They Should
Not Escape From Her Arms With Shrill Screams And Bleeding Wounds,
With Ill-Omened Words Which Live So Long, Though The Speakers Of
Them Lie Cold In Their Graves.
But this sending forth of a child-nation to take its own political
status in the world has never yet been done by Great Britain.
I
cannot remember that such has ever been done by any great power
with reference to its dependency; by any power that was powerful
enough to keep such dependency within its grasp. But a man
thinking on these matters cannot but hope that a time will come
when such amicable severance may be effected. Great Britain cannot
think that through all coming ages she is to be the mistress of the
vast continent of Australia, lying on the other side of the globe's
surface; that she is to be the mistress of all South Africa, as
civilization shall extend northward; that the enormous territories
of British North America are to be subject forever to a veto from
Downing Street. If the history of past empires does not teach her
that this may not be so, at least the history of the United States
might so teach her. "But we have learned a lesson from those
United States," the patriot will argue who dares to hope that the
glory and extent of the British empire may remain unimpaired in
saecula saeculorum. "Since that day we have given political rights
to our colonies, and have satisfied the political longings of their
inhabitants. We do not tax their tea and stamps, but leave it to
them to tax themselves as they may please." True. But in
political aspirations the giving of an inch has ever created the
desire for an ell. If the Australian colonies even now, with their
scanty population and still young civilization, chafe against
imperial interference, will they submit to it when they feel within
their veins all the full blood of political manhood? What is the
cry even of the Canadians - of the Canadians who are thoroughly
loyal to England? Send us a faineant governor, a King Log, who
will not presume to interfere with us; a governor who will spend
his money and live like a gentleman, and care little or nothing for
politics. That is the Canadian beau ideal of a governor. They are
to govern themselves; and he who comes to them from England is to
sit among them as the silent representative of England's
protection. If that be true - and I do not think that any who know
the Canadas will deny it - must it not be presumed that they will
soon also desire a faineant minister in Downing Street? Of course
they will so desire. Men do not become milder in their aspirations
for political power the more that political power is extended to
them. Nor would it be well that they should be so humble in their
desires. Nations devoid of political power have never risen high
in the world's esteem.
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