It is essential, therefore, that in all wars, save
those which, like the Caffre or New Zealand wars, are incurred for the
sake of the particular colony, the colonists should not (without their
own voluntary request) be called on to contribute anything to the
expense, except what may be required for the specific local defence of
their ports, shores, and frontiers against invasion. Moreover, as
the mother country claims the privilege, at her sole discretion, of
taking measures or pursuing a policy which may expose them to
attack, it is just that she should undertake a considerable portion of
the cost of their military defence even in time of peace; the whole of
it, so far as it depends upon a standing army.
But there is a means, still more effectual than these, by which, and
in general by which alone, a full equivalent can be given to a smaller
community for sinking its individuality, as a substantive power
among nations, in the greater individuality of a wide and powerful
empire. This one indispensable and, at the same time, sufficient
expedient, which meets at once the demands of justice and the
growing exigencies of policy, is to open the service of Government
in all its departments, and in every part of the empire, on
perfectly equal terms, to the inhabitants of the Colonies. Why does no
one ever hear a breath of disloyalty from the Islands in the British
Channel? By race, religion, and geographical position they belong less
to England than to France.
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