WEBVTT

1
00:00:00.160 --> 00:00:04.879
<v Speaker 1>Chapter eighteen a of Considerations on Representative Government. This LibriVox

2
00:00:04.919 --> 00:00:09.400
<v Speaker 1>recording is in the public domain. Considerations on Representative Government

3
00:00:09.480 --> 00:00:15.560
<v Speaker 1>by John Stuart Mill, Chapter eighteen a of the Government

4
00:00:15.599 --> 00:00:20.960
<v Speaker 1>of Dependencies by a free State. Free states, like all others,

5
00:00:21.079 --> 00:00:25.399
<v Speaker 1>may possess dependencies acquired either by conquest or by colonization,

6
00:00:26.320 --> 00:00:28.679
<v Speaker 1>and our own is the greatest instance of the kind

7
00:00:28.719 --> 00:00:32.079
<v Speaker 1>in modern history. It is a most important question how

8
00:00:32.159 --> 00:00:36.719
<v Speaker 1>such dependencies ought to be governed. It is unnecessary to

9
00:00:36.759 --> 00:00:42.399
<v Speaker 1>discuss the case of small posts like Gibraltar, Aden or Heligoland,

10
00:00:43.119 --> 00:00:47.240
<v Speaker 1>which are held only as naval or military positions. The

11
00:00:47.280 --> 00:00:50.640
<v Speaker 1>military or naval object is in this case paramount, and

12
00:00:50.679 --> 00:00:54.119
<v Speaker 1>the inhabitants cannot, consistently with it be admitted to the

13
00:00:54.159 --> 00:00:56.960
<v Speaker 1>government of the place, though they ought to be allowed.

14
00:00:57.039 --> 00:01:01.479
<v Speaker 1>All liberties and privileges compatible with that restriction, including the

15
00:01:01.520 --> 00:01:05.799
<v Speaker 1>free management of municipal affairs, and as a compensation for

16
00:01:05.920 --> 00:01:09.599
<v Speaker 1>being locally sacrificed to the convenience of the governing state,

17
00:01:10.000 --> 00:01:12.959
<v Speaker 1>should be admitted to equal rights with its native subjects.

18
00:01:13.000 --> 00:01:17.719
<v Speaker 1>In all other parts of the empire, outlying territories of

19
00:01:17.719 --> 00:01:21.280
<v Speaker 1>some size and population which are held as dependencies, that is,

20
00:01:21.319 --> 00:01:25.079
<v Speaker 1>which are subject more or less to acts of sovereign

21
00:01:25.159 --> 00:01:28.239
<v Speaker 1>power on the part of the paramount country, without being

22
00:01:28.280 --> 00:01:32.879
<v Speaker 1>equally represented, if represented at all, in its legislature, may

23
00:01:32.879 --> 00:01:36.599
<v Speaker 1>be divided into two classes. Some are composed of people

24
00:01:36.640 --> 00:01:40.719
<v Speaker 1>of similar civilization to the ruling country, capable of and

25
00:01:40.840 --> 00:01:44.719
<v Speaker 1>ripe for representative government, such as the British possessions in

26
00:01:44.760 --> 00:01:49.519
<v Speaker 1>America and Australia. Others, like India, are still at a

27
00:01:49.519 --> 00:01:53.760
<v Speaker 1>great distance from that state. In the case of dependencies

28
00:01:53.799 --> 00:01:56.840
<v Speaker 1>of the former class, this country has at length realized,

29
00:01:56.840 --> 00:02:00.879
<v Speaker 1>in rare completeness the true principle of government. England has

30
00:02:00.920 --> 00:02:03.879
<v Speaker 1>always felt under a certain degree of obligation to bestow

31
00:02:03.920 --> 00:02:06.920
<v Speaker 1>on such of her outlying populations as were of her

32
00:02:06.959 --> 00:02:09.400
<v Speaker 1>own blood and language, and on some who were not

33
00:02:09.960 --> 00:02:14.879
<v Speaker 1>representative institutions formed in imitation of her own. But until

34
00:02:14.919 --> 00:02:17.759
<v Speaker 1>the present generation she has been on the same bad

35
00:02:17.840 --> 00:02:20.639
<v Speaker 1>level with other countries as to the amount of self

36
00:02:20.680 --> 00:02:24.800
<v Speaker 1>government which she allowed them to exercise through the representative

37
00:02:24.840 --> 00:02:28.439
<v Speaker 1>institutions that she conceded to them. She claimed to be

38
00:02:28.479 --> 00:02:32.719
<v Speaker 1>the supreme arbiter even of their purely internal concerns, according

39
00:02:32.759 --> 00:02:35.879
<v Speaker 1>to her own, not their ideas, of how these concerns

40
00:02:36.159 --> 00:02:40.560
<v Speaker 1>could be best regulated. This practice was a natural corollary

41
00:02:40.800 --> 00:02:44.199
<v Speaker 1>from the vicious theory of colonial policy, once common to

42
00:02:44.280 --> 00:02:48.080
<v Speaker 1>all Europe and not yet completely relinquished by any other people,

43
00:02:48.280 --> 00:02:52.039
<v Speaker 1>which regarded colonies as valuable by affording markets for our

44
00:02:52.240 --> 00:02:56.719
<v Speaker 1>commodities that could be kept entirely to ourselves, a privilege

45
00:02:56.759 --> 00:02:59.400
<v Speaker 1>we valued so highly that we thought it worth purchasing

46
00:02:59.759 --> 00:03:02.520
<v Speaker 1>by allowing to the colonies the same monopoly of our

47
00:03:02.680 --> 00:03:05.960
<v Speaker 1>market for their own productions which we claimed for our

48
00:03:06.039 --> 00:03:10.360
<v Speaker 1>commodities in theirs. This notable plan for enriching them and

49
00:03:10.439 --> 00:03:13.960
<v Speaker 1>ourselves by making each pay enormous sums to the other,

50
00:03:14.400 --> 00:03:17.039
<v Speaker 1>dropping the greatest part, by the way, has been for

51
00:03:17.120 --> 00:03:20.719
<v Speaker 1>some time abandoned. But the bad habit of meddling in

52
00:03:20.800 --> 00:03:23.599
<v Speaker 1>the internal government of the colonies did not at once

53
00:03:23.719 --> 00:03:27.479
<v Speaker 1>die out when we relinquished the idea of making any

54
00:03:27.520 --> 00:03:31.199
<v Speaker 1>profit by it. We continued to torment them, not for

55
00:03:31.240 --> 00:03:34.039
<v Speaker 1>any benefit to ourselves, but for that of a section

56
00:03:34.240 --> 00:03:38.800
<v Speaker 1>or faction among the colonists. And this persistence in domineering

57
00:03:39.000 --> 00:03:41.800
<v Speaker 1>cost us a Canadian rebellion before we had the happy

58
00:03:41.800 --> 00:03:44.800
<v Speaker 1>thought of giving it up. England was like an ill

59
00:03:44.879 --> 00:03:48.759
<v Speaker 1>brought up elder brother, who persists in tyrannizing over the

60
00:03:48.840 --> 00:03:51.520
<v Speaker 1>younger ones from mere habit, till one of them, by

61
00:03:51.520 --> 00:03:55.879
<v Speaker 1>a spirited resistance, though with unequal strength, gives him notice

62
00:03:55.960 --> 00:03:59.360
<v Speaker 1>to desist. We were wise enough not to require a

63
00:03:59.400 --> 00:04:02.639
<v Speaker 1>second warner. A new era in the colonial policy of

64
00:04:02.719 --> 00:04:07.479
<v Speaker 1>nations began with Lord Durham's report, the Imperishable Memorial of

65
00:04:07.520 --> 00:04:12.240
<v Speaker 1>that nobleman's courage, patriotism and enlightened liberality, and of the

66
00:04:12.280 --> 00:04:16.519
<v Speaker 1>intellect and practical sagacity of its joint authors, mister Wakefield

67
00:04:16.600 --> 00:04:21.560
<v Speaker 1>and the lamented Charles Buller. Footnote. I am speaking here

68
00:04:21.639 --> 00:04:24.680
<v Speaker 1>of the adoption of this improved policy, not, of course,

69
00:04:24.680 --> 00:04:27.959
<v Speaker 1>of its original suggestion. The honor of having been its

70
00:04:28.000 --> 00:04:34.839
<v Speaker 1>earliest champion belongs unquestionably to mister roebuck En. Footnote. It

71
00:04:34.959 --> 00:04:37.879
<v Speaker 1>is now a fixed principle of the policy of Great Britain,

72
00:04:37.959 --> 00:04:41.480
<v Speaker 1>professed in theory and faithfully adhered to in practice, that

73
00:04:41.560 --> 00:04:45.000
<v Speaker 1>her colonies of European Race, equally with the parent country,

74
00:04:45.160 --> 00:04:48.839
<v Speaker 1>possessed the fullest measure of internal self government. They have

75
00:04:48.879 --> 00:04:52.480
<v Speaker 1>been allowed to make their own free representative constitutions by

76
00:04:52.560 --> 00:04:55.319
<v Speaker 1>altering in any manner they thought fit the already very

77
00:04:55.360 --> 00:04:59.680
<v Speaker 1>popular constitutions which we had given them. Each is governed

78
00:04:59.720 --> 00:05:03.399
<v Speaker 1>by a its own legislature and executive constituted on highly

79
00:05:03.439 --> 00:05:07.720
<v Speaker 1>democratic principles. The veto of the crown and of Parliament,

80
00:05:07.839 --> 00:05:12.319
<v Speaker 1>though nominally reserved, is only exercised, and that very rarely

81
00:05:12.680 --> 00:05:15.800
<v Speaker 1>on questions which concern the Empire and not solely the

82
00:05:15.800 --> 00:05:19.199
<v Speaker 1>particular colony. How liberal a construction has been given to

83
00:05:19.240 --> 00:05:23.240
<v Speaker 1>the distinction between imperial and colonial questions is shown by

84
00:05:23.279 --> 00:05:25.959
<v Speaker 1>the fact that the whole of the unappropriated lands in

85
00:05:26.000 --> 00:05:30.120
<v Speaker 1>the regions behind our American and Australian colonies have been

86
00:05:30.160 --> 00:05:34.040
<v Speaker 1>given up to the uncontrolled disposal of the colonial communities,

87
00:05:34.439 --> 00:05:36.920
<v Speaker 1>though they might, without injustice, have been kept in the

88
00:05:36.920 --> 00:05:39.920
<v Speaker 1>hands of the imperial government, to be administered for the

89
00:05:39.959 --> 00:05:43.879
<v Speaker 1>greatest advantage of future emigrants from all parts of the Empire.

90
00:05:45.000 --> 00:05:48.040
<v Speaker 1>Every colony has thus as full power over its own

91
00:05:48.040 --> 00:05:50.639
<v Speaker 1>affairs as it could have if it were a member

92
00:05:50.720 --> 00:05:54.279
<v Speaker 1>of even the loosest federation, and much fuller than would

93
00:05:54.360 --> 00:05:57.399
<v Speaker 1>belong to it under the Constitution of the United States,

94
00:05:58.000 --> 00:06:01.240
<v Speaker 1>being free even to tax at its pleasure the commodities

95
00:06:01.279 --> 00:06:05.399
<v Speaker 1>imported from the mother country their union with great Britain

96
00:06:05.480 --> 00:06:08.480
<v Speaker 1>is the slightest kind of federal union, but not a

97
00:06:08.480 --> 00:06:12.199
<v Speaker 1>strictly equal federation, the mother country retaining to itself the

98
00:06:12.240 --> 00:06:15.879
<v Speaker 1>powers of a federal government, though reduced in practice to

99
00:06:16.000 --> 00:06:20.079
<v Speaker 1>their very narrowest limits. This inequality is, of course, as

100
00:06:20.079 --> 00:06:23.680
<v Speaker 1>far as it goes, a disadvantage to the dependencies, which

101
00:06:23.720 --> 00:06:26.720
<v Speaker 1>have no voice in foreign policy, but are bound by

102
00:06:26.759 --> 00:06:29.879
<v Speaker 1>the decisions of the superior country. They are compelled to

103
00:06:30.000 --> 00:06:33.879
<v Speaker 1>join England in war without being in any way consulted

104
00:06:33.920 --> 00:06:38.879
<v Speaker 1>previous to engaging in it. Those now, happily not a

105
00:06:38.920 --> 00:06:42.279
<v Speaker 1>few who think that justice is as binding on communities

106
00:06:42.360 --> 00:06:45.120
<v Speaker 1>as it is on individuals, and that men are not

107
00:06:45.199 --> 00:06:48.279
<v Speaker 1>warranted in doing to other countries for the supposed benefit

108
00:06:48.360 --> 00:06:50.879
<v Speaker 1>of their own country what they would not be justified

109
00:06:50.879 --> 00:06:54.000
<v Speaker 1>in doing to other men for their own benefit, feel

110
00:06:54.079 --> 00:06:57.519
<v Speaker 1>even this limited amount of constitutional subordination on the part

111
00:06:57.560 --> 00:07:00.759
<v Speaker 1>of the colonies to be a violation of princes, and

112
00:07:00.839 --> 00:07:04.160
<v Speaker 1>have often occupied themselves in looking out for means by

113
00:07:04.199 --> 00:07:07.399
<v Speaker 1>which it may be avoided. With this view, it has

114
00:07:07.480 --> 00:07:11.920
<v Speaker 1>been proposed by some that the colonies should return representatives

115
00:07:11.959 --> 00:07:15.759
<v Speaker 1>to the British legislature, and by others that the powers

116
00:07:15.759 --> 00:07:18.600
<v Speaker 1>of our own, as well as of their parliaments, should

117
00:07:18.639 --> 00:07:21.759
<v Speaker 1>be confined to internal policy, and that there should be

118
00:07:21.800 --> 00:07:26.160
<v Speaker 1>another representative body for foreign and imperial concerns, in which

119
00:07:26.240 --> 00:07:29.759
<v Speaker 1>last the dependencies of Great Britain should be represented in

120
00:07:29.800 --> 00:07:32.959
<v Speaker 1>the same manner and with the same completeness as Great

121
00:07:32.959 --> 00:07:36.959
<v Speaker 1>Britain itself. On this system, there would be a perfectly

122
00:07:37.079 --> 00:07:40.680
<v Speaker 1>equal federation between the mother country and her colonies, then

123
00:07:40.720 --> 00:07:45.839
<v Speaker 1>no longer dependencies. The feelings of equity and conceptions of

124
00:07:45.839 --> 00:07:49.480
<v Speaker 1>public morality from which these suggestions emanate are worthy of

125
00:07:49.519 --> 00:07:53.879
<v Speaker 1>all praise. But the suggestions themselves are so inconsistent with

126
00:07:54.000 --> 00:07:57.360
<v Speaker 1>rational principles of government that it is doubtful if they

127
00:07:57.399 --> 00:08:01.680
<v Speaker 1>have been seriously accepted as a possibility by any reasonable thinker.

128
00:08:03.160 --> 00:08:06.439
<v Speaker 1>Countries separated by half the globe do not present the

129
00:08:06.519 --> 00:08:10.360
<v Speaker 1>natural conditions for being under one government, or even members

130
00:08:10.360 --> 00:08:14.439
<v Speaker 1>of one federation, if they had sufficiently the same interests.

131
00:08:14.680 --> 00:08:18.040
<v Speaker 1>They have not, and never can have a sufficient habit

132
00:08:18.279 --> 00:08:21.160
<v Speaker 1>of taking council together. They are not part of the

133
00:08:21.199 --> 00:08:24.120
<v Speaker 1>same public. They do not discuss and deliberate in the

134
00:08:24.120 --> 00:08:27.279
<v Speaker 1>same arena, but a part, and have only a most

135
00:08:27.399 --> 00:08:30.839
<v Speaker 1>imperfect knowledge of what passes in the minds of one another.

136
00:08:31.639 --> 00:08:34.799
<v Speaker 1>They neither know each other's objects, nor have confidence in

137
00:08:34.840 --> 00:08:39.240
<v Speaker 1>each other's principles of conduct. Let any Englishman ask himself

138
00:08:39.279 --> 00:08:41.919
<v Speaker 1>how he should like his destinies to depend on an

139
00:08:41.960 --> 00:08:45.480
<v Speaker 1>assembly of which one third was British, American and another

140
00:08:45.519 --> 00:08:49.799
<v Speaker 1>third South African and Australian. Yet to this it must

141
00:08:49.799 --> 00:08:53.720
<v Speaker 1>come if there were anything like fair or equal representation.

142
00:08:54.600 --> 00:08:57.679
<v Speaker 1>And would not everyone feel that the representatives of Canada

143
00:08:57.679 --> 00:09:02.000
<v Speaker 1>and Australia, even in matters of an imperial character, could

144
00:09:02.000 --> 00:09:05.840
<v Speaker 1>not know or feel any sufficient concern for the interests,

145
00:09:06.000 --> 00:09:10.679
<v Speaker 1>opinions or wishes of English, Irish and Scotch. Even for

146
00:09:10.759 --> 00:09:14.919
<v Speaker 1>strictly federative purposes. The conditions do not exist which we

147
00:09:14.960 --> 00:09:18.200
<v Speaker 1>have seen to be essential to a federation. England is

148
00:09:18.200 --> 00:09:22.200
<v Speaker 1>sufficient for her own protection without the colonies, and would

149
00:09:22.240 --> 00:09:24.559
<v Speaker 1>be in a much stronger as well as more dignified

150
00:09:24.600 --> 00:09:28.120
<v Speaker 1>position if separated from them, than when reduced to be

151
00:09:28.200 --> 00:09:32.240
<v Speaker 1>a single member of an American, African and Australian confederation.

152
00:09:33.200 --> 00:09:36.120
<v Speaker 1>Over and above the commerce which she might equally enjoy

153
00:09:36.200 --> 00:09:41.440
<v Speaker 1>after separation, England derives little advantage except in prestige from

154
00:09:41.440 --> 00:09:44.879
<v Speaker 1>her dependencies, and the little she does derive is quite

155
00:09:44.879 --> 00:09:48.240
<v Speaker 1>outweighed by the expense they cost her, and the dissemination

156
00:09:48.399 --> 00:09:52.240
<v Speaker 1>they necessitate of her naval and military force, which, in

157
00:09:52.320 --> 00:09:55.799
<v Speaker 1>case of war or any real apprehension of it, requires

158
00:09:55.840 --> 00:09:57.919
<v Speaker 1>to be double or treble what would be needed for

159
00:09:57.960 --> 00:10:02.279
<v Speaker 1>the defense of this country alone. But though Great Britain

160
00:10:02.320 --> 00:10:05.080
<v Speaker 1>could do perfectly well without her colonies, and though on

161
00:10:05.200 --> 00:10:08.279
<v Speaker 1>every principle of morality and justice she ought to consent

162
00:10:08.320 --> 00:10:11.960
<v Speaker 1>to their separation, should the time come when, after full

163
00:10:12.000 --> 00:10:14.840
<v Speaker 1>trial of the best form of union, they deliberately desire

164
00:10:14.879 --> 00:10:18.360
<v Speaker 1>to be dissevered, there are strong reasons for maintaining the

165
00:10:18.399 --> 00:10:22.200
<v Speaker 1>present slight bond of connection, so long as not disagreeable

166
00:10:22.240 --> 00:10:25.279
<v Speaker 1>to the feelings of either party. It is a step

167
00:10:25.639 --> 00:10:28.840
<v Speaker 1>as far as it goes towards universal peace and general

168
00:10:28.879 --> 00:10:33.480
<v Speaker 1>friendly cooperation among nations. It renders war impossible among a

169
00:10:33.559 --> 00:10:38.360
<v Speaker 1>large number of otherwise independent communities, and moreover, hinders any

170
00:10:38.399 --> 00:10:41.360
<v Speaker 1>of them from being absorbed into a foreign state and

171
00:10:41.440 --> 00:10:45.399
<v Speaker 1>becoming a source of additional aggressive strength to some rival power,

172
00:10:45.840 --> 00:10:48.960
<v Speaker 1>either more despotic or closer at hand, which might not

173
00:10:49.080 --> 00:10:52.879
<v Speaker 1>always be so unambitious or so pacific as Great Britain.

174
00:10:53.720 --> 00:10:56.240
<v Speaker 1>It at least keeps the markets of the different countries

175
00:10:56.279 --> 00:10:59.639
<v Speaker 1>open to one another, and prevents that mutual exclusion by

176
00:10:59.679 --> 00:11:02.720
<v Speaker 1>hostile still tariffs, which none of the great communities of

177
00:11:02.720 --> 00:11:07.159
<v Speaker 1>mankind except England have yet outgrown. And in the case

178
00:11:07.200 --> 00:11:11.240
<v Speaker 1>of the British possessions, it has the advantage especially valuable

179
00:11:11.279 --> 00:11:14.600
<v Speaker 1>at the present time, of adding to the moral influence

180
00:11:14.639 --> 00:11:17.000
<v Speaker 1>and weight in the councils of the world of the power,

181
00:11:17.080 --> 00:11:22.080
<v Speaker 1>which of all in existence best understands liberty, and whatever

182
00:11:22.200 --> 00:11:25.200
<v Speaker 1>may have been its errors in the past, has attained

183
00:11:25.320 --> 00:11:28.600
<v Speaker 1>to more of conscience and moral principle in its dealings

184
00:11:28.639 --> 00:11:31.720
<v Speaker 1>with foreigners than any other great nation seems either to

185
00:11:31.759 --> 00:11:37.200
<v Speaker 1>conceive as possible or recognize as desirable. Since then the

186
00:11:37.320 --> 00:11:40.600
<v Speaker 1>union can only continue. While it does continue on the

187
00:11:40.639 --> 00:11:44.120
<v Speaker 1>footing of an unequal federation. It is important to consider

188
00:11:44.159 --> 00:11:47.240
<v Speaker 1>by what means this small amount of inequality can be

189
00:11:47.320 --> 00:11:51.799
<v Speaker 1>prevented from being either onerous or humiliating to the communities

190
00:11:51.840 --> 00:11:58.879
<v Speaker 1>occupying the less exalted position. The only inferiority necessarily inherent

191
00:11:59.000 --> 00:12:01.799
<v Speaker 1>in the case is that the mother country decides both

192
00:12:01.840 --> 00:12:05.039
<v Speaker 1>for the colonies and for herself on questions of peace

193
00:12:05.080 --> 00:12:08.759
<v Speaker 1>and war. They gain in return the obligation on the

194
00:12:08.799 --> 00:12:13.440
<v Speaker 1>mother country to repel aggressions directed against them. But except

195
00:12:13.440 --> 00:12:16.000
<v Speaker 1>when the minor community is so weak that the protection

196
00:12:16.120 --> 00:12:20.120
<v Speaker 1>of a stronger power is indispensable to it, reciprocity of

197
00:12:20.159 --> 00:12:23.320
<v Speaker 1>obligation is not of full equivalent for non admission to

198
00:12:23.360 --> 00:12:27.600
<v Speaker 1>a voice in the deliberations. It is essential, therefore, that

199
00:12:27.720 --> 00:12:31.039
<v Speaker 1>in all wars, save those which, like the Caffre or

200
00:12:31.080 --> 00:12:33.440
<v Speaker 1>New Zealand wars, are incurred for the sake of the

201
00:12:33.480 --> 00:12:39.080
<v Speaker 1>particular colony, the colonists should not, without their own voluntary request,

202
00:12:39.440 --> 00:12:42.120
<v Speaker 1>be called on to contribute any thing to the expense,

203
00:12:42.559 --> 00:12:45.679
<v Speaker 1>except what may be required for the specific local defense

204
00:12:46.039 --> 00:12:52.080
<v Speaker 1>of their ports, shores, and frontiers against invasion. Moreover, as

205
00:12:52.120 --> 00:12:54.960
<v Speaker 1>the mother country claims the privilege at her sole discretion

206
00:12:55.559 --> 00:12:59.039
<v Speaker 1>of taking measures or pursuing a policy which may expose

207
00:12:59.039 --> 00:13:02.320
<v Speaker 1>them to attack, it is just that she should undertake

208
00:13:02.360 --> 00:13:05.960
<v Speaker 1>a considerable portion of the cost of their military defense,

209
00:13:06.240 --> 00:13:09.000
<v Speaker 1>even in time of peace, the whole of it, so

210
00:13:09.120 --> 00:13:12.679
<v Speaker 1>far as it depends upon a standing army. But there

211
00:13:12.720 --> 00:13:15.679
<v Speaker 1>was a means still more effectual than these, by which,

212
00:13:15.720 --> 00:13:18.519
<v Speaker 1>and in general, by which alone a full equivalent can

213
00:13:18.559 --> 00:13:22.200
<v Speaker 1>be given to a smaller community for sinking its individuality,

214
00:13:22.639 --> 00:13:26.840
<v Speaker 1>as a substantive power among nations in the greater individuality

215
00:13:26.919 --> 00:13:31.120
<v Speaker 1>of a wide and powerful empire. This one indispensable and

216
00:13:31.200 --> 00:13:34.840
<v Speaker 1>at the same time sufficient expedient, which meets at once

217
00:13:34.919 --> 00:13:38.559
<v Speaker 1>the demands of justice and the growing exigencies of policy,

218
00:13:39.000 --> 00:13:41.279
<v Speaker 1>is to open the service of government in all its

219
00:13:41.320 --> 00:13:44.399
<v Speaker 1>departments and in every part of the Empire, on perfectly

220
00:13:44.440 --> 00:13:48.240
<v Speaker 1>equal terms to the inhabitants of the colonies. Why does

221
00:13:48.279 --> 00:13:50.799
<v Speaker 1>no one ever hear a breath of disloyalty from the

222
00:13:50.840 --> 00:13:55.720
<v Speaker 1>islands in the British Channel. By race, religion and geographical position,

223
00:13:55.799 --> 00:13:59.240
<v Speaker 1>they belong less to England than to France. But while

224
00:13:59.279 --> 00:14:01.799
<v Speaker 1>they enjoy a life by Canada and New South Wales

225
00:14:02.159 --> 00:14:06.399
<v Speaker 1>complete control over their internal affairs and their taxation, every

226
00:14:06.440 --> 00:14:08.720
<v Speaker 1>office or dignity in the gift of the Crown is

227
00:14:08.799 --> 00:14:14.840
<v Speaker 1>freely open to the native of Guernsey or Jersey. Generals, admirals,

228
00:14:15.120 --> 00:14:17.879
<v Speaker 1>peers of the United Kingdom are made, and there is

229
00:14:17.919 --> 00:14:21.240
<v Speaker 1>nothing which hinders prime ministers to be made from those

230
00:14:21.360 --> 00:14:25.080
<v Speaker 1>insignificant islands. The same system was commenced in reference to

231
00:14:25.120 --> 00:14:30.480
<v Speaker 1>the colonies, generally by an enlightened colonial secretary too early lost,

232
00:14:30.720 --> 00:14:35.440
<v Speaker 1>Sir William Molesworth, when he appointed mister Hincks, a leading

233
00:14:35.480 --> 00:14:40.480
<v Speaker 1>Canadian politician, to a West Indian government. It is a

234
00:14:40.600 --> 00:14:43.840
<v Speaker 1>very shallow view of the springs of political action in

235
00:14:43.879 --> 00:14:47.799
<v Speaker 1>a community which thinks such things unimportant, Because the number

236
00:14:47.840 --> 00:14:50.759
<v Speaker 1>of those in a position actually to profit by the

237
00:14:50.799 --> 00:14:55.919
<v Speaker 1>concession might not be very considerable. That limited number would

238
00:14:55.919 --> 00:14:59.039
<v Speaker 1>be composed precisely of those who have most moral power

239
00:14:59.159 --> 00:15:01.960
<v Speaker 1>over the rest, And men are not so destitute of

240
00:15:02.000 --> 00:15:05.320
<v Speaker 1>the sense of collective degradation as not to feel the

241
00:15:05.360 --> 00:15:09.120
<v Speaker 1>withholding of an advantage from even one person because of

242
00:15:09.120 --> 00:15:11.559
<v Speaker 1>a circumstance which they all have in common with him,

243
00:15:11.840 --> 00:15:15.320
<v Speaker 1>an affront to all. If we prevent the leading men

244
00:15:15.360 --> 00:15:18.320
<v Speaker 1>of a community from standing forth to the world as

245
00:15:18.360 --> 00:15:22.480
<v Speaker 1>its chiefs and representatives in the general councils of mankind,

246
00:15:23.120 --> 00:15:25.919
<v Speaker 1>we owe it both to their legitimate ambition and to

247
00:15:26.000 --> 00:15:28.600
<v Speaker 1>the just pride of the community, to give them in

248
00:15:28.639 --> 00:15:32.120
<v Speaker 1>return an equal chance of occupying the same prominent position

249
00:15:32.720 --> 00:15:36.039
<v Speaker 1>in a nation of greater power and importance. Where the

250
00:15:36.080 --> 00:15:39.279
<v Speaker 1>whole service of the British Crown opened to the natives

251
00:15:39.320 --> 00:15:42.320
<v Speaker 1>of the Ionian Islands. We should hear no more of

252
00:15:42.360 --> 00:15:45.840
<v Speaker 1>the desire for union with Greece. Such a union is

253
00:15:45.879 --> 00:15:48.240
<v Speaker 1>not desirable for the people to whom it would be

254
00:15:48.279 --> 00:15:51.960
<v Speaker 1>a step backward in civilization. But it is no wonder

255
00:15:51.960 --> 00:15:55.639
<v Speaker 1>if Corfu, which has given a minister of European reputation

256
00:15:56.000 --> 00:15:59.480
<v Speaker 1>to the Russian Empire and a president to Greece itself

257
00:15:59.519 --> 00:16:02.639
<v Speaker 1>before the arrival of the Bavarians, should feel it a

258
00:16:02.720 --> 00:16:05.679
<v Speaker 1>grievance that its people are not admissible to the highest

259
00:16:05.759 --> 00:16:10.600
<v Speaker 1>posts in some government or other. Thus, far of the

260
00:16:10.639 --> 00:16:14.480
<v Speaker 1>dependencies whose population is in a sufficiently advanced state to

261
00:16:14.519 --> 00:16:18.320
<v Speaker 1>be fitted for representative government, But there are others which

262
00:16:18.360 --> 00:16:21.200
<v Speaker 1>have not attained that state, and which, if held at all,

263
00:16:21.320 --> 00:16:24.240
<v Speaker 1>must be governed by the dominant country, or are by

264
00:16:24.279 --> 00:16:27.120
<v Speaker 1>persons delegated for that purpose by it. This mode of

265
00:16:27.159 --> 00:16:30.360
<v Speaker 1>government is as legitimate as any other if it is

266
00:16:30.399 --> 00:16:33.679
<v Speaker 1>the one which, in the existing state of civilization of

267
00:16:33.679 --> 00:16:37.600
<v Speaker 1>the subject people, most facilitates their transition to a higher

268
00:16:37.600 --> 00:16:41.039
<v Speaker 1>stage of improvement. There are, as we have already seen,

269
00:16:41.159 --> 00:16:44.960
<v Speaker 1>conditions of society in which a vigorous despotism is in

270
00:16:45.000 --> 00:16:48.200
<v Speaker 1>itself the best mode of government for training the people

271
00:16:48.279 --> 00:16:51.480
<v Speaker 1>in what is specifically wanting to render them capable of

272
00:16:51.519 --> 00:16:55.240
<v Speaker 1>a higher civilization. There are others in which the mere

273
00:16:55.279 --> 00:16:59.480
<v Speaker 1>fact of despotism has indeed no beneficial effect the lessons

274
00:16:59.480 --> 00:17:01.559
<v Speaker 1>which it tiq which is having already been only too

275
00:17:01.639 --> 00:17:04.759
<v Speaker 1>completely learned, but in which there being no spring of

276
00:17:04.759 --> 00:17:09.119
<v Speaker 1>spontaneous improvement in the people themselves, their almost only hope

277
00:17:09.119 --> 00:17:12.359
<v Speaker 1>of making any steps in advance depends on the chances

278
00:17:12.359 --> 00:17:16.720
<v Speaker 1>of a good despot Under a native despotism. A good

279
00:17:16.759 --> 00:17:20.000
<v Speaker 1>despot is a rare and transitory accident. But when the

280
00:17:20.000 --> 00:17:23.039
<v Speaker 1>dominion they are under is that of a more civilized people,

281
00:17:23.480 --> 00:17:26.119
<v Speaker 1>that people ought to be able to supply it constantly.

282
00:17:26.960 --> 00:17:29.039
<v Speaker 1>The ruling country ought to be able to do for

283
00:17:29.079 --> 00:17:31.960
<v Speaker 1>its subjects all that could be done by a succession

284
00:17:32.000 --> 00:17:36.920
<v Speaker 1>of absolute monarchs, guaranteed by irresistible force, against the precariousness

285
00:17:36.920 --> 00:17:41.759
<v Speaker 1>of tenure, attendant on barbarous despotisms, and qualified by their

286
00:17:41.759 --> 00:17:45.240
<v Speaker 1>genius to anticipate all that experience has taught to the

287
00:17:45.319 --> 00:17:48.880
<v Speaker 1>more advanced nation. Such is the ideal rule of a

288
00:17:48.920 --> 00:17:53.000
<v Speaker 1>free people over a barbarous or semi barbarous one. We

289
00:17:53.079 --> 00:17:57.000
<v Speaker 1>need not expect to see that ideal realized. But unless

290
00:17:57.039 --> 00:18:00.079
<v Speaker 1>some approach to it is, the rulers are guilty of

291
00:18:00.119 --> 00:18:03.759
<v Speaker 1>a dereliction of the highest moral trust which can devolve

292
00:18:03.960 --> 00:18:07.079
<v Speaker 1>upon a nation, and if they do not even aim

293
00:18:07.160 --> 00:18:10.400
<v Speaker 1>at it, they are selfish usurpers on a par in

294
00:18:10.440 --> 00:18:14.319
<v Speaker 1>criminality with any of those whose ambition and rapacity have

295
00:18:14.400 --> 00:18:17.160
<v Speaker 1>sported from age to age with the destiny of masses

296
00:18:17.200 --> 00:18:22.359
<v Speaker 1>of mankind. As it is already a common and is

297
00:18:22.440 --> 00:18:25.599
<v Speaker 1>rapidly tending to become the universal condition of the more

298
00:18:25.640 --> 00:18:29.759
<v Speaker 1>backward populations to be either held in direct subjection by

299
00:18:29.799 --> 00:18:33.119
<v Speaker 1>the more advanced, or to be under their complete political ascendancy,

300
00:18:33.960 --> 00:18:36.039
<v Speaker 1>there are in this age of the world few more

301
00:18:36.039 --> 00:18:39.559
<v Speaker 1>important problems than how to organize this rule so as

302
00:18:39.599 --> 00:18:41.599
<v Speaker 1>to make it a good instead of an evil to

303
00:18:41.640 --> 00:18:45.920
<v Speaker 1>the subject people, providing them with the best attainable present government,

304
00:18:46.319 --> 00:18:49.839
<v Speaker 1>and with the conditions most favorable to future permanent improvement.

305
00:18:50.960 --> 00:18:53.559
<v Speaker 1>But the mode of fitting the government for this purpose

306
00:18:53.640 --> 00:18:56.920
<v Speaker 1>is by no means so well understood as the conditions

307
00:18:56.920 --> 00:19:00.000
<v Speaker 1>of good government in a people capable of governing themselves.

308
00:19:01.079 --> 00:19:04.119
<v Speaker 1>We may even say that it is not understood at all.

309
00:19:04.480 --> 00:19:09.079
<v Speaker 1>The thing appears perfectly easy to superficial observers. If India,

310
00:19:09.240 --> 00:19:11.799
<v Speaker 1>for example, is not fit to govern itself, all that

311
00:19:11.880 --> 00:19:14.039
<v Speaker 1>seems to them required is that there should be a

312
00:19:14.079 --> 00:19:17.319
<v Speaker 1>minister to govern it, and that this minister, like all

313
00:19:17.359 --> 00:19:23.240
<v Speaker 1>other British ministers, should be responsible to the British Parliament. Unfortunately, this,

314
00:19:23.759 --> 00:19:26.680
<v Speaker 1>though the simplest mode of attempting to govern a dependency,

315
00:19:27.200 --> 00:19:30.079
<v Speaker 1>is about the worst, and betrays in its advocates a

316
00:19:30.119 --> 00:19:33.839
<v Speaker 1>total want of comprehension of the conditions of good government.

317
00:19:34.039 --> 00:19:36.839
<v Speaker 1>To govern a country under responsibility to the people of

318
00:19:36.839 --> 00:19:40.319
<v Speaker 1>that country, and to govern one country under responsibility to

319
00:19:40.359 --> 00:19:44.200
<v Speaker 1>the people of another are two very different things. What

320
00:19:44.279 --> 00:19:47.200
<v Speaker 1>makes the excellence of the first is that freedom is

321
00:19:47.279 --> 00:19:52.799
<v Speaker 1>preferable to despotism, but the last is despotism. The only

322
00:19:52.920 --> 00:19:56.640
<v Speaker 1>choice the case admits is the choice of despotisms. And

323
00:19:56.720 --> 00:19:59.400
<v Speaker 1>it is not certain that the despotism of twenty millions

324
00:19:59.519 --> 00:20:02.000
<v Speaker 1>is necess necessarily better than that of a few or

325
00:20:02.039 --> 00:20:05.079
<v Speaker 1>of one. But it is quite certain that the despotism

326
00:20:05.119 --> 00:20:08.519
<v Speaker 1>of those who neither hear, nor see nor know anything

327
00:20:08.559 --> 00:20:12.319
<v Speaker 1>about their subjects has many chances of being worse than

328
00:20:12.319 --> 00:20:15.160
<v Speaker 1>that of those who do. It is not usually thought

329
00:20:15.200 --> 00:20:18.240
<v Speaker 1>that the immediate agents of authority govern better because they

330
00:20:18.279 --> 00:20:21.279
<v Speaker 1>govern in the name of an absent master and of

331
00:20:21.359 --> 00:20:24.200
<v Speaker 1>one who has a thousand more pressing interests to attend

332
00:20:24.240 --> 00:20:27.960
<v Speaker 1>to the master may hold them to a strict responsibility

333
00:20:28.400 --> 00:20:32.599
<v Speaker 1>enforced by heavy penalties, but it is very questionable if

334
00:20:32.640 --> 00:20:37.319
<v Speaker 1>those penalties will often fall in the right place. It

335
00:20:37.400 --> 00:20:40.519
<v Speaker 1>is always under great difficulties and very imperfectly that a

336
00:20:40.559 --> 00:20:43.440
<v Speaker 1>country can be governed by foreigners, even when there is

337
00:20:43.480 --> 00:20:46.640
<v Speaker 1>no extreme disparity in habits and ideas between the rulers

338
00:20:46.640 --> 00:20:50.279
<v Speaker 1>and the rul Foreigners do not feel with the people.

339
00:20:51.000 --> 00:20:53.039
<v Speaker 1>They cannot judge by the light in which a thing

340
00:20:53.079 --> 00:20:55.799
<v Speaker 1>appears to their own minds, or the manner in which

341
00:20:55.799 --> 00:20:58.640
<v Speaker 1>it affects their feelings, how it will affect the feelings

342
00:20:58.720 --> 00:21:00.920
<v Speaker 1>or appear to the minds of the soul object population.

343
00:21:02.440 --> 00:21:05.799
<v Speaker 1>What a native of the country of average practical ability knows,

344
00:21:05.839 --> 00:21:08.920
<v Speaker 1>as it were, by instinct, they have to learn slowly

345
00:21:09.119 --> 00:21:13.519
<v Speaker 1>and after all imperfectly, by study and experience. The laws,

346
00:21:13.599 --> 00:21:16.960
<v Speaker 1>the customs, the social relations for which they have to legislate,

347
00:21:17.079 --> 00:21:20.160
<v Speaker 1>instead of being familiar to them from childhood, are all

348
00:21:20.200 --> 00:21:23.519
<v Speaker 1>strange to them. For most of their detailed knowledge, they

349
00:21:23.599 --> 00:21:26.759
<v Speaker 1>must depend on the information of natives, and it is

350
00:21:26.839 --> 00:21:31.359
<v Speaker 1>difficult for them to know whom to trust. They are feared, suspected,

351
00:21:31.559 --> 00:21:35.880
<v Speaker 1>probably disliked by the population seldom sought by them except

352
00:21:35.880 --> 00:21:39.160
<v Speaker 1>for interested purposes, and they are prone to think that

353
00:21:39.200 --> 00:21:43.440
<v Speaker 1>the servilely submissive of the trustworthy. Their danger is of

354
00:21:43.519 --> 00:21:47.279
<v Speaker 1>despising the natives, that of the natives is of disbelieving

355
00:21:47.319 --> 00:21:50.160
<v Speaker 1>that anything the strangers do can be intended for their good.

356
00:21:51.240 --> 00:21:53.440
<v Speaker 1>These are but a part of the difficulties that any

357
00:21:53.519 --> 00:21:56.680
<v Speaker 1>rulers have to struggle with who honestly attempt to govern

358
00:21:56.720 --> 00:22:00.599
<v Speaker 1>well a country in which they are foreigners. Overcome these

359
00:22:00.599 --> 00:22:03.200
<v Speaker 1>difficulties in any degree will always be a work of

360
00:22:03.279 --> 00:22:07.720
<v Speaker 1>much labor, requiring a very superior degree of capacity in

361
00:22:07.759 --> 00:22:12.200
<v Speaker 1>the chief administrators and a high average among the subordinates.

362
00:22:12.240 --> 00:22:15.200
<v Speaker 1>And the best organization of such a government is that

363
00:22:15.279 --> 00:22:19.160
<v Speaker 1>which will best ensure the labor, develop the capacity, and

364
00:22:19.240 --> 00:22:22.279
<v Speaker 1>place the highest specimens of it in the situations of

365
00:22:22.359 --> 00:22:27.319
<v Speaker 1>greatest trust. Responsibility to an authority which has gone through

366
00:22:27.359 --> 00:22:30.000
<v Speaker 1>none of the labor, acquired, none of the capacity, and

367
00:22:30.079 --> 00:22:32.680
<v Speaker 1>for the most part, is not even aware that either

368
00:22:32.960 --> 00:22:37.519
<v Speaker 1>in any peculiar degree is required, cannot be regarded as

369
00:22:37.519 --> 00:22:43.960
<v Speaker 1>a very effectual expedient for accomplishing these ends. End of

370
00:22:44.039 --> 00:22:51.000
<v Speaker 1>chapter eighteen. A recording by Bill Burst