English people, and from that time forward, whenever a colony made a strong show of opposition to Imperial decrees, we at once gave way. We clung to the old theory that colonies exist for the benefit of the mother country, but as soon as protests were raised against our practice of dumping down transported convicts in Australia or the Cape we abandoned this method of disposing of our criminals.

We offered to the colonies the right to participate in the advantages of our administrative organisation and our Imperial policy of free trade, but, as soon as they showed a preference for going their own way, we gave them the right of self-government and the power to impose tariffs which protected their own manufactures against goods shipped from England. All the territorial rights which we once regarded as the heritage of the English people were freely made over to handfuls of settlers, and concession was carried so far that, after the passing of the Australian Commonwealth Act, the authority of the Imperial Parliament over the colonies ceased to exist, and there was nothing left to the Crown but the right of making treaties with foreign powers, against which the Canadians have recently made an angry protest.

THE DIFFICULTIES OF COLONIAL

FEDERATION.

The sustained and prolonged tendency of all these centrifugal forces could not be overcome by a momentary wave of patriotic sentiment, and the colonial conferences made it clear that, while there existed a general feeling in favour of the conclusion of special arrangements with the mother country, no definite line of policy could be laid down, and the several colonies showed their jealousy, not only of control by the mother country, but even of uniform regulations with one another. The only safe conclusion, therefore, we can come to, on an impartial review of the present situation, is, that commercial treaties or tariffs to make binding a general agreement among the separate States comprising the British Empire are quite beyond our reach. That federation is a good object to aim at will be generally admitted, and inquiry and discussion can only be welcome to all who desire the prosperity of the Empire. There is no reason why the controversy should be of a heated character, and I have always held the opinion that the best tribunal in the world to deal with it is a committee of the House of Commons, which, by the examination of expert witnesses, forms an

excellent instrument for ascertaining the truth. The first business of such a committee would be to find out the amount of the colonial trade which we have to deal with. The value of this trade is now immensely exaggerated, because we fail to consider how large a proportion of it consists of English money. For instance, the capital borrowed of late years in London by the self-governing colonies reaches the sum of three hundred millions sterling. This amount is remitted from London, not in coin, but in goods, largely, of course, in the form of railway plant and other material for reproductive works, and the imports of the colonies are thus swollen prodigiously beyond their natural limit by the free importation of the equivalent of English money. The imports into South Africa sprang up with a bound last year, but the increase was due to the lavish expenditure of money advanced by England, and was not paid for by the colonies.

INDIA LEFT OUT IN THE COLD.

In all the discussion which has yet taken place on the subject, India has so far found no place. At public meetings and in the Press, we are in the habit of boasting that the British Empire includes a population of over 400 millions of human beings, and it is singular to reflect that, when Imperial Federation is spoken of, we calmly leave the population of British India, which contributes 250 millions of this vast aggregate, completely out of the question. It is not only in population that India forms a preponderating force within the Empire. In productive capacity, wealth, military strength, and ability to play a leading part in all Imperial operations, India is by far the most valuable possession of the Crown. In spite of the rapid growth of our colonies, it is still true, as an illustrious Frenchman said, that it is Our hold upon India which makes England fill so large a space in the eyes of the world. Tried by the test of commerce alone, the total trade of India, Ceylon, and the Straits Settlements, is fully equal to that of all the self-governing colonies taken together. The coasting trade of India alone is worth sixty millions a year, a figure which indicates the great activity of internal trade throughout the Peninsula, and the readiness of a large part of the population to take to a seafaring life. The revenues of India are those of a mighty State, and her public works have been framed on a scale which may fairly be described as colossal.

INDIA'S CONTRIBUTIONS TO IMPERIAL

DEFENCE.

But it is in her contributions to Imperial defence that India proudly holds the foremost position. Her navy, though comparatively small, is adequate to perform the police and transport service of the Eastern seas, and to be a useful auxiliary to the Royal Navy in time of war. Her army, consisting of 75,000 Europeans and 150,000 native troops, admirably equipped, and always kept in a state of readiness for war, stands hardly second to that of the United Kingdom, and it is important to observe that this splendid force costs the Indian people every year the sum of sixteen millions sterling. In this expenditure is included a million for pensions paid in India, and no less a sum than £5,600,000 for pensions and regimental charges paid in England. English people are probably not aware that the maintenance in England of the noneffective branches of the Indian Army amounts every year to this great sum.

It is not only within her own borders that the army of India does good service to the Empire. In all parts of the East, from China to the Persian Gulf, Egypt, and Somaliland, the Indian troops are eagerly sought to conduct active operations, and their excellent organisation makes them always available. The Government kept its pledge not to employ them against the Boers, but Indian troops replaced in half-a-dozen stations European battalions, which were thus set free for fighting in South Africa, and it is difficult to overestimate the value of the assistance India rendered to our troops in the supply of trans. port, commissariat, and ambulance requirements. England has been in the habit, indeed, of counting too easily on India's help. She employed Indian troops in the Soudan at the expense of the Indian people, till some of us, who then sat in the House of Commons, raised a protest against the injustice, and from that day to this England has never moved a sepoy out of India, except at her own cost. A still more serious attack on the Indian revenues was meditated this year, when an attempt was made to levy upon the Indian people half the expenditure of the large European army proposed to be stationed in South Africa; but the indignant remonstrances of the Indian Government, and the newlyawakened susceptibilities of the Indian people, who watch such expenditure more closely than they used to do, fortunately sufficed to foil this injustice. Roughly speaking, it may be said

I have not yet enumerated, however, the many other Imperial interests which India represents. I would point, in the first place, to the magnificent field for commercial and industrial investments which India offers to us, and to the vast array of civil servants, and, to use the old term, English adventurers, for whom she finds honourable and liberal employment. India may now be said to be the only part of the Empire in which men of English birth are warmly welcomed and are sure of finding profitable engagements. It is no exaggeration to say that no less than a hundred thousand English families are dependent on remittances of money earned in India. I suppose there is hardly a village in the country which you can enter without finding some people whose income is principally derived from India. Of course, the salaries paid to Englishmen resident in India are earned by good work, but where else in the Empire would room be found for the multitude of lawyers, bankers, merchants, professors, tea and coffee planters, railway servants, and men engaged in every industrial calling, who spend to advantage the prime of their life in India, and then come home with a suitable provision for their old age? I should estimate the value of the amount paid by India every year for English skilled labour, and as interest on investments, at not less than from £30,000,000 to £35,000,000. This amount is often but wrongly spoken of as tribute. The word tribute means money paid over as an acknowledgement of supremacy, and not as payment for work done. England takes no tribute from India in this sense, but what other country in the world does so much for the English people?

INDIA'S IMPERIAL POLICY IN TRade.

Another consideration which emphasises the peculiar position India occupies in her relations with England is that she has never broken away from her intimate connection with this country, but has always remained perfectly loyal to the authority of the Imperial Government at Westminster, and has always accepted without a murmur the Imperial policy we chose

to lay down. She has never quarrelled with free trade, or even questioned the excellence of our free commercial system, and where she has imposed duties on English manufactures she has countervailed them by an excise duty on those manufactures of her own which competed with ours. She remains the one market in the world which is perfectly open to us, and is by far the largest buyer Lancashire has for the produce of her looms. She has nothing in common, therefore, with the aims of the self-governing colonies, and any one familiar with the administration of India must have read with amazement letters in the Times from well-known members of Parliament who declared without a shadow of authority, and in absolute ignorance of the real state of affairs, that India and the colonies were at one in demanding tariff reform. The trade of India with the colonies is quite insignificant, and no sympathy exists between these two separate branches of the Empire. India belongs to the United Kingdom alone, which has guaranteed to her political equality with the governing race, and allows men born in India to become members of the British Parliament, and to aid in passing laws for the whole Empire. If anything could estrange India from the colonies it would be the narrow-minded and unfair action of the latter in excluding natives of India from competition with the white labour which seeks to maintain a monopoly in Australia and the Cape. The colonies boast of their superior enlightenment, but one would. think that the most benighted race of barbarians would hesitate to deny the right of Indian sailors, whose country and commerce we have taken from them, to find employment on board the English mail ships running to colonial ports.

POLITICAL CHANGES IN INDIA.

The change which has taken place of late years in the political position of India brings her into much closer union with England. The convulsion of the Indian Mutiny was naturally followed by a period of distrust, in which the native princes were debarred from enrolling any troops of their own, and even the regular troops of the native army were only allowed the use of second-class weapons. We have now entered upon an era in which the native princes are treated with respect and confidence, are encouraged to form contingents in which their own sons hold commissions, and are welcomed and made much of at the Courts of the King and the Viceroy as the sincere and

loyal feudatories of the Crown. The result of this reliance on goodwill rather than fear is seen in the eagerness with which the leaders of the people in India now press forward on all occasions to offer their gratuitous services to the Empire. One consequence of this policy of bringing India into line with England for the performance of imperial duties is that it will be found necessary to enlarge the political institutions of India and to admit that country into a larger share of responsibility and authority in the government of the Empire. Lord Curzon, the Viceroy of India, in an important speech he made a few months ago in his legislative council, discussed foreign affairs with a freedom hitherto unknown in India, and pointed out that circumstances had arisen which would call for the participation of India in the struggle for supremacy throughout the Asiatic continent as a military power able to take the initiative against any enemy. The significance of this warning has now been emphasised by the Viceroy's display of activity in the Persian Gulf and in the affairs of Tibet, and it is obvious that a Power which is thus required to show her readiness for any emergency without waiting for orders from England cannot always be kept in a state of political tutelage.

Commercial federation has no immediate interest for India because it already exists. If one were asked what is England's chief title to fame as the central State of a mighty Empire, the reply would be that she has been the pioneer of freedom in all parts of the world. Her fame rests on having secured to all nations under her flag the inestimable boon of perfectly unfettered human intercourse. In India, although the conditions of the problem have not hitherto permitted the institution of self-government in the broadest sense, yet the bounds of public opinion have been steadily enlarged, and the authority of England has been established because she has given the people freedom of religion and education, freedom before the law, freedom of thought, freedom of discussion, and freedom of trade. As regards freedom of trade, no reforms have been more beneficial in our own time than those by which Sir John Strachey swept away a multitude of varying imposts and octroi duties throughout India, equalised the incidence of taxation, and settled the principles of tariff reform on the lines recognised in England as best for the comfort and happiness of the people. We are told that all this is now to be changed, but I doubt if a

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change from the state of commercial security and exemption from vexatious duties which India now enjoys will be accepted as desirable by the people of that country.

PREFERENTIAL DUTIES.

Some attempts have been made in various quarters to suggest a scheme of preferential duties which would be beneficial to India, but no proposals of the kind that I have seen deserve the attention of reasonable men. I can understand that the Indians would hail with delight the abolition of the excise duties levied on native cloth and yarn, but we know that such a boon to India would never be granted by the British House of Commons. Nor is it easy to see what return India could make for such a concession. A good many ardent Indian patriots, however, excited by the new movement in England, are already claiming that they are entitled to such a boon, But I should like to see the most perfervid advocate of preferential duties within the Empire go down to Oldham, and propose to those constituents of Mr. Winston Churchill, who are threatening to vote against that hon. member because he is a Free Trader, that the Excise duties on Indian goods should be repealed, while the Customs duties on English manufactures are retained. Yet such a concession would be the logical consequence of the tariff reform which now finds so much favour in England. All the preferential privileges asked for appear to be on one side. We are told that it would be a good thing for India to have the great English market reserved for her wheat also, when a similar monopoly is granted to the Colonies. But Indian wheat forms only a small fraction of the great imports of grain required to feed the English people, and there is no room for much expansion, as there is not in India an unlimited area of uncultivated land which might be devoted to the cultivation of this particular crop, such as exists in Canada and the United States.

INDIAN TEA AND COTTON.

Then we are asked to direct our attention to tea, and to think how much India would gain if she were secured against all competition of foreign tea in the splendid open market of England. But people who talk in this way do not reflect that the trade of the British Empire is carried on with the whole world, and not with only a few favoured countries. What would be the result,

the inevitable result, of penalising tea from China in favour of its Indian competitor? British trade with China is nearly as valuable as with India, and we have lately taken infinite pains to conclude a favourable commercial treaty with the former country. It is clear that China will not be disposed to take the exclusion of her tea from the English market, "lying down," and that she could easily retaliate upon India for the suggested preferential duty in favour of Indian tea. An edict from Pekin is all that is required to prohibit the importation of Indian opium into China, and it is unlikely that England would make such a prohibition the pretext for another opium war. I have also read of proposals made in high quarters in India to place a countervailing duty on Russian petroleum oil, which is greedily bought by the natives, and has completely superseded the familar old cocoa-nut oil butties. I should have thought that the ludicrous results of the imposition of countervailing duties on sugar would have sickened the Indian Government of this kind of legislation. But, here again, I may point out that Russia has an instrument ready at hand, by means of which she could punish India for attempting to injure her. There is now a considerable trade in tea, from Colombo and Bombay, which is carried through

the Suez Canal and the Mediterranean to Batoum on the Black Sea, whence it is conveyed by Russian railways into Khorassan and Central Asia. Russia could stop this trade at once if her oil is penalised, more particularly as she has now by means of the Siberian railway broken into China on her inland frontier, become independent of maritime communications, and will soon inaugurate an overland traffic in Chinese tea to supply the greater part of Asia and all Eastern Europe. The duty on the importation of Indian tea into Russian territory has already been increased, but this is only a counterblast to the high-handed action of England in boycotting Russian sugar by the Brussels Sugar Convention. Russia wishes to give us a gentle hint that, if it comes to a question of retaliation, two can play at that game.

But what need is there for any Government subsidy in aid of Indian tea? We all know the amazing progress made by this perfectly new industry within the lifetime of the present generation. A trade valued at £6,000,000 a year has been created absolutely out of nothing by private enterprise, and we have seen the coffee plantations for which Ceylon once was

hardly a trade or enterprise which the application of English enterprise and skilled labour has not quickened and made profitable, and England may well feel proud that all this progress has been accomplished under the imperial policy of perfect freedom of trade, to which India, in common with the United Kingdom, has always been faithful. Seveneighths of the British Empire, as we have seen, flourish, under this invigorating régime, and it is only the remaining one-eighth that desires. any change.

famous destroyed by disease, and supplemented - by tea of such excellent quality that it has taken a leading place in our market, all without any aid from the Government, or any special duty to coddle it into prosperity. Here I may remark upon the mistake that is commonly made by critics who say that Indian industries do not prosper under English rule. Take the coal trade. When I first went to Bombay, some 40 years ago, every ton of coal consumed in the country was imported by sea from England. Indian coal was discovered and worked, and fought its way into use against English competition. Now all the railways and manufacturing industries of the country use Indian coal, which is so much cheaper than coal sent out from Eng. land, though in quality it is much inferior, that the English mail steamers take it on board for the voyage up to Suez, and it would find its way into the Mediterranean but for the tolls charged by the Suez Canal. Take again jute, which has been fostered into a great industry chiefly by the private enterprise of Scotch and English merchants. Railways and irrigation works, though now passing into the hands of Government, owe their prosperity in the first place to the employment of capital raised by private subscription. Indigo has flourished through the skill and energy of European planters. An interesting paper just published shows what a revival has taken place in the silk industry of Bengal. The growth, collection, and careful packing of raw cotton from India have been immensely stimulated by the efforts of agents from Lancashire. We are sometimes assured that England might greatly benefit India by granting a preference in favour of her cotton. But India had her opportunity during the American civil war of showing what she could do to supplant cotton from the United States, and it was conclusively proved that her cotton crop was unsuitable in quantity and quality. You are familiar, no doubt, with the old story of the cotton operative who, in the middle of a prayer for more cotton, broke in with the exclamation, "Yea, O Lord, but not Surats. Oh! not Surats." Only a small proportion of the Indian cotton exported now comes to England. It is mostly taken by Japan and the Continent of Europe. The cotton factory business, again, which competes with the goods imported from Manchester, and does an enormous trade throughout the whole East, was started by some shrewd Scotchmen resident in Bombay. There is, in fact,

INDIA'S DISABILITIES IN LAND TRAFFIC. I have said enough to show that, before any change is made in the settled commercial policy of the Empire, India as well as the Colonies ought to be consulted. India requires no place in any new federation, because she is already federated with England by her complete acceptance of the imperial policy of Free Trade. My Own idea, though I have no wish to dogmatise in the matter, is, that what we want in India is not the introduction of any kind of restrictive legislation, or the raising once more of barriers to that freedom of intercourse which that country enjoys, but the increase of facilities for the expansion of her trade. One thing has often struck me, that India's opportunities are sadly crippled by the necessity that is supposed to exist for restricting her relations with the rest of the world to maritime communications alone. The peninsula of India is cut off completely from that immense part of the world which cannot be reached by a mail steamer. This state of things is no doubt the result in great measure of her connection with England. Any one who looks at a map will observe that India is "cabined, cribbed, confined" by the Himalayas, which shut her in like a Chinese wall, and make impossible the trade which in old days she carried on with Persia, China, Central Asia, and Mesopotamia, by the great caravan routes which have fallen into desuetude since the devastating storm of Turkish conquest trampled out civilisation in Asia. Under the rule of the successors of Alexander, the arts and industries of India flourished in all Asiatic countries as far as the Mediterranean, and were carried into Europe. The "huge, earthshaking beasts" with which Pyrrhus tried to frighten the Romans in his campaign in Italy were Indian elephants trained for service in war. But of all this world-wide trade nothing remains to India.