Adams J.T. Empire on the Seven Seas. The British Empire 1784-1939
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LAST
YEARS OF
VICTORIA
tern,
but
that is
not
enough.
Men
cannot
govern
themselves
and
live
in a
free
society
with their
fellows
unless
they
have
character,
the
old
English
instinct for
compromise
and
fair
play,
and
a sense
of
responsibility.
It
was
the
last
of
these which
was
to be con-
spicuously
lacking
in
the
period
on
which we
are
now
entering.
Literature
was
changing rapidly. Kipling
was still
writing
at
top
speed,
but
in the
90'$
Thomas
Hardy,
Stevenson and
Meredith
all
published
their
last
notable
works. With the new
public
had
also
come
the
<c
best
sellers" of
vast
circulation,
such
as those
of
Marie
Corelli
and
Hall
Caine,
but
the newer
novelists
were
not
great
and
reflected
often
without
genius
the
more
sordid
aspects
of
the
period.
It
was
characteristic
that
there
was
much
demand for
books
on
trade
and
economics,
and in
these
years
the
Webbs
pro-
duced their
monumental and
still
standard researches
on Trade
Unionism
and
Industrial
Democracy.
American
influence was
felt
in
the establishment
of
public
libraries,
the
Scotch-
American,
Andrew
Carnegie,
having
been
the
leader
in
that
movement.
Interest in
art
was
reviving,
and the
foundation of the National
Portrait
Gallery,
the
Tate,
and the
Wallace
Collection,
among
the
most
important
of
London's
mu-
seums,
all date
from
the last decade
of
the
century.
There were
others
also,
which
either
date
from this
period
or were
greatly
enlarged
and
enriched,
such
as the National
Gallery,
the Victoria
and Albert
Museum,
and
many
in
provincial
cities.
Publishers'
figures
show that
the
largest percentage
of
increase
in books
published
was
in
the
field
of
poetry
and
drama,
though
in
the
first
department
this
was
more
of
an indication
of
public
taste
than
of
the
development
of
poetry,
which,
like
that
of
fiction,
produced
little
to
compare
with
the
earlier
Victorian
period.
Drama fared
better.
Pinero
and
Arthur
Jones
were
producing
their
plays, though
Bernard
Shaw,
who
had
published
ten,
had
not
yet
seen one on the
stage.
That
Shaw
was
eagerly
read,
however,
shows
how
changed
the
Victorian era
had
become,
and
the
revival
of
English
music was
marked,
both
in
composition
and
public
interest.
Among
the
new
composers,
who
were
many,
Edward
Elgar
easily
led,
and his
Dream
of
Gerontius,
composed during
the
South
307
EMPIRE
ON
THE
SEVEN SEAS
African
War
and while
the
old
Queen
was
still
living,
illustrates
the
many
conflicting
currents
at work
which became
more
obvious
in the
reign
of
Edward.
II. EDWARD
VII
Ascending
the
throne
in
his
sixtieth
year,
when
a man's
mental
habits are
set,
the
new
King
was in
many
ways
unprepared
for
his
task.
Victoria
had made the
Crown
not
only
the
symbol
but the
very keystone
of
the
arch of
Empire.
That
perhaps
was
her
great-
est
achievement,
though
the actual
political
power
of
the
Crown
had
declined. She
had, however,
exerted
very
considerable
influ-
ence within
a
narrowed
constitutional
field
owing
to
her
expressed
personal
reaction to matters of
state,
though
never
trespassing
over
the borders
of
her constitutional
position.
To
do
this
she had
to
know
affairs
and she
did
know them
intimately
from
painstaking
reading
and
consideration of state
papers throughout
her
entire
reign. During
her
long
retirement
after her
husband's
death,
liv-
ing
in her
widow's
dress and much
in
solitude,
she
was familiar
with all matters
of
national
policy,
and
statesmen
knew it.
If
she
could not
command,
she
was
consulted,
and
her
often
excellent
advice was
frequently
taken. As
a
symbol
her
age
and
the
length
of
her
reign
had to
offset her
lack of
social
brilliancy
and
her
infre-
quent public appearances.
In both
these
points
the
new
King
offered a
strong
contrast
to
the
late
Queen.
Partly
because
of the
temperament
and
character
of Victoria
and
partly
because
of
those of the
Prince,
he had
not
taken
his
father's
place
in
his mother's counsels
as
he
grew
older.
The
positions
of
both
a
Prince
Consort and
an heir
to
the throne
are
difficult. As
Edward went
through
early
manhood
and middle
age
with
the
glare
of
publicity
on him but
with
nothing
serious
to
do,
his
natural disinclination
to
mental
effort
increased. He
never had
cared
for
reading
or
study
and,
shut
off
by
his
mother
from
any
real
participation
in
public
affairs,
he had more
and
more
devoted
himself
to
his
life
as
a
mere
man of
fashion
and
the world.
Both
before
and
after his mother's
death he
performed
with
consummate
308
EDWARD
VII
tact
and charm
the
social
duties which
devolve
upon royalty
and
which
his
mother
had
abandoned.
The
result
was
that
during
his
brief
reign
the
real
power
of the
Crown tended
to
decline,
but
he
gave
it additional
prestige
and
splendor
as
a
symbol.
His
knowledge,
wide
rather
than
deep,
was
acquired
mostly
by
conversation,
and his
tastes,
though
not
highly
cultured,
were
such as to
make him
popular.
Even
though
he
spoke
English
with
a German
accent,
the
last
of
his house
to do
so,
he
was
accepted
as
a
thoroughgoing Englishman.
Even
the scan-
dals
connected
with
his
name were rather
willingly
accepted
in
a
society
fast
changing
and
in
revolt
against
the
rigors
of
Victorian-
ism. The British
like
pageantry
and
costume,
which
for
them
is
not
a
mere show
but
symbolically
links their whole
past
to
the
present,
and
they
like
also the
romance of
royalty
and
high
life.
Deeply
as the
old
Queen
had been
revered,
her
long
abstention
from
public
life had
hurt her
popularity.
For
nearly
twenty
years
she
had not
even
opened
Parliament
in
person
in
the
fine old
ceremony,
and
it was characteristic of
Edward
that he
did
so,
driv-
ing
from the Palace
to
Whitehall
in
the
glass
coach,
and with
all
the
display
of
former
days. Splendor
and
a
man who was
perhaps
the
leading
social
figure
in
Europe
had
replaced
the
quiet
retire-
ment
and almost
commonplace
life
of
the old
Queen
as
symbol
of
Empire.
That
splendor
was
to
continue,
but
it
is
probable
that
the
real
influence of Edward on
governmental,
and
especially
foreign,
affairs
was
formerly
overrated.
In
any
case,
the
ten
years
of his
reign
would have
been
troubled ones.
Turning
first
to
the
Empire,
we
may
note
its
increased
impor-
tance
in
the
eyes
of
Britain
by
the addition in the
title of
the
new
King
of
the
words
"and
of
the
British Dominions
beyond
the
Seas"
to
that
of "the
United
Kingdom
of Great Britain
and
Ireland"
and
Emperor
of
India.
Disraeli's rather
flamboyant
conferring
of the
title of
Empress
on Victoria
had never
really
pleased
the
public.
It had
somehow
an un-British
ring
to it. Edward's
title
really
ex-
pressed
something
new
which
had come into
British
consciousness,
the
feeling
of a
genuine
imperial
unity.
This was
due far less to
the
type
of
imperialism
of the
go's
than to the bond
which
had
devel-
309
EMPIRE
ON
THE
SEVEN SEAS
oped
from
the
brotherly
aid
given
in
the crisis of the
Boer
War,
al-
though
the word
"Dominions"
was
not
used
technically,
but
meant
all the
colonial
possessions
of
every
sort.
IIL
END
OF THE
BOER
WAR
AND
SETTLEMENT
The
King
had
come
to
the
throne
in the
midst
of
that
crisis
of
the
Boer
War
and
in
spite
of the
generous
terms
of
the
treaty
of
peace,
the war
had
left causes
for
even
deeper cleavage
than
be-
fore.
In
its
final
phase
it had been
an
affair of
guerrillas.
This
had
made
it
necessary
to
divide
the
country
into
districts
and
comb
them
for
persons
in
arms, who,
when
captured,
were
placed
in
concentration
camps.
These
were not
regular troops
but
civilian
men,
women,
and
even
children who
were
continuing
the
fight
and
preventing
any
order from
being
established. The
concen-
tration-camp
system
is
always
bad,
and
in
Cuba under
the
Span-
iards
its
abuses,
though
exaggerated,
had
done more
than
anything
else
to
goad
the United
States
into
war on
Spain
in
1898.
In
South Africa there
seemed to
be
no
other
method
available
for
bringing
peace,
but
there also the
system
worked with
appalling
results.
The
death
rate
in the
camps
ran
up
to
about 6
per
cent
of
the total
interned,
and some
of the
leading
British
statesmen
and
others
at
home
raised their voices
against
it,
especially
Campbell-
Bannerman,
who was
to become
Prime
Minister
at
the
end
of
1
905,
following
the
three-and-a-half-year
Ministry
of
Balfour.
He
was
bitterly
attacked
for
denouncing
the
horrors
of
the concentration-
camp
policy,
but he had won
the confidence of
the
Boers,
who
felt
that
he was
a
genuine
friend.
This
undoubtedly
was a
main
factor
in
the
remarkable settle-
ment
which
ensued. The
war
ended
with intense
bitterness
in
1
902.
In
general,
after a
good
fight,
the
British do
not nourish a
griev-
ance,
though
their
treatment
of
the
United States and
of
Amer-
icans
after
the Revolution
a
hundred
and
fifty
years
ago
forms
an
exception.
Within
three
years
after
the
Boer
War
it
was
suggested
that
representative
government
be
granted
to
the
conquered
re-
publics.
Although
this seemed
dangerous,
after
Campbell-Banner-
man
became
Premier a
much
farther-reaching plan
was
put
into
310
END
OF
THE
BOER
WAR
effect,
giving
first
the
Transvaal and
soon after
the
Orange
Free
State
full
responsible
government.
The
courage required
for
this
step
was
immense,
but
it was
well
repaid. Although
the
British
had won
the
war
they
allowed
Dutch
majorities
to
be
elected
not
only
in
the
conquered
Republics
but
also in
Cape Colony.
There
was,
however,
no
flaring
up
of
racial
feeling.
Instead there
was
a
demand at
last for
unification.
By
1910
a
unified state
had
come
into
existence
by
legislation
of
the
four
colonies,
confirmed
by
a
statute
of
the
imperial
Parliament,
and
South Africa took
its
place
in
the
British
Commonwealth as a
Dominion beside
Canada,
Aus-
tralia,
and New
Zealand.
It
was one of the
bravest
and
noblest
experiments
in
statesman-
ship
in
history.
There are
few
more
dramatic
moments
to
record
than when
Lord
Gladstone,
the
British
Governor-General,
handed
the
seals of
office
to
the first
Prime
Minister
of
the new
nation,
General
Botha,
late
commander
of the
Boer
armies who
had
fought
the
British.
The
story
of
the
Empire,
like
that
of
any
nation
and
of
almost
every
individual,
has had in
it
much that
was
sordid,
selfish
or
unwise,
but there
has also been much
that was
brave
and
idealistic,
and this act
of
statesmanship
deserves to rank with
the
great
deeds
of
Britain's
leaders
of its
navy
and
armies.
Its success
speaks equally
well
for the character of
the Boers.
On the
part
of
the
British,
moreover,
it
was not
an
act
of mere
generosity.
It
was
the
strongest
possible
proof
that the nation
of
marauders
in
early
days,
and of
"shopkeepers"
in
later,
had
learned the
lesson that
the
only
worth-while
life
must
be based
on
liberty,
and
that secu-
rity
comes
from freedom
and not
from force.
There
had
been
times,
during
the first
Empire,
when
various
American
colonies,
later to
revolt,
had
attempted
to
give
military
aid to the
Mother
Country
in
her
wars,
but
English political
thought
was then
provincial,
and efforts
at
co-operation brought
about ill rather than
good
feeling.
Two
centuries,
more
or
less,
had
wrought great
differences,
and
both
during
the
Boer War
and
in the
years intervening
between
that
and the
World
War,
the
attitude of the
Dominions
and
the
meaning
of
Empire
were better
appreciated.
Partly
as a result
of
the
Imperial
Conferences
and
3"
END
OF
THE
BOER
WAR
effect,
giving
first
the
Transvaal
and
soon
after
the
Orange
Free
State
full
responsible
government.
The
courage
required
for
this
step
was
immense,
but
it
was
well
repaid.
Although
the
British
had
won the
war
they
allowed
Dutch
majorities
to be elected
not
only
in
the
conquered
Republics
but also in
Cape
Colony.
There
was,
however,
no
flaring
up
of
racial
feeling.
Instead there
was
a
demand
at
last for
unification.
By
1910
a
unified state had
come
into
existence
by
legislation
of
the
four
colonies,
confirmed
by
a
statute of
the
imperial Parliament,
and
South Africa
took its
place
in
the British
Commonwealth
as a Dominion beside
Canada,
Aus-
tralia,
and
New
Zealand.
It
was one of the
bravest
and noblest
experiments
in
statesman-
ship
in
history.
There are
few
more
dramatic
moments
to record
than
when
Lord
Gladstone,
the
British
Governor-General,
handed
the
seals
of office
to
the
first
Prime
Minister
of
the
new
nation,
General
Botha,
late
commander
of the
Boer armies
who had
fought
the British. The
story
of
the
Empire,
like
that
of
any
nation
and of almost
every
individual,
has had in
it much that was
sordid,
selfish
or
unwise,
but there
has
also been
much that
was brave
and
idealistic,
and
this
act
of
statesmanship
deserves to rank with
the
great
deeds
of
Britain's leaders of its
navy
and
armies.
Its success
speaks
equally
well for the character
of
the
Boers.
On
the
part
of
the
British, moreover,
it was
not
an act
of
mere
generosity.
It
was
the
strongest
possible
proof
that
the
nation
of marauders
in
early
days,
and
of
"shopkeepers"
in
later,
had
learned
the
lesson
that
the
only
worth-while
life
must
be based
on
liberty,
and that
secu-
rity
comes from freedom
and not
from
force.
There
had been
times,
during
the
first
Empire,
when
various
American
colonies,
later to
revolt,
had
attempted
to
give
military
aid to the
Mother
Country
in
her
wars,
but
English
political
thought
was
then
provincial,
and
efforts
at
co-operation
brought
about
ill rather than
good
feeling.
Two
centuries,
more or
less,
had
wrought
great
differences,
and both
during
the
Boer War
and
in the
years
intervening
between
that
and the
World
War,
the
attitude of the
Dominions
and
the
meaning
of
Empire
were better
appreciated.
Partly
as
a
result
of the
Imperial
Conferences
and
EMPIRE
ON
THE
SEVEN
SEAS
partly
because
of
the
better
understanding
by
both
England
and
the
Dominions
of what
the
seemingly
loose but
really strong
ties
between
them
meant,
Canada,
Australia,
and New
Zealand
had
all offered contributions
to
the
defense
of the
Empire.
Canada,
which
was
immensely prosperous
and
adding
rapidly
to her
popu-
lation,
had
developed
plans
for a
Canadian
navy
to
be
used in
co-
operation
with
the British
fleet
in
time
of
war,
and
reorganized
her
military
forces.
Australia
and New
Zealand
both
adopted
uni-
versal
military
training
and
added
important
naval
contributions.
A
new
sense
of
responsibility
and
maturity
of
outlook was devel-
oping.
Without
freedom
there would
have been
mere
resentment
against
too
long prolonged
control,
but
with
it
came
a
sense of
unity,
which
was
to
prove
of
inestimable worth in the two World
Wars.
IV.
EGYPT
The
problems
in
Egypt
and India
were of
a
different
nature.
The
populations
were
ruled
by
the
British,
but were
themselves
of
an alien
race.
Among
the
main
currents
of
the
nineteenth
century
and our
own have
been
racialism
and
nationalism. These
helped
to
bind
the
British
portions
of the
Empire together,
but at
the same
time
they
tended
to create
trouble
in
the
non-British
portions.
Eng-
lish rule in
Egypt
had
wrought
great improvements,
but
more and
more
that
rule,
simply
because
it
was
alien,
came
to
be resented
by
the
native
politicians
and
their
followers.
The
religious
question
also
complicated
the
problem. Egypt,
with a
modicum
of nominal
self-government,
was
really
controlled
by
the
British
agent,
but
it
also
was
nominally
under
the
authority
of the
Turkish
Sultan,
Abdul
Hamid,
and
was Mohammedan
in
faith.
There
have been
few less
admirable
rulers of
great empires
than
Abdul. He
was,
however,
powerful
and
resented
the
increasing
European
control
of the Mohammedan
world
by
the
partition
of Africa
and
by
British
rule in
Egypt
and
India.
To
counter
the
increasing
demand
for
reform in
Turkey
itself,
he
realized
that
he
could
utilize the
wave of
religious
enthusiasm,
which
had
been
started
by
certain
Mohammedan
reformers,
to
buttress
his own
political
position.
312
IMPERIAL
PROBLEMS
The new
doctrine
of
Pan-Islamism,
which
was
fostered
by
Abdul,
was
essentially
anti-European
with one
important
excep-
tion.
That
was
Germany,
and
to
a
minor extent Austria. The
other
great powers
had
long
controlled,
or
recently
acquired,
power
over
Mohammedan
peoples.
The
Germans
had
not,
and
the
Kaiser
sud-
denly proclaimed
himself
the
protector
of
the Mohammedans.
The
political
motives
of
this
odd
situation
may
have
been
obvious
enough,
but the
Sultan needed
Western aid
in
reorganizing
his
army
and
administration,
and
he
gladly
employed
German
ex-
perts,
enlisted German
support,
and
aligned
himself
against
Russia, France,
and
England.
The
new
form
which
the
perennial
"Eastern
Question"
now took
was
to
have
important
repercussions
in
the
future. For
the
present
it
meant
mainly
that the
racial,
reli-
gious
and
nationalistic
movements in
Egypt
as
directed
against
England
could
look
to
Turkey
for
support.
There were
rioting,
assassinations
of
high
officials,
and
more or less
disorder,
but
a new
relation
between
Egypt
and
Britain
was to wait until
after the
end
of the
World
War.
V. IMPERIAL PROBLEMS
The
steady
increase
in
decentralization in the
Empire
and
the
granting
of
local
responsible governments
in
the Dominions
has
done
much,
as
we
have
seen,
to
bind the
Empire
together
by
the
bonds
of
similar
ideas,
sympathies, aspirations
toward
liberty,
and
a
feeling
of
brotherly
help
in
place
of the old
rigid
control
of an
Imperial
Parliament.
It
has
also
brought
a
multitude
of
problems,
some of which
are
too
unhappily
familiar to
citizens
of
the
fed-
erated
United
States.
A
division
of
sovereignty
or
power,
without
attempting
to define
the terms too
minutely,
raises difficulties.
The
British
Empire
is
not a
federal
union
of states. The
"Com-
monwealth
of
Nations"
is
a form
of
government
sui
generis,
but
it
involves
some
of
the
difficulties
which
the United
States has
experienced.
In
the
early days
of
the
Empire
the
clash
of
interests
between
its
various
parts
was almost
wholly
economic,
as between
New
Eng-
land
and
the
sugar
islands
of the
West
Indies,
but
with
its vast
313
EMPIRE ON THE
SEVEN
SEAS
later extension
have
come
racial
problems
as
well.
It
is conceded
that
the
Dominions have
the
right
to
prescribe
their
own
limita-
tions
on
immigration,
but
although
the
prohibition
of
Asiatics,
as
exemplified
in
the "white
Australia"
slogan,
followed
by
New
Zealand and Canada
(as
well
as the
United
States),
made trouble
when
Britain
was
in alliance with
Japan,
the
real
difficulties thus
far
have
come
from
inter-imperial
racial
movements. When
the
Union
of South Africa
was
formed
the biracial
white
problem
was
solved. That
of
the
Negroes
remained
but
was
in
process
of
solution.
We have
already spoken
of
the
problem
of the Indians
who had
been
imported,
and
when,
to
prevent
further
complica-
tions,
the
government
of the
new
Union limited
additional
Indian
immigration
and
placed
certain
restrictions
on
the
Indians
already
within its
borders,
trouble
began
which was to
have
far-reaching
effects.
Among
those
in Africa
was
M. H.
Ghandi,
now
generally
known
as Mahatma
Ghandi,
who,
like Samuel
Adams in
the
Massa-
chusetts
of
the
eighteenth
century,
was to
prove
one
of the most
forceful
agitators
in
history.
We have
already spoken
of
the
rapid
development
of the nationalistic and to
a
considerable
extent the
anti-Western movement
in
India. When Ghandi
returned
to
India
he had the
specific
grievance
to
exploit
that if
Indians were
citizens
of the
Empire, they
should
have
the
right
to live
and
move
about
freely
in
any part
of it.
By
1901,
there
were
nearly
2,500,000
In-
dians
scattered
about
in
other
parts
of the
Empire,
practically
all
of lower castes
and
laborer
class,
as
the
higher
castes
rarely
per-
mitted
emigration.
As
the
problem grew
with the
growth
of
nationalism in India
and
elsewhere,
it
could be
handled
fairly
well
(though
not
wholly
to
the
satisfaction
of
Indian
nationals),
as
the colonies
were
still
wholly
under
the
direction
of
the central
Imperial
Government in
London,
but
the
cases
of
the
semi-autonomous
Dominions offered
much
greater
difficulties,
chiefly
in
South Africa.
The
disputes
have never been
satisfactorily
adjusted,
and
Ghandi,
who
was
at
first on
the side
of
the
British,
became
disaffected
with immense
later
repercussions
on
Anglo-Indian
relations.
These
were
set
3H
INDIA
against
the
general
background
of
rising religious
discontent,
al-
ready
mentioned,
on the
part
of the
whole
Moslem
world.
Various
Mohammedan
peoples
were
being
absorbed
or
brought
under
control
of
the
Christian
nations of
Europe,
and
the
British
had
been
playing
their
part
or
had
been
making
no
protests
in the
gradual
absorption
of
Morocco,
Persia,
Tripoli,
and other
Moslem
countries.
VI.
INDIA
Another Indian
cause
of
complaint
was
the
increasing
pressure
on
the
soil due
to the
steady
increase
of
population
in the cultivated
areas-
These areas had been
increased
by
irrigation
and
modern
methods
of
dry
farming,
and
the
additional
pressure
on
the land
could
not
be considered
the
fault
of
the
British.
Nor could
the
blame
for
increasing
population
be
placed
upon
them
for abolish-
ing
certain evil customs
which
had
helped
to
keep
down
popula-
tion,
improving
sanitation and
justice
or
reducing
the former
huge
losses
from
plagues
and
famines.
Nevertheless,
the
pressure
was
intense.
It
has
been
estimated that
in
1911
some
217,000,000
per-
sons
lived on the
produce
of
260,000,000
acres,
of which
only
about
85
per
cent was
annually
planted.
The
rise
in
population
had
distinctly
altered
the
relation of the
peasant
to
the
land for
the
worse
in
the
preceding
two
generations.
It was another cause
contributing
to
the
general
uneasiness,
and in
the
decade
from
1901
to
1911
the
number
of
landless laborers
in
the Deccan rose
by
about
28
per
cent.
Another
topic
of
controversy,
though largely
among agitators
in
India and
England
rather than
among
the
general
public,
was
the
continued
receipt
of
taxes
from
the
sale of
opium
within
India
itself.
In
the twentieth
century
reformers
everywhere
were
more
and
more
becoming
insistent
that
it was
a
duty
of
government
to
interfere
with
the habits
and
even
morals
of
peoples
for
their
own
good,
another
evidence
of the
general
passing
of
laissez
faire
in
the
philosophy
of
the
times.
There
are
many
who consider
that
the
government
should
prohibit
the
use of
alcohol
and that
opium
is
far
more
deleterious.
The fact
that
the
government
did
not
prohibit
315