Page:The empire and the century.djvu/66

 Equally important on the other side is the existence of the monarchy as a binding link between the free States or nations which contain the bulk of the white population of the Empire. In the view of the Canadian or Australian the King is his King, but the real power of the 'Imperial Parliament,' whatever it may continue to be in theory, 'ends with the boundary of the watery main.' The Government virtually elected by the people of this country is not his Government, although it still, by consent, conducts some of his external affairs. The United Kingdom is far the oldest and still the richest and most populous of the free States of the Empire, yet it is but one of the States. Forms of action and speech still veil this fact, but as the Colonies grow even these forms are threatened with destruction. The Canadian is better aware of this than we in England are, and he knows also that within fifty years his young and vigorous nation, expanding in its wide territory, may probably equal in numbers and in average wealth the population of the United Kingdom, and in a hundred years will greatly exceed it. An eloquent French-Canadian speaker said lately in the Dominion Parliament: 'Nous sommes des adolescents courants vers l'âge viril. Notre état colonial n'est qu'un acheminement vers une existence plus noble et plus digne d'un grand peuple. Nous serons alors de puissants amis, des alliés devoués de l'ancienne mère patrie, mus par les mêmes sentiments de générosité et de loyauté.' Or, as Sir Wilfrid Laurier said in the same debate: 'The British Empire to-day is composed of nations; it is an aggregation of nations all bearing allegiance to the same Sovereign;' and he went on to say that it differed from previous empires because it rested on free consent.

If this 'allegiance to the same Sovereign,' this bond between each individual and a person, and between the Governments of self-ruling States and a common centre, were taken away, the one universally uniting element would be lost, and these nations would be but allies, and soon, perhaps, not so much as that. But because