War of Independence, the genius of Alexander Hamilton used the tariff as a means of evoking order out of chaos, and moulding the jarring fragments of a broken Empire into a new nation. 'Whatever we may think of it now,' said Daniel Webster in a celebrated passage, 'the Constitution was the child of pressing commercial necessity.' Every attempt to bring the revolted Colonies into harmony for other purposes had failed, and Webster continues, in words which have an extraordinary aptness to the case of the Mother Country and her Colonies to-day:
'The exigency of the case, called for a new movement, for a more direct and powerful attempt to bring the good sense and patriotism of the country into action upon the crisis. A solemn assembly was therefore proposed—a general convention of delegates from all the States. And now, sir, what was the exigency? What was this crisis? Look at the resolution itself. There is not an idea in it but trade. Commerce, commerce, is the beginning and end of it.'
The passage is an almost startling tribute to the political efficacy of 'sordid bonds.' Similarly, in the British Empire preference must precede federation. Its case appears, at a superficial view, more complex and unpromising than that of the thirteen Colonies, but is in reality less so. We have, for all practical purposes, but six great units to coordinate. Let Britain, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, the South African Colonies, and India frame an agreement upon the principle of relative advantage in Imperial markets for all the members of the group as against foreign competition, and the work is done. A task of its nature difficult and delicate indeed, but, with the predisposition to agreement, manageable. The Colonies will assuredly not enter at first into a Kriegsverein. They are not represented at Westminster or in the Cabinet, they have no voice in British foreign policy, and they will make no agreement to give definite military or financial support for purposes over which they have no control. And if, on the other hand, representation means taxation, as it must, the Colonies at present are not ready for federation upon that basis.
