And although in the case of South Africa, owing
to the urgency of the question of union, the time occupied in the
discussion was less than in the other great dominions, yet in the
Convention of 1908-9 the best brains in the country were occupied for
months in considering every detail of the proposal for union before it
was submitted to the Colonial and Imperial Parliaments for their
sanction.[26] And yet in the Mother Country, where centuries of military
and political conflict have given us the Union, it is considered that a
few weeks' consideration by a committee of the Cabinet, without advice
from independent constitutional experts,[27] and without formal
consultation even with the Government's own supporters outside the
Ministry, is sufficient to determine both the general form and the
details of a proposal for its dissolution.
In the confusion so engendered it may be useful to consider in some
detail the different proposals which have been or may be made under the
name of Home Rule, their special qualities and dangers, and the results
to which they may severally lead.
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