they merely assisted at the crucifixion of the British Empire. The conduct of the new
India in the next few decades will decide this question.
The idea for federation of the Empire was not original with the Round Table Group,
although their writings would indicate that they sometimes thought so. The federation
which they envisaged had been worked out in detail by persons close to the Cecil Bloc
and was accepted by Milner and Rhodes as their own chief goal in life.
The original impetus for imperial federation arose within the Liberal Party as a
reaction against the Little England doctrines that were triumphant in England before
1868. The original movement came from men like John Stuart Mill (whose arguments in
support of the Empire are just like Curtis's) and Earl Grey (who was Colonial Secretary
under Russell in 1846-1852).(10)
This movement resulted in the founding of the Royal Colonial Society (now Royal
Empire Society) in 1868 and, as a kind of subsidiary of this, the Imperial Federation
League in 1884. Many Unionist members of the Cecil Bloc, such as Brassey and
Goschen, were in these organizations. In 1875 F. P. Labilliere, a moving power in both
organizations, read a paper before the older one on "The Permanent Unity of the Empire"
and suggested a solution of the imperial problem by creating a superimposed imperial
legislative body and a central executive over the whole Empire, including the United
Kingdom. Seven years later, in "The Political Organization of the Empire," he divided
authority between this new federal authority and the Dominions by dividing the business
of government into imperial questions, local questions, and questions concerning both
levels. He then enumerated the matters that would be allotted to each division, on a basis
very similar to that later advocated by Curtis. Another speaker, George Bourinot, in 1880,
dealt with "The Natural Development of Canada" in a fashion that sounds exactly like
Curtis.(11)
These ideas and projects were embraced by Milner as his chief purpose in life until,
like Curtis, he came to realize their impracticality. (12) Milner's ideas can be found in his
speeches and letters, especially in two letters of 1901 to Brassey and Parkin. Brassey had
started a campaign for imperial federation accompanied by devolution (that is, granting
local issues to local bodies even within the United Kingdom) and the creation of an
imperial parliament to include representatives of the colonies. This imperial parliament
would deal with imperial questions, while local parliaments would deal with local
questions. In pursuit of this project, Brassey published a pamphlet, in December 1900,
called
him. Milner accepted in February 1901, saying:
“There are probably no two men who are more fully agreed in their general view of
Imperial policy [than we].... It is clear to me that we require separate organs to deal with
local home business and with Imperial business. The attempt to conduct both through one
so-called Imperial Parliament is breaking down.... Granted that we must have separate
Parliaments for Imperial and Local business, I have been coming by a different road, and
for somewhat different reasons, to the conclusion which you also are heading for, viz:
that it would be better not to create a new body over the so-called Imperial Parliament,
but . . . to create new bodies, or a new body under it for the local business of Great
Britain and Ireland, leaving it to deal with the wider questions of Foreign Policy, the
Defence of the Empire, and the relations of the several parts. In that case, of course, the
colonies would have to be represented in the Imperial Parliament, which would thus
become really Imperial. One great difficulty, no doubt, is that, if this body were to be
really effective as an instrument of Imperial Policy, it would require to be reduced in
numbers.... The reduction in numbers of British members might no doubt be facilitated
by the creation of local legislatures.... The time is ripe to make a beginning.... I wish
Rosebery, who could carry through such a policy if any man could, was less pessimistic.”
The idea of devolving the local business of the imperial parliament upon local
legislative bodies for Scotland, England, Wales, and Ireland was advocated in a book by
Lord Esher called
Wood (the future Lord Halifax). These books, in their main theme, were nothing more
than a restatement of this aspect of the imperial federation project. They were
accompanied, on 4 June 1919, by a motion introduced in the House of Commons by
Wood, and carried by a vote of 187 to 34, that "the time has come for the creation of
subordinate legislatures within the United Kingdom." Nothing came of this motion, just
as nothing came of the federation plans.