Page:Problems of Empire.djvu/181

CANADIAN MANUFACTURERS. , France, and the United States—rival nations—have all been bending their efforts to build up their naval strength. England must keep pace with them or lose the command of the sea. To provide funds for the increase of the Navy, additional taxation has been imposed. The estate duties, for instance, imposed by Sir William Harcourt, press very heavily on a particular class. Many people have been taxed out of their homes. The maintenance of the British Navy is of the greatest importance to Canada; for if the command of the sea be lost she could not, in time of war, send her 125,000,000 dollars' worth of exports to the mother country. Is it not fair, then, that she should contribute to its support? We in the mother country do not expect Canada, however, to contribute to the support of the Navy till she is given a voice in the control of Imperial affairs. To provide for Colonial representation under our present constitutional arrangements is very difficult, if not impossible. While every Canadian is subject to three Legislatures—the Provincial Parliament, the Dominion Parliament, and the Imperial Parliament, in which at present he is not represented, we in the old country have only one Parliament—to deal with the business of the Empire, questions affecting the United Kingdom as a whole—such as would be dealt with in Canada by the Dominion Parliament and the special interests of England, Wales, Scotland, and Ireland, which here would be under the control of your Provincial Parliaments. It is admitted on all hands that Parliamentary government is breaking down beneath the load. Our task, therefore, is to rid the Imperial Parliament of all local business by the establishment of subordinate legislatures in the several 163