Adams J.T. Empire on the Seven Seas. The British Empire 1784-1939
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NEW THEORY OF EMPIRE
as
the recrudescence
of
Puritanism,
the
improvement
in
the Civil
Service
and
political
life
generally,
the
new attitude
toward
social
questions,
the
preoccupation
of
literature with
reforms
of
many
sorts,
the
missionary
movement,
and
the
new
sense
of
responsi-
bility
toward the backward
races
within
the
Empire.
If
there
was
much
hypocrisy
in
the
early
Victorian
period
there
was
also an
immense
body
of
genuine
religion,
of
various
shadings,
which
had
an
all-pervasive
influence.
We
must
now
turn
to the
growth
of the overseas
Empire,
re-
membering
all these currents at
home, reform,
the
rise
to
power
of
the
largely
business
middle
class,
the demands
by
the workers
for
greater
democracy,
the
religious
fervor,
the
optimism
and
energy,
as
well as
all
the conservatism
and
selfishness
constantly
inherent
in all
classes. The
result is
confused,
and
many
interpreta-
tions
may
be
made
of
almost
any
event. We
must recall
that
na-
tions even
more than individuals
are
not
always
motivated
by
a
single
set
of
emotions,
ideas
and
ideals.
In
both cases
we
have
to
take
the
life,
the
work
accomplished
and
the
results
in
the
large.
It
is
the total
of these
which make
up
the final
account
and
not
any particular
lapse
or
flaw.
IV.
NEW THEORY OF
EMPIRE
The
cleavage
between
the old
and
new
Britain which we
have
nbted as
occurring
in
the
period
covered
by
this
chapter
was
no-
where
more marked than
in
the
sphere
of
imperial
relations and
the
theory
of
empire.
In
general,
that
theory
was
still
based on
the
old
Mercantilist doctrines.
Roughly,
the colonies
were
sup-
posed
to
supply
the
raw
materials
and
in
part
the
markets
for the
goods
manufactured
in
the mother
country. Theoretically,
an
em-
pire
should be a
complicated
but
self-sufficing
unit in
which
there
was
division
of labor
and
products,
the whole
regulated
from
the
Parliament
in
London.
Theoretically again,
regulations
would
be
made
for the
benefit
of
all,
but
practically,
as the colonies
were
not,
and could
not
be,
effectively
represented
in
Parliament,
the
entire machine
would
be run
principally
for the
benefit of
those
who
were.
Colonies
were
valued
wholly
for
the
advantage
which
I2'7
EMPIRE
ON
THE
SEVEN SEAS
the
mother
country might
derive
from
them
in
one
way
or
another.
The
various
streams
of
thought
and
emotion,
however,
which
we have
described
as
converging
more
or
less
in
the
decade of
the
1
830*8 brought
about
a
revolution
in
imperial
theory.
Among
them
we
may
cite
the free-trade
doctrines of
Adam
Smith,
which
were
to
triumph
a few
years
later
j
the revival
of
religion
and
the
sense
of
responsibility
for others
which
led to
missionary
enterprise
j
the
swelling
tide of
democracy
and the
demand
by
the
individual
for
a voice
in the
management
of
his own
affairs,
and
what
we
would
now
call self-determination.
The
change
in
attitude
was
due in
large
measure
to a
general
change
in
national
outlook,
but
there
was
a
group
of
notable leaders
who
did
much to canalize the
new
ideas,
such
as
Charles
Buller,
Edward Gibbon
Wakefield,
Lord
Durham,
John
Stuart
Mill,
Lord
John
Russell
and
the
third Lord
Grey.
The
old
theory
which
had
persisted
down
.to this
time,
in
spite
of its
having
lost
Britain its
continental
American
empire,
except
Canada,
now
gave
place
to the new
one
which
was
to
develop
the
Empire
as it
is
today.
Britain
had
rejected
the
suggestions
for
such
an
empire
when
made
in
America,
and had
learned
nothing
from
the
American
Revolution.
A
half
century
of intellectual and
moral
changes
at
home
had been
required
to
bring
the
new
theory
into
being
and
make
it
practical politics.
It was
fortunate,
not
only
for
the
Empire
but for
the
world,
that the
change
occurred
before the
vast
extension
of
empire
in
the
latter
part
of the
century.
The
scramble
for the
outlying
portions
of
the
globe
would
have
come
in
any
case,
but
if
the
British attitude toward
colonies
and
subject
races had
not altered
it is
unlikely
that
the
Empire
would have
held
together.
In
spite
of
manifold
faults
and
errors
it
cannot be
denied,
I
believe,
that
owing
to
the new
theory
the lands
and
peoples
under
British
rule have had a
larger
degree
of
freedom
and
good gov-
ernment
than
they
would
have
had
under
any
other
rule,
and
the
great
block
of
the British Commonwealth
of Nations
remains
today,
with
its
offspring,
the United
States,
the chief
hope
of
free-
dpm
in
the
troubled future.
The new
imperial theory,
springing
from the three
streams
of
128
NEW
THEORY
OF EMPIRE
political,
economic
and
religious
thought,
had
two
chief
points.
One was
that
the
colonies,
instead of
being wholly
managed
from
the mother
country
and
primarily
in its
interest,
should
as
soon
as
possible
be
given
a
far
wider
scope
for
local
self-government
and
economic
growth
in
accordance
with local desires.
The
other
was
that
Britain
should
not
merely
exploit
native
and
undeveloped
races but
act
as
guardian
and
trustee for
them.
It
is
all
too
easy
to
point
to
innumerable
instances
in which
the
theory
has not been
carried
out
in
practice,
and
in
consequence
to
suggest
the
hypocrisy
of
the
British.
Nevertheless
the
ideas
have
been
of incalculable
benefit
to the
world.;
To
estimate
their
novelty
and
importance
we
have,
on
the
one
hand,
to
compare
them
with
all
previous
ideas
in
history
as to the
relations
between
an
imperial power
and
its
subjects}
and,
on the
other,
to
consider the
Empire
as
it
exists
today
in
that
absolutely
unique political
structure,
the British
Commonwealth of Nations.
Human
nature
is both
imperfect
and
fallible,
but
I
do
not
know
of
any
other race
French,
German,
Italian, Russian,
Japanese
which
would
have
brought
so
great
a measure
of freedom
and
jus-
tice
to
a
quarter
of
the whole world as has the
British,
and
it
has
been
largely
because
it
conceived
and
worked the
two
main
ideas
mentioned
above.
Naturally many
were
opposed
to
them,
outside
the Liberal
and
progressive
group
which
struggled
for
them,
and
it
is
an
example
of
how
manifold
are the
forces
working
to make
what we
call
history
that
one reason
why
the ideas could
be
put
into action
was
the
belief that
largely
because of
them
the
colonies
were
ceasing
to be of value to
the
mother
country.
If trade were
not to
be
regulated
and
natives
used
for her
benefit,
then,
argued
many,
were not
colonies
a
drag,
danger
and
expense
instead
of
an
asset?
For some
decades
the
nation
was
to take
little
interest in
empire
even
when
not
opposed
to
extension,
and this
mood of
in-
difference
gave
a freer
hand to
those who
were
trying
to
mold
imperial
relations
in
accord
with the new
ideas.
This
mood
.of
in-
difference,
we
shall note
again,
was
one of the
important
currents
of
thought
during
the
decades
preceding
the
revival
of
imperialism
in
a
new
form toward
the
end
of
the
century.
129
EMPIRE
ON
THE
SEVEN
SEAS
It
was
indeed
time
that
something
was
done.
Trouble
and
dis-
content
were
rife.
The West
Indies,
where the
planters
felt
that
the abolition
of
slavery,
even
with
compensation,
had ruined
their
prospects,
formed
a
problem
of their
own,
but
the
general
difficul-
ties
and
dangers
of the
imperial
situation
are best
shown
in
Can-
ada.
Canada
as
yet
was
a mere
geographical
expression,
and
the
six
coloniesNewfoundland,
Prince
Edward
Island,
New
Bruns-
wick,
Nova
Scotia,
Lower
Canada
(Quebec)
and
Upper
Canada
(Ontario)
were
all
separate
and each
had
a
government
of
the
type
which
had
been
general
in the revolted
colonies
which
now
formed
the
United States.
With an
unchanged
colonial
theory
and
policy
and
the
same
faults in
local
government,
the
Canadian
colonies
were on the
verge
of
revolting
in
turn
as their
neighbors
to the
south
had done
a
half
century
earlier.
V.
THE
SUCCESSFUL
EXPERIMENT
IN CANADA
In each
colony
there was a
royal
governor,
a Council
appointed
by
him and
a
popularly
elected
Assembly.
There
were
all
the
old
difficulties
between
the
last and
two
former
which were
practically
inevitable
under
the
circumstances. These
were
greatly
accentuated
by
two
factors. In
Lower Canada
the
race
problem
had
become
acute
and there
was intense bitterness between the
enormous
French
majority
and
the
British
minority.
Nor
was
there
any
prospect
of
an
increase in the
British
population,
for
immigrants
were not at-
tracted and
usually
went
south to
the
United States or on
to
Upper
Canada.
Government
and
justice
were
both
breaking
down.
Owing
to
the
racial
feud
it
was
impossible
to
do
anything
with
a
British
Governor
and
Council
and a
French
Assembly,
nor
would
French
juries
give
just
verdicts
when
British
were
involved.
The
habitants
were
ignorant, intensely
devoted
to
the idea
of
keeping
their
colony
French,
and
were
easily
swayed
by
the
priests
and French local
lawyers,
the
chief
agitator
among
the latter
being
Louis
Papineau.
He
aspired
to
a
role
similar to
-that
of
Samuel Adams
in
earlier
Massachusetts,
though
his mind
was more
of the
type
of the
French
revolutionists.
Independence
of
Britain
was
openly
preached.
In
1832
there
was a
cholera
epidemic
in
the
British
Isles and in
spite
130
SUCCESSFUL
EXPERIMENT IN
CANADA
of
quarantine
it
entered
Canada
with
the
immigrants,
and the
French
actually
believed
that
the
British Government
had
sent
the
infection
over
to
destroy
the French
population.
There
were
disturbances and in
one
unfortunate
affair three
citizens
were
killed
under
circumstances
very
similar
to those of
the
so-called
"Boston
Massacre" of
1770.
This
was
likewise dubbed a "massacre" and
used,
as
the
earlier
incident had
been,
to
stir
up
the
anger
of the
people.
By
1836
government
had come to
a
stand
and
a
commission
was sent out
from
England
to
report
but
could
make no
sugges-
tions.
The
British Government then announced
that if the
As-
sembly
would
not
provide
the
money
necessary
for
local
public
purposes
it
would
be overruled from
London.
Clearly,
the form
of
government
was
not
adapted
to
the
colony
and some
change
would
have
to
be
made. There
was not
time at the
moment,
and
the
unconstitutional,
although
necessary,
decision
of
Lord
John
Russell
created
a
storm
in
both
Lower
and
Upper
Canada
leading
to
rebellions.
Upper
Canada
(Ontario)
was
strongly
loyalist
in
sentiment
and
steadier in
opinion
than its
French
neighbor.
After
some
minor
fighting
between
the
loyalists
and
the
rebels,
in
which
the
casualties
were
few,
the
rebel
leader,
W. L.
Mackenzie,
fled
across the
border to the
United
States.
Although
the
rebellion
was
really
crushed,
Mackenzie,
together
with
other
refugees
and
bor-
der
ruffians
over
the
American
line,
continued
raids
which
were
nearly
to involve
Britain
and America in
war.
Mackenzie used the
American
vessel,
the
Caroline,
to
transport
men
and
munitions,
and
finally
the
British
authorities
destroyed
her
in
American
waters.
American
feeling
in
any
case
at
that
time
was hostile to
England
and
this
breach of
international
law
created a
furore in
the
United
States.
The
British
Government would
not admit
that
the
incident
was
official
until in
1
840
a drunken Canadian
in New
York
boasted
that
he
had
been
one of
the
party
which had
de-
stroyed
the
Caroline
and that
he
himself had
killed an
American
in
the
affair.
He
was
put
on trial
for
murder
atid
only
then
did
Palmerston
assert
that
the
attack
was
an official
military operation,
threaten-
EMPIRE
ON
THE
SEVEN SEAS
ing
that
if
McLeod,
the Canadian
in
question,
was
found
guilty
and
hanged,
Britain
would
declare war
immediately. Owing
to
the
federal
form
of
government
in
the
United
States,
Washington
could
not
intervene,
and the Governor
of
New
York
was
as
prickly
as
Palmerston
himself.
The
question
of
a
third
war
between
the
two
English-speaking
peoples
hung
on
the
verdict
of
an
ordinary
jury
in
a
local criminal case
in New
York,
but
fortunately
it
found
that
McLeod
was
merely
a drunken and boastful
liar
and
had in
reality
not been
in the
Caroline affair
at all. The
disorders
in
Can-
ada,
however,
were
evidently extremely
dangerous
to
Anglo-
American
relations,
especially
with Palmerston
in
the
Foreign
Office.
In
Lower
Canada,
the
rebellion,
although
also
on a small
scale,
was
more
important,
but
was
put
down
with
British
troops,
Papi-
neau
and
his chief
colleague,
O'Callaghan,
escaping
over the
bor-
der
to
the
United States.
It
was
clear,
however,
that
some sort
of
governmental
reorganization
of the
colonies was
absolutely
essen-
tial.
In
1838
Lord
Durham,
with Wakefield and
Buller,
was
sent
to
North
America
to
investigate
and
make
a
report.
Of
all
English
statesmen
of
his
day,
Durham,
with
all
his
peculiarities
of
char-
acter
and his
ability
for
making
enemies,
understood
what
would
have
to
become
the
basic
principles
of
imperial
relations
better
than
any
one
else.
His
famous
Report
was
to
become
a
classic and
may
be
considered
the
cornerstone
of the
Empire
in
its modern
form.
Un-
fortunately,
on his
arrival,
Durham
exceeded his
authority
by
con-
demning
to
death
the
leaders
of
the
revolt who
had
fled
Canada,
and
transporting
eight
others to
Bermuda.
This
arbitrary
act
opened
him
to
legitimate
attack
at home
by
his
personal
enemies
and those
who were
opposed
to his
views of
imperial
policy.
He
was
recalled
in
disgrace,
even
the
government
which
had
sent
him
out
deserting
him.
His
ideas,
however,
were
happily
destined
to
be carried
out
and
to
help
to establish
the
Commonwealth
of
Nations. The
important
point
in
the
Report
was
the
recommendation
to
establish
full
re-
sponsible
government
in
Canada,
following
the
British
model
of
choosing
the executive
in
accordance
with
the
wishes
of
the
ma-
SUCCESSFUL
EXPERIMENT IN
CANADA
jority
in
the
Assembly
or
Lower House.
Owing
to
the
race
prob-
lem
this
would
have
been
impracticable
in
Quebec,
as
the
British
would
not have
consented to
be
ruled
perpetually
by
a
majority
of
French
peasants.
Durham
therefore
recommended the
union
of
Upper
and
Lower
Canada in
one
colony,
and
although
the
French
objected
strenuously
this was
done
by
Parliament in
1840*;
The
grant
of
responsible
government,
however,
had
to
wait
a
few
years
longer,
owing
to
strong
opposition
among
leading
British
states-
men,
such
as
the
Duke of
Wellington,
until
Lord
Grey,
as Colonial
Secretary
in
the
Liberal
government,
established
the
new
regime
in
1
847
by
instructing
the
Governor
of
Nova
Scotia
to
choose
his
Ministers in
accordance
with
the
majority
wish of
the
Assembly
and
assume
no
political
responsibility
himself.
In
other
words,
the Governor sent out
from
England
was to
occupy practically
the
same
position
with
respect
to
the
local
legis-
lature and
parties
as
did
the
sovereign
at
home
to
the British ones.
Lord
Elgin,
Governor
of
United
Canada
(Quebec
and
Ontario),
received
the same
instructions
when
commissioned,
and
he
carried
them
out
in
spite
of
great
unpopularity
on occasion because of
the
fact
that
the
colonists
had not
yet
learned how
to
manage
the
polit-
ical
responsibility
they
had
been
granted.
Parties,
cutting
across
religious
and
racial
lines,
began
to
develop,
however,
and the
peo-
ple
began
to
understand the new
system.;
Thanks
to
both Durham and
Elgin
the
seed
of
free
responsible
self-government
took firm root
in
the
greatest
of
the future Do-
minions,
though
many
at
home
believed that
such
a
system
must
be
utterly
incompatible
with
imperial
unity.
In
1852
Disraeli
de-
clared
that
the
colonies must all
become
independent
within
a
few
years,
and
others
believed
the
same. Later
in our
story
we
shall
find other
colonies
receiving
the same
right
to
self-government,
gradually broadening
into the
relations which
subsist
between
the
members
of
the
Commonwealth
today.
Those
Liberals
who
first
started the
experiment
in Canada
were
performing
not
only
an act
of consummate
statesmanship,
essentially
British
in
character,
but
were
also
exhibiting
a
great
faith
in
the
belief that
permanent
and
happy
union
could be based
only
on
freedom,
and not restraint
or
133
EMPIRE
ON THE SEVEN
SEAS
force.
The
following
century proved
that
that
faith was
amply
justified.
In
Canada
the
experiment
was
a
great
success.
The racial
wound
was
healed,
talk
of
secession
from
the
Empire
ceased,
and the
dan-
gerous
drift
toward
annexation to
the United
States,
based
largely
on
economics,
was
halted
by
the
new
economic
self-government
and
the
abolition
of
the
Imperial
Navigation
Laws.
In
this
period,
also,
two
serious
disputes
which
had
occasionally
threatened
war
with
Canada's
great
neighbor
on
the south
were
settled,
though
not
altogether
to
the
satisfaction of either
party,
which
may
be
an
indication
of
the
fairness of
the
decisions.
The
Maine
boundary
in
the
east
had
long
been
in
question,
but
was
finally
defined in the
Ashburton
Treaty
of
1842,
and
four
years
later the
boundary
to
the
Pacific
through
the
disputed
Oregon
country
was
also
agreed
upon.
Extravagant
claims
as
to
the
latter had been made
on both
sides,
and in
America the
popu-
lar
cry
was
"fifty-four
forty
or
fight,"
meaning
insistence on
carry-
ing
the American northern
bounds
up
to that
line of
latitude.
Finally,
however,
helped
by
the
fact that
the
United States
was
facing
war
with
Mexico,
the line
of
the
forty-ninth
parallel
from the
Great Lakes
to
the
Rockies
was
extended
to
the
ocean,
except
that
the
island of
Vancouver went to
Canada entire.
That
country
was
now,
to
a
degree
hitherto
unprecedented
in the
world's
history
of
empire,
mistress in her
own
house
and the
bounds
of her vast
lands
were
definitely
fixed.
There
was
no fear
of invasion
from
any
quarter
and
her
future
seemed unlimited.
VI.
THE AMAZING DEVELOPMENT OF
AUSTRALIA
The
very
greatness
of
opportunity
in
Canada
and
the
United
States,
both
English-speaking
nations for
the
most
part
and
with
English
institutions,
militated
against
the
development
of
the sec-
ond most
important
British
colony,
Australia.
Population
there had
grown
slowly
and,
owing
to
the
nature
of
the
mostly
unexplored
interior,
in
only
three
widely
scattered colonies on the
coast,
New
South
Wales,
Tasmania and
Western Australia.
The
chief
hin-
drances
had
been the distance
12,000
miles
from
England
and
134
AMAZING
DEVELOPMENT OF AUSTRALIA
the
stigma
of the
penal
settlements.
According
to
a
census of
1
828
of
the
something
over
36,000
population
of New South
Wales,
about
24,000
were
convicts or
ex-convicts,
and
4673
had
come
to
the
colony
free.
The
remainder were children of
these several
classes,
and
the
same
was
roughly
true of Tasmania.
Taking
the
drawbacks
into
consideration,
distance,
cost and
the
overwhelming
proportion
of
convicts,
it
seemed
impossible
that
Australia
should
grow.
The
marvellous
progress
of
the
next
twenty years
was
wholly
due
to
the
group
of
Liberals and colonial reformers
who
were
fast
laying
the
foundations
of the
future
Empire.
Wakefield
had
developed
his
theory
of
assisted
emigration,
the
money
to
be raised
in
part
from the sale of
lands,
instead
of
giving
them
away,
and
partly
by straight government
grant.
He
had
also
a
theory
for
the
early
institution
of
democratic
self-gov-
ernment
which
was
not
adopted,
but
within
a
few
years
1
6,000
set-
tlers
had been
moved out
to the new
colonies,
Victoria
and South
Australia,
established so that
they
would
not
suffer from
the
con-
vict
taint,
and
annually
the
numbers swelled so
rapidly
that
the
free settlers
began
to
outnumber
the convicts. The reformers
at
home
also
realized
that
the
penal
system
would have
to
be
abol-
ished
entirely
if
Australia
were
to
develop
to
the
greatness
which
her
size and
resources
warranted.
Nothing
more
clearly
demon-
strates
the influence
on the
growth
of the
Empire
of
the
various
currents of
thought
which we
have described
in
England
than^the
events of
these
years
in
Canada
and
the
great
island continent!
By
1
840
the reformers had succeeded
in
passing
through
Parliament
a
bill
ending
transportation
to New South
Wales,
and
in
another
decade,
of
the
265,000
population
the
convict
element
had
dropped
to under
I
percent.
The
old
system
was likewise
ended
for Tas-
mania
in
1853.
)
With
the
change
and
increase
in
population
came also a
striking
economic
alteration.
At
the
beginning
of
the
century
England
had
obtained
practically
all
her best
wool
from
Spain,
the
Spanish
merino
being
alone considered
good
enough
for
fine
cloth.
Then
the
source
gradually
shifted
to
Germany,
and
German
imports
into
England
were
between
four
and five times
those
from
Spain.
But,
as
135
EMPIRE
ON
THE
SEVEN SEAS
one
of
the
consequences
of
the
Napoleonic
wars,
supplies
were
largely
cut
off
from
the
Continent
and
by
1850
Spanish
wool
had
disappeared
and
England
was
importing
137,000
bales
a
year
from
Australia
as
against
30,000
from
Germany.
It
is one
of
the
most
fan-
tastic
stories
of sudden
changes
in
commerce,
and what
had been
a
neglected
and forlorn
penal
colony
was
now
making
princely
contributions
to the
strength
and
wealth of
England.
It
is an
in-
teresting
example
of
what
the
colonies,
though
scorned
by
Disraeli
and
others,
meant
at
the
very
time
when
he was
calling
them
mill-
stones
around
the neck
of the mother
country.
The
change
in
the character
of
the Australian
population,
com-
bined
with
the
work
of the reformers
at
home,
made
the
political
development
of the
Australian
colonies one
of
the most
amazing
episodes
in
imperial
history.
Under
the
altered
circumstances
self-
government
could
be
introduced,
and
by
1850
a bill
brought
in
by
Lord
John
Russell,
and
passed
by
Parliament,
gave
the
Councils
of
each
of
the Australian colonies the
power
to draft a
constitution
for
itself,
as
also the
right
to
levy
duties on all
goods,
British and
foreign
alike,
entering
Australian
ports.
The
constitutions,
as drawn
up,
closely
followed the
British
and
were
confirmed
by
Parliament,
now
indeed
becoming
the
mother
of
Parliaments,
in
1855.
One
hardly
knows which
to
marvel
at
most,
the
incredible
change
in
Australia
in
twenty-five years
or
that
in
British
imperial theory.
As
one considers
the latter one
is
struck
by
the
overwhelming
re-
sults
of a
time-lag
of
thought
in
one
country
as
compared
with
another.
A
half
century
earlier the
political
thinkers
in the
Ameri-
can
colonies had
moved
forward
to
the
position
of the
British
colonial
reformers of
the
period
we have
just
been
discussing.
Had
it not
been
for
the
time-lag
in
Britain,
there would
have
been no
American
Revolution
or Declaration
of
Independence,
at
least in
1776,
and
it
is
one
of the
most
fascinating
"ifs"
in
history
as
to
what would have
happened
in that
case.
VII.
GOVERNMENT
ESTABLISHED IN
NEW
ZEALAND
Apparently
close
on
the
ordinary
map
but
in
reality
1200
miles
distant from
Australia
lies
the
present
Dominion
of New
Zealand,
136