The Mother of Parliaments

Myr Chairman and Gentlemen,--I am really overwhelmed with the kindness of your reception and I am grateful to you for the manner in which, not only here in Toronto, but throughout Canada I have been welcomed by you and your compatriots. Before I arrived on your hospitable shores I was warned by a friend of mine who was well acquainted with you, and was indeed one of your fellow-citizens, that I must be silent in two languages. (Laughter) Well, I wish I could have followed his advice, but like a great deal of very good advice which is given it was impossible to follow it; for you have been so anxious to see me and hear me speak that it was not possible for me to retire into a tub and hide myself in the shade, like Diogenes of old. (Laughter) But I hope that you will not take me as a specimen of Parliamentary Speakers in the Old Country, for, truth to tell, except when I was elected to the chair, and except when I retired from the chair, I never spoke in the House of Commons for twenty-six years. I believe you come here because you want to see how a dumb man can speak. (Laughter) Well, I have been dumb, as I say, for twenty-six years; ten years when I was Deputy Speaker of the House and sixteen when I was Speaker of the House of Commons. Figuring it out roughly I find that I must have sat silent as Speaker--I leave out the Deputy Speakership altogether-for some 26,000 hours. How would a female Speaker get on? (Great Laughter) And on a rough calculation I have listened to some 60,000 Speakers; and yet I am alive to tell the tale. (Laughter) Well, I believe you have come to see what manner of a man can this be who has gone through this. Daniel in the Lion's Den was not any such person. (Laughter) However, joking apart, I believe that the magnificent reception which I have met with throughout the length and breadth of Canada has been a compliment which you have desired to pay to the Old House of Commons in the Old Country. (Applause)

As your Chairman has said, British institutions hold a very warm place in the hearts of the Empire Club of Toronto; and amongst those institutions the British House of Commons occupies a very high place. The reason is that the House of Commons is itself a microcosm of the people of the United Kingdom Its members exhibit all the best qualities of the British people, and I think they exhibit also some of their failings. The best qualities of the British people, as exhibited in the House of Commons, may be briefly summed up, I think, as being a strong love of justice, fair play to minorities however small, (hear, hear) a keen sense of honour, and above all, an overwhelming desire and determination for a clean and pure administration. (Applause) Because you honour and esteem those qualities, because you find them in the British people, and because they are reflected in the House of Commons, which is, as I say, a microcosm of the British People, you honour the late Speaker, who was the representative of the British House of Commons.

But I have said that the House of Commons also mirrors some of the failings of the British People. This perhaps would not be the time nor the place to dwell at great length upon them; but after taking a general survey it is only right to note them in passing. Unpreparedness of view and of organization is, I think, one of our weak spots at home; I do not say it is here-I say at home. A want of logic in the illumination of the questions which from time to time crop up before us; some haphazard method of dealing with issues as they arise; and a want of thrift; these, I think, are the worst things that can be said about the British People or the British House of Commons. I will not dwell on them; I will only say that I think since I left the chair the House of Commons has taken what is properly called a "pull" at itself and has become more economical. I understand it has passed a self-denying ordinance by which it has decided not to increase its own salaries and not to provide every member with a pass over all the railways of the Kingdom. Well, I congratulate the House upon that decision, more especially as it was a decision taken independent of the views of the Government.

I suppose that amongst the worst things that the critics would say of the British people is that they are slow to move; that they do not advance very rapidly. Well, at the risk of repeating what I have said elsewhere, it seems to me that for people, just as for the individual, it is not haste which is so much required as direction. The rate per hour at which we are moving is not so important as the point of the compass to which we are moving. (Applause) In other words, there is no use in moving with rapidity towards a precipice; (laughter) and I have quoted before and will quote again, a saying of Lowell's, I think, when speaking of change

Change, just for change, is like them big hotels Where they shift plates and let you live on smells. (Laughter)

Well, with regard to our domestic legislation, upon my word, I don't think that we are so very much behind our children-if I may be allowed to call the Dominions children of the Mother Country. I don't think we are so much behind. Mothers are always rather behind their daughters. Our daughters are inclined to be a bit faster than their mothers, but even mothers nowadays are trying to keep up. (Great laughter) We have shortened our skirts; we show our ankles a good deal; (laughter) we have got what is practically universal suffrage. You have in one of your parliaments a lady member; we have got two. (Laughter) You have got a good-sized national debt; we have got a bigger one. (Laughter) Your state railways are in some considerable financial difficulty; so are ours. (Laughter) Your labouring population show a considerable disinclination to work; so do ours. (Laughter) You occasionally have strikes; we have plenty of them. (Laughter) You have a burden of taxes; good Heavens! we carry about three times as much as you; and as for divorce, well, you have plenty of them, and we have twice as many. So that, all together, we are not so very far behind you. (Laughter)

During the forty years that I have been a member of the House of Commons I have seen a great advance along a number of different lines. 1 am not going to weary you with any account of our domestic legislation, but there is one point upon which I think the greatest advance of all has taken place, so far as I can remember, and that is in the relations which have grown up recently as developed between the Mother Country and the Dominions. (Applause)

About the time that I entered Parliament, in 1883, was just about the time when John Bright uttered those famous words,-"Perish India!"-as much as to say that the policy of the country and of his party was to let India go hang; it had nothing to do with the British Empirethat the British Empire would get along very well without India as a portion of it. That was in 1883. I remember a conversation which I had with Lord Derby, the Lord Derby of that day, who had been Foreign Secretary under Mr. Disraeli's Government, and had been Colonial Secretary under Mr. Gladstone's Government; a man of sound common-sense, who never spoke without considerable reflection, who weighed his sentences and his utterances very carefully. My conversation with him must have been about the year 1886 or 1887 and he then said to me that he saw no reason why the Dominions, if they wished to cut themselves adrift from the Mother Country, should not do so; that the Mother Country was not interested in their fate and they were not interested in the fate of the Mother Country, and they had no interest in continuing the close alliance between us. Well, that was the view, the considered view, of a man occupying a great position in the country and in the government of the country.

Now, just consider the difference between that picture and this. Consider the enormous space that we have travelled from that time till the present. No man, whether he be one who has occupied high offices or not, would at the present time hold for one moment such views as either Mr. John Bright or Lord Derby held in the year 1886. (Applause) I believe that such views as those, if propounded now-and it is almost inconceivable that they should be expressed in England-would be thought to be fraught with the greatest disaster to the Empire, as well possibly as to the Dominions themselves. (Applause) Ii was Lord Beaconsfield, as I conceive, who started the self-realization of our own Empire and what it meant to us. It was he who first planted that into the minds of the English-speaking people throughout the world; and what he planted, Mr. Joseph Chamberlain watered and the late war has brought to its fruition. (Applause) You thus see the gradual growth; Lord Beaconsfield instilling these views into the people as a finality; Mr. Chamberlain taking it up and continuing it, raising it, strengthening it until it became a firm and strong growing tree; and then came the war, which has developed it to such an extent that it is now impossible to consider that the link which binds us should ever be broken. (Applause)

Then the numerous Colonial Conferences which began in 1887 at the time of the Golden Jubilee of Queen Victoria have done much to cement the union between the Dominions and ourselves. This was continued in 1897 with the second Colonial Conference, as it was then called, and again in 1907; and in 1911 it rose to the dignity of calling itself an Imperial Conference. Now, there it is. During the war it was continued in the shape of the Imperial War Cabinet, and as I understand--I speak only as a man in the street, for I have no authority to speak upon those matters, for I have not for a great numbers of years held any official post in the Government, and have not been in the secrets of any Government of the last twenty-six years-I understand that at the present moment the Premiers of the different Dominions are in consultation with the Cabinet at home as to whether it is not possible to continue in some shape or form the Imperial War Cabinet, which was started for temporary purposes in the middle of the great war from which we have just emerged. (Applause) Whether it would be possible to strike the word "war" out of the title and substitute the word "peace", and call it the "Imperial Peace Cabinet," or whether ,ve can drop the words peace and war out altogether and call it the Imperial Cabinet as distinguished from the United Kingdom Cabinet, it is not for me to say, but that is one of the matters which no doubt will be considered.

I feel very strongly, however, and I hope that you feel equally with me upon this point-that it is extremely desirable that our Representative Dominion Prime Ministers, or Ministers, should be in close touch from time to time, and as frequently as possible, the more frequently the better, with the members of the Cabinet at home. (Applause) It is only by keeping in this close touch, and able to talk matters over between themselves as soon as difficulties arise, and not waiting until difficulties have assumed large proportions, (when they are far more troublesome than when they are still in embryo or of very diminutive proportions) it is only by constant conferences and discussions and mutual interchange of ideas that the Cabinet at home and the Cabinets of the Dominions can arrive at conclusions which will enable them jointly to follow some policy and prevent their diverging along different and it may be even opposing paths.

But in all this, let me say, there are two main principles which must obtain; first, there must be, both for the United Kingdom and for the Dominions, complete autonomy. (Hear, hear) That is really the main principle which should underlie the whole matter. The other principle is that any suggested change in our relations--and I think there must be some change, for the necessity of the time has forced that upon us-must come from the Dominions themselves and not from the home government. There was a time when a considerable number of persons in the United Kingdom thought that what was called Imperial Federation was very desirable, that is to say, that we should have in London a House of Commons sitting with representatives not only of Great Britain but also of the Dominions and of India. For a time that idea-I will not say held the field-was considerably supported. On investigation I do not believe that that idea is practical, because the moment you come to allocate seats in the House of Parliament to the populations of India and the Dominions in relation to population, it will be at once observed that the representatives of India would practically flood the whole of the rest. There are also enormous difficulties of time and space. It would be very difficult indeed, I take it, for representatives of Australia to be able to attend in a House of Commons, especially with the long sessions which we now have, lasting nine months out of the year; they would not have time to get back to their constituents at all, and unless they went back and made speeches to their constituents they would not likely be returned again. (Laughter) There are practical difficulties in the way, and therefore I think that for the present, until we overcome time and space even more than we have done of late years, that idea must rest in abeyance.

I venture to think, also, that the House of Commons is not quite the place for representatives of the Dominions. The House of Commons is the place where the great struggle goes on between the parties as to who shall be the top dog. If I may venture humbly to say so, that does not concern the representatives of the Dominions or of India; that is a matter which concerns entirely the electors of the United Kingdom. But, and I throw this out as a suggestion, it might be possible that in a reformed House of Lords-a reformed House of Lords converted into something more nearly approximating the Senate with which you are familiar, which is now, and which would probably become even still more, a little more than a large representative consultative committee-room might be found, and should be found, for representatives of Dominion opinion. I observe that that is not very warmly received. (Laughter) Well, possibly you may not have so high an opinion of the House of Lords as I have. (Laughter) I assure you that the House of Lords is a body where you will find quite as illustrious people as you will in the House of Commons. In the House of Lords you will find men who have distinguished themselves in the Navy, in the Army, in Diplomacy, in the Civil Service, in the ranks of the Professions, in Business, in the House of Commons itself. You will find men who have distinguished themselves quite as much as the big men in the House of Commons. You will find that in the House of Lords the level of the debates which take place is as high-I was going to say almost higher, though as a House of Commons man I am somewhat unwilling to yield that palm-but certainly as high as the debates which take place in the House of Commons; and there is no reason whatever why any doubt should be cast upon the ability of the House of Lords to perform extraordinarily valuable services to the State and to the Empire.

I throw that out as a suggestion for consideration; but one thing I do feel strongly, and that is that we should have the opportunity in London of consulting from time to time, and the more often the better, some representative from each of the Dominions-I will not say necessarily the Prime Minister, but some Cabinet Minister, and it would be very desirable if the Dominions could see their way to have a Minister permanently resident in London, or at all events resident there during the great part of the year, who would be in close touch with the Cabinet at home, and whom they could consult upon all matters in which the interests of the particular Dominion were concerned. (Applause)

But, however that may be, let us at all events be careful how we tinker with the old constitution.

A thousand years is scarce to form a state; An hour may lay it in the dust.

Let us remember that we are all citizens of one great Empire. You are not afraid of the word Empire, for that is the name of your Club. (Applause) I have found some people in Canada who were afraid of the word Empire, and preferred to call it a Commonwealth of Nations. Well, let us call it a Commonwealth of Nations to please them; we are all members of it; we owe allegiance to one crown; we hoist one flag; and I believe that we are all imbued by one spirit. (Applause) O'er the glad waters of the dark blue sea, Our thoughts as boundless and our souls as free Far as the breeze can bear the billows' foam, Survey our Empire, and behold our home.

(Loud applause, hearty and long continued)

Gentlemen, Your President has paid me a very high compliment indeed, in asking me to convey your thanks, with my own, to the Right Honourable speaker of today. Sir, it is eminently fitting that our friend should speak in Canada, he representing in no weak or improper sense the great British Empire. Nobody is afraid to speak of the British Empire, the modern British Empire. The British Empire is not an Empire in the old sense, although, thank God, it is and it is going to continue to be British. I am proud as a Canadian, I am proud as a Canadian historian, to say that it was Canada that made the modern British Empire possible. (Hear, hear) It was in Canada for the first time that it was shown to be possible that the daughter should be mistress in her own house while she was a daughter in her mother's house. When the United Empire Loyalists came across from the American Colonies in 1783, after the independence of the United States was acknowledged, they brought with them two principles-we shall not give up the old flag; we shall not sever ourselves from the rest of the British world; we shall insist upon our share of the institutions, of the glory, of the history, of the language of the British; they are in every respect ours. The other principle is equally well implied in their exodus into this land, and that is-come what may, we will govern ourselves. And it took a century from the time that Canada began to be British, in 1759, fully to work out the problems of constitutional government whereby it is shown to be possible that dependencies, so-called, can be independent in themselves. The colonies, so-called, governed themselves, but still at the same time they refused to sever their connection with the Mother Country. Here in Canada we have all the traditions and the glories of the Mother Country, and we have, most of all, her political institutions which were characterized by her House of Commons over which our friend has presided for so many years with such ability. Were it not for our free institutions, Canada would not be the country that she is.

My friend speaks about England being illogical. Logic may win a legal argument, but it will never win a cause. Of course we are not logical It is the glory of the British world, it is the glory of England, it is the glory of the daughters and sons of England, that her unwritten constitution is illogical. We are building more stately mansions on the old foundations. We are implanting and engrafting new shoots on the old stalk. We are retaining the old forms, imbuing them with the new spirit and the power; and the origin of that power is the great House of Commons of England over which our friend presided. I thank him for being here and bringing the message which he has given. Let him take home this message: he will find no stronger advocates, no more determined adherents of the British Empire than he will find in this City of Toronto and this Empire Club. (Loud applause) We are not afraid of the word Empire, so long as it is the modern, the new British Empire, which is just a little more than a hundred years old, or the new British Empire we are proud of. We are in no fear of that Empire ever going down in disaster -the greatest secular agency for good the world has ever seen, the home of liberty, the home of free speech, the land where, girt by friend or foe, a man may say the thing he will, the great British Empire of which our friend is the Standard-Bearer; and for his words to us today I, in your name as well as my own, convey our most hearty thanks. (Loud applause and three cheers, the audience rising.)