IMPERIAL GOVERNMENT.
but we do not wish to have the time of our representatives in Parliament occupied with the better government of Greater Britain to the exclusion of questions which intimately affect ourselves. Irish, Welsh, and Scotch affairs on the one hand, Imperial affairs on the other, will delay for many years those much-needed reforms which form part of the programme of the great Liberal Party (to which I am proud to belong) if our present system is unchanged. I therefore advocate, in the interest of England as well as of the British Empire, that Imperial affairs should be handed over to a body which from its constitution has the power, and from the nature of its functions has the leisure to deal with them. That body must be composed of representatives from Ireland, Scotland, and Wales, from Canada, Australia, and South Africa, as well as from England. We must be prepared to give up our exclusive control of foreign affairs and the Imperial army and navy to this body, in which, for a time at any rate, we shall have a preponderating influence. I have shown you that this sacrifice is worth the making, but it can only be made on one condition.
Imperial Defence borne by Great Britain.At the present time practically the whole cost of the army and navy (which not only defend our own coasts and our own commerce, but the shores of our remotest dependencies) is borne by the taxpayers of this country. It is the same with the cost of the diplomatic and consular services of which the Colonies derive the benefit as well as we ourselves. It probably has not struck many of the taxpayers that they are paying for defending people who are better able to pay than they are themselves. This state of things cannot long continue; at any rate, when the British taxpayer comes15
