Treaties can also be made which might now not raise the cost of articles on both aspect, and which might still confer a mutual talents. Others will also be made which would, or may, incidentally or temporarily for probably the most half, carry prices. again, it is a question of so a lot. There could be a rise in fee which is inconsiderable, and a compensating knowledge which is appreciable. The handiest figures I suggest to cite are those which point out the possibility of diverting inside the Empire trade which is at existing without it. I find that in 1903 the exports—including gold and bullion—into the Empire represented upwards of £900,000,000. adding the exports of the Empire for a similar 12 months, I discover the full alternate changed into £1,600,000,000. There ought to be a big percentage x>f these imports which the Empire can not reduce profitably, and a big share of exports which we can't eat. With these i cannot deal. The colossal magnitude of these figures suffices to display the margin we need to work upon. They show the portion of our exchange which now leaves only one of its profits in the Empire, and places a different income in the pockets of our competitors and feasible enemies. That trade can be retained within the Empire, to the lasting benefit of those parts of it which, like Australia, are however imperfectly cultivated

and inadequately settled."

H

No such large vision of the possibilities of Imperial option has yet been attained by using Sir Wilfrid Laurier. but those who be aware of that the building of the upper half of the North American prairie location is, and should stay, the mainspring of Canadian development, and that markets should be found in the Pacific if that construction is to proceed continuously, are thinking along a bit distinct traces, from Mr. Deakin's conclusion. When, in 1911 or thereabouts, the Dominion has three achieved transcontinental routes—to say nothing of an emergency exit for western freight by means of the Hudson Bay —the wheat creation of the brilliant prairie provinces may be too super to be absorbed through the British market except a tax be levied on the grain of Russia, the Argentine, and the USA. In view of the incontrovertible fact that the whole a long way East is now the theatre of a conflict of industrial conquest waged by Japan cooperating with China, Canada cannot find ample further markets in that quarter, and may be prepared to pay practically any rate in the kind of tariff concessions for the preferential medicine of wheat, the made of the pivotal industry of the west. Mr. Deakin has foreseen this change, and so has the Premier of Manitoba, the most a long way-seeing of the entire Imperialists of Western Canada.

New Zealand will under no circumstances be incorporated within the Australian Commonwealth, but as regards practically all of the greater questions of Imperial coverage both international locations are of the identical mind. both take note the that means of British sea-power, with out which they could at any second—now the solar of an Oriental renaissance with its chrysanthemum rays is above the horizon—be swamped via armies of emigrants, a lot of because the Mongol hordes of the middle ages, and in a position to overcome by way of an financial jiu-jitsu or energy of under-residing, from the overcrowded lands of southern and eastern Asia. each are anxious to earnings by the evil journey of the U.S., and prevent the introduction of gigantic soulless trusts inside their borders. both are smartly mindful that Germany and other overseas powers are

cutting into our change alongside each stage of the "long trail" (of which Rudyard Kipling sings) and diminishing the hoarded prestige to which the keepers of India—the Holy Land of the some distance East— are evidently entitled. each will vote the identical on the conference via their chosen representatives, Mr. Deakin and Sir Joseph Ward. the brand new Zealand major Minister is not yet widespread to the people of the "home-land," though he has visited London on a couple of activities. we're nevertheless haunted via the magniloquent character of the late Mr. Seddon —a statesman of mass and momentum comparable with the mighty scrummagers, one at the least of them a relation of "King Dick," who sported the red rose within the heroic age of Rugby soccer. To Richard Seddon New Zealand changed into "God's own country" (the equal identify has been given to the Saskatchewan valley on the different aspect of the globe), and his ruling optimum turned into to recreate E ngland in its picture. within the contemplation of this monumental patriot one changed into apt to overlook that he turned into also the subtlest politician of his day, the wariest of party meteorologists, a benevolent count Fosco working the wires of innumerable profound projects. lie was the "lock ahead of his pack of cabinet Ministers, of whom his successor became one of the crucial cleverest in getting the ball. even though he can not be compared together with his immortal chief, there isn't any doubt that Sir Joseph Ward is a robust and competent statesman. It has been observed that he resembles Mr. Seddon as a bull-terrier resembles a bull-dog, no extra and no less. The assortment of these stray epigrams is an enchanting interest. even if this selected specimen is more than half a fact remains to be seen. in the intervening time Sir Joseph Ward must govern in keeping with the spirit as well as the letter of cupboard legislation, and one doubts whether he's competent or incli ned to become a political autocrat. As to his all-circular potential there can be no question something. He was the better of Postmasters-typical, an respectable after Mr. Henniker Heaton's own heart, and the story that after at Rome he study off a Marconigram and translated the

dots and dashes into first rate Italian is a superb illustration of the man's uncanny versatility. It can be long before a Postmaster-frequent in a British cupboard —the area is given to party maids-ofall-work or to young guys of a comingon disposition—could be able to work the instant telegraph in my view. in the rely of preferential change Sir Joseph Ward is not (possibly) so zealous as his predecessor. last 12 months he became speakme over the chance of a reciprocity treaty between New Zealand and the U.S. with President Roosevelt, that heroic busybody.

And so we come to the three representative of British South Africa, who will doubtless vote as a bunch in the convention. Two of the South African Premiers—Dr. Jameson and time-honored Botha—need no introduction. the former has been understanding the political testamentum militare of the late Cecil Rhodes within the mom-colony of the subcontinent, and so laying the foundations of the third high-quality Federation in the Empire. we all comprehend that he's an recommend of Imperial choice, as ardent and outspoken as Mr. Deakin himself. usual Botha has crammed the news-sheets of late, and there's nothing new to be pointed out of this honorable soldier and honest flesh presser, who will likely be as cordially welcomed in London as turned into Marshall Soult when he visited us after the fall down of the Napoleonic tyranny. His opinions in regard to Imperial alternative are as yet unknown ; in all probability he himself does not recognize what they are. however he is defining his po litical personality each day in admirable pronouncements, through which no hint of Prinsloo self-deceiving is to be discerned. most likely there is a trifle too plenty the Aristocracy in these utterances. One distrusts any variant of the ineffable John Glayde who looks on the political stage. besides, Mr. , Hofmeyr was fairly given to that certain pose. ultimately, there's Mr. Frederick Moor, the Premier of Natal, which, regardless of the recommendation of an untravelled Radical member of our own Parliament, is a really a good deal extra vital thing than the poverty-afflicted "workers' dormi-

tory" of West Ham. Mr. Moor, who all started via digging diamonds at Kimberley, changed into some of the celebration which carried accountable govt for Natal. He has achieved a vast quantity of adminis-

trative work and turned into appearing Premier when Sir Albert Mime was attending the Coronation convention. There is no better suggest of Imperial preference.