Assembly. Conference is a better
method. Anyone who studies the proceedings of the last Imperial
Conference and observes the number and variety of the subjects discussed
and the numerous and valuable decisions arrived at, will realize how
much can be done by mutual good-will and the pressure of mutual
interest.[81]

It may be objected that, with one or two exceptions of quite recent
date, the Colonies have contributed nothing to the upkeep of the Empire,
except in the very indirect form of maintaining local military forces,
that their present tendency --unquestionably a sound tendency--is to
co-operate, not by way of direct money contribution to Imperial funds,
but by the construction of local Navies out of their own money, and, in
time of peace, under their own immediate control, and that Ireland
cannot be allowed to follow their example. The objection has no point.
Ireland, through no fault of her own, has reached a stage (if we are to
trust the Treasury figures) where she no longer pays any cash
contribution to Imperial expenses, nor is it possible to look back with
any satisfaction upon the enormous total of her cash contributions in
the past. They were not the voluntary offerings of a willing partner,
but the product of a joint financial system which, like all consequences
of a forced Union, was bad for Ireland. If we consider that a similar
attempt to extort an Imperial contribution from the American States led
to their secession; that the principle was definitely abandoned in the
case of the later Colonies; that, on the contrary, large annual sums
raised in these islands were, until quite recent times, spent for
purposes of defence within these Colonies; that in the South African War
two hundred and fifty million pounds were spent in order to assist
British subjects in the Transvaal to obtain the rights of freemen in a
self-governing Colony; and that to this day indirect colonial
contributions in the shape of local expenditure are small in proportion
to the immense benefit derived from the protection of the Imperial Navy,
Army, and Diplomacy, and from the assistance of British credit; if we
then reflect that before the Union Ireland was, in the matter of
contribution, somewhat in the same position as Canada or Australia
to-day--that is, paying no fixed cash tribute, but voluntarily assuming
the burden, very heavy in time of war, of certain Army establishments;
that for seventeen years after the Union contributio