had taught them a method of coöperation and control higher, and in every way more successful, than that proposed by the champions of imperial federation.
Imperial federation, as understood by its supporters, was a defective theory. It would subordinate the part to the whole and this was not federalism in its true sense. The voice of the Australasian colonies would be lost and their influence overwhelmed if they were given representation in an enlarged British House of Commons or House of Lords, and there could be no central ministry or executive power which could function for all the empire without the sacrifice of some of the powers enjoyed and exercised by the several parts. In the Imperial Conference they had "created a new state of the realm, a new organ of public opinion and that without usurping a single prerogative either of the House of Commons or of Colonial parliaments."
Instead of imperial federation, meaning some form of centralization, they would have imperial coöperation which was federalism in its true sense. This might not at first be that "absolute unanimity" which they all desired but it would lead ultimately to that result. It would preserve their own individual freedom and the sovereignty of their parliaments and, at the same time, that spirit of wholeness for the empire without which no union could be successfully maintained.[1] Coöperation, the very essence of all true federalism was the new keynote of Australasian nationalism. Nor did it mean that the Australasian colonies would in the slightest degree shirk or evade their responsibilities either of peace or of war. There was a magnificence and a glory in the ideal toward which they were steadily moving. "I hope to see the time when a powerful fleet for which Australia shall pay, will patrol our coasts and prevent the approach of any hostile cruisers; and I may perhaps even hope to see the day when Australia shall send out for the control of these seas a fleet, built, manned, equipped and maintained by herself" which would give her the control of the Pacific. "The British Empire must consist of many centers, and to be effective
- ↑ Deakin’s speech at Essenden, July 4, 1887, Melbourne Argus, July 5.
