The True Conception of Empire
At the Annual Royal Colonial Institute Dinner,
Hotel Metropole, March 31, 1897
It seems to me that there are three distinct stages in our
Imperial history. We began to be, and we ultimately became a great Imperial
power in the eighteenth century, but, during the greater part of that time, the
colonies were regarded, not only by us, but by every European power that
possessed them, as possessions valuable in proportion to the pecuniary
advantage which they brought to the mother country, which, under that order of
ideas, was not truly a mother at all, but appeared rather in the light of a
grasping and absentee landlord desiring to take from his tenants the utmost
rents he could exact. The colonies were valued and maintained because it was
thought that they would be a source of profit — of direct profit — to the mother
country.
That was the first stage, and when we were rudely awakened by
the War of Independence in America from this dream that the colonies could be
held for our profit alone, the second chapter was entered upon, and public
opinion seems then to have drifted to the opposite extreme; and, because the
colonies were no longer a source of revenue, it seems to have been believed and
argued by many people that their separation from us was only a matter of time,
and that that separation should be desired and encouraged lest haply they might
prove an encumbrance and a source of weakness.
* * * [W]e have now reached the third stage in our history, and
the true conception of our Empire.
What is that conception? As regards the self-governing colonies
we no longer talk of them as dependencies. The sense of possession has given
place to the sentiment of kinship. We think and speak of them as part of
ourselves, as part of the British Empire, united to us, although they may be
dispersed throughout the world, by ties of kindred, of religion, of history,
and of language, and joined to us by the seas that formerly seemed to divide
us.
But the British Empire is not confined to the self-governing
colonies and the United Kingdom. It includes a much greater area, a much more
numerous population in tropical climes, where no considerable European
settlement is possible, and where the native population must always vastly
outnumber the white inhabitants; and in these cases also the same change has
come over the Imperial idea. Here also the sense of possession has given place
to a different sentiment — the sense of obligation. We feel now that our rule
over these territories can only be justified if we can show that it adds to the
happiness and prosperity of the people, and I maintain that our rule does, and
has, brought security and I maintain that our rule does, and has, brought
security and peace and comparative prosperity to countries that never knew
these blessings before.
In carrying out this work of civilization we are fulfilling what
I believe to be our national mission, and we are finding scope for the exercise
of these faculties and qualities which have made of us a great governing race.
I do not say that our success has been perfect in every case, I do not say that
all our methods have been beyond reproach; but I do say that in almost every
instance in which the rule of the Queen has been established and the great
Pas Britannica has been enforced, there has come with it greater
security to life and property, and a material improvement in the condition of
the bulk of the population. No doubt, in the first instance, when these
conquests have been made, there has been bloodshed, there has been loss of life
among the native populations, loss of still more precious lives among those who
have been sent out to bring these countries into some kind of disciplined
order, but it must be remembered that that is the condition of the mission we
have to fulfill. * * *
* * *You cannot have omelettes without breaking eggs; you cannot
destroy the practices of barbarism, of slavery, of superstition, which for
centuries have desolated the interior of Africa, without the use of force; but
if you will fairly contrast the gain to humanity with the price which we are
bound to pay for it, I think you may well rejoice in the result of such
expeditions as those which have been recently conducted with such signal
success in Nyassaland, Ashanti, Benin, and Nupé — expeditions which may have, and
indeed have, cost valuable lives, but as to which we may rest assured that for
one life lost a hundred will be gained, and the cause of civilization and the
prosperity of the people will in the long run be eminently advanced. But no
doubt such a state of things, such a mission as I have described, involves
heavy responsibility. In the wide dominions of the Queen the doors of the
temple of Janus are never closed, and it is a gigantic task that we have
undertaken when we have determined to wield the scepter of empire. Great is the
task, great is the responsibility, but great is the honour; and I am convinced
that the conscience and the spirit of the country will rise to the height of
its obligations, and that we shall have the strength to fulfil the mission
which our history and our national character have imposed upon us.