IMPERIAL GOVERNMENT.
Speech at Epsom, 1892.
Inability of Parliament to cope with the work of Empire.It must be clear to every sensible man that the task imposed on our present Imperial Parliament is absolutely beyond the capacity of a single assembly. The House of Commons attempts to deal with the internal affairs of Ireland, Wales, Scotland, and England. Judging by the time that Irish affairs now occupy in Parliament, when there are so many other important things to be considered, the regulation of the internal affairs of Ireland alone is a sufficient task for any representative body, and I am sure that most people in this room will agree with me when I say that the domestic government of some 30,000,000 of Englishmen, a business which is now very much left on one side, would give ample scope to the energies and talents of any body of legislators, however energetic, and however capable. The House of Commons, again, attempts to supervise the Government of some 250,000,000 of the human race in India. If that supervision is to be effective, and, mind you, it ought to be effective, for we have undertaken in India enormous responsibilities, far more time must be given to Indian questions by people who are far more intimately acquainted with them than the average Member of the British House of Commons. I need not now speak of the Administration of our various Crown Colonies and Dependencies, or of the
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