Page:Problems of Empire.djvu/28

 PROBLEMS OF EMPIRE. question, which has troubled English and French statesmen for more than a century, can only be settled satisfactorily to all parties concerned, on the basis of the complete extinction of the French rights on the shores of Newfoundland, which are almost valueless to the French themselves: but, as I have said before, intolerable to the Newfoundlanders. Sensible Frenchmen take this view of the case; we must be prepared to make considerable concessions elsewhere, but it is worth making a considerable sacrifice for the benefit of 200,000 of our English-speaking fellow-countrymen. Now the history of Newfoundland during the past year is, as I have said, only one instance of many that prove how unsatisfactory our present system is. We are brought to the conclusion that the external relations of Colonies inhabited by 11,000,000 of free self-governing English subjects, nearly 10,000,000 of whom are Englishmen, cannot be managed in a Government office, supervised by an Assembly in which not one of the Colonies, immediately interested, is represented. These relations are too important to be dealt with in this way. They must be dealt with by an Assembly where the Colonies are represented.

India is a very important part of the British Empire. We Englishmen have undertaken to govern in India a population about ten times our own number, a population which forms a very large part of the human race. The responsibility is enormous, and yet how much of the time of Parliament is given to the consideration of Indian questions? At most, one or two days, and those at the fag end of a session, when half of the Members have left. Parliament is practically absolute in dealing with India, and considering the imperfect 10