STATESMEN, writers, and thinkers on Imperial questions, with the one exception of Lord Durham, do not seem to have foreseen in any measure how great a revolution would be worked by the forces of science, whereas the British Empire, as it stands before us to-day, is largely the outcome of the work of inventors and engineers.
It is possible that the facilities for interference supplied by scientific invention, if they had been supplied at an earlier date, might have militated against the grant of responsible government to the present self-governing dominions by removing in a sense the element of distance, which was the main reason for giving responsible government;* but by the time that steam and telegraphy had become fully effective, the dominions had reached the stage when self-government was imperative, and could no longer be denied.
It may fairly be said that the effect of scientific invention has been distinctly beneficial, as making for a better understanding between the Colonial Office and the dominions, at a stage in history when interference from home had already been discarded.
‘Responsible government’ means government that is responsible (i.e. answerable) to the public, and not to a monarch, his ministers or indeed a parliament of elected representatives alone. On the problems and deceptions involved in defining such terms, see the cautions of John Buchan, one of Canada’s outstanding Governors General, in Popular Misconceptions.