first scarcely sensible, while British
statesmen smiled condescendingly at the harmless aberrations of Colonial
inexperience. Another factor was the very fact that it was colonies that
the United Kingdom was dealing with, new countries where every other
interest was secondary to that of opening up and developing the untamed
wilderness, to creating the material framework which, in fulness of
time, might support a complete national life. There was consequently
little real interest in external policy in the Colonial assemblies,
little leisure for criticism of the Imperial authorities, little desire
to assert any particular point of view. Last, but not least, was the
factor of distance, interposing a veil of obscurity between the
different communities in the Empire; mitigating minor causes of
friction, keeping Colonial politics free from being entangled in the
British Party system.

The British system of Colonial self-government has so far proved
workable because of the exceptional circumstances in which it
originated. But its success cannot be regarded as wholly unqualified.
The failure to provide any direct representation of Colonial interests
and aspirations in the Imperial Parliament may not have mattered as far
as foreign policy and defence were concerned. But it did affect the
colonies most seriously from the economic point of view, for it
precluded them from pressing with any effect for the development of
inter-Imperial communications, or from resisting the abolition of the
system of preferential trade which meant so much to their prosperity.
Under the influence of a narrowly selfish and short-sighted policy,
inspired by English manufacturing interests, Canada saw the stream of
commerce and population pass by her shores on its way to the United
States. The relative progress of the British Colonies and of the United
States since the abolition of preference is some measure of the economic
weakness of a political system which has no common trade policy. In any
case the British Colonial system, as we have known it is inevitably
moving towards its crisis. The conditions under which it originated are
fast disappearing. The commercial and political expansion of Europe, of
America, of Asia, are bringing the Dominions more and more into the
arena of international conflict. The growth of foreign navies is forcing
them to realise the necessity of taking a larger part in their own
defence. Their growing national self-consciousne