CHAPTER XII THE IMPERIAL SECRETARIAT, 1768 HOUGH Pownall's work was ineffective in so far as TH he tried to convert the English and American people to the idea that that which had existed for a century and a half as the British Empire was really a British Unitary State, it had, in another direction, an immediate and direct result. The real purpose of his book, as it was originally written, was to advocate a reform in the Home Administration of the Empire. The important point that he made was that the business of the British State relating to the Empire in America— that is, the relations between Great Britain and the Col. onies-ought properly to be in the charge of a Secretary of State. This amounted to saying that the relations with the Colonies were, by the nature of things, differentiated from both the domestic and the foreign relations of Great Britain, since a Secretariat of State is one of the great and fundamental Departments of the business of the State, which exists because of the permanent and fundamental differences in the functions of the State in some of its relations from those which it has in other relations. This proposition of Pownall's brought into clear light a distinction regarding the functions of the State, which, though acted upon from the time when the relations with the dependencies were placed in the advisory charge of a Committee of the Privy Council distinct from the Committee having charge of either the domestic or foreign affairs of the State, had never been clearly stated. meant that thereafter the British State was to be recognized as the subject and object of a new class of obligations. Up to that time, only two classes of obligations to which the State was subject in time of peace had been recognized — obligations which it owed to its own inhabitants and municipal corporations, which it performed through the instrumentality of a Secretary or a Secretarial Board for Home Affairs, and those which it owed to foreign States and their inhabitants and municipal corporations, which it performed through the instrumentality of a Secretary or Secretarial Board for Foreign Affairs. The obligations of the State to its own inhabitants and municipal corporations were determined by its Constitution, by the unwritten law, and by the will of its Legislature; its obligations to foreign States and their inhabitants and municipal corporations were determined by treaty or by the rules of international law. The proposition to place the relations between Great Britain and the American Colonies in the charge of a Secretariat of State, therefore necessarily implied that the Colonies were neither integral parts of the Realm nor foreign States, and that the relations between them were neither domestic nor foreign relations, but were of a different kind from either, to be determined neither by the Constitution, the unwritten law, or the statutes of the State, nor by treaties or the international law, but by an equity derived from all these, as principles. At the time Pownall wrote, though the difference in functions between the Home Department and the Foreign Department was recognized, there did not exist in Great Britain a Home Secretary and a Foreign Secretary having charge of the respective duties of these Departments. There were two Principal Secretaries of State, but their duties were determined arbitrarily and geographically, instead of rationally and scientifically. One Secretary had charge of what was called the Northern Department, including Denmark, Flanders, Germany, the German Principalities and States, Holland, Poland, Saxony, Prussia, Russia, and Sweden; and the other of the Southern Department, which included England, Scotland, Ireland, the Channel Islands, the Isle of Man, the other islands near Great Britain, the American and West Indian Colonies, the East Indian establishments, France, Spain, Portugal, Switzerland, Italy, the Barbary States, and Turkey. The Secretary of State for the Southern Department was thus the Secretary of State for Home and Imperial Affairs and in part for Foreign Affairs; and the Secretary for the Northern Department the Secretary in part for Foreign Affairs. In advocating the establishment of a Secretariat of State to have charge of the relations with the Colonies, Pownall said: The forming some general system of administration, some plan which should be (whatever may be the changes of the Ministry at home, or in the Governors and officers employed abroad) uniformly and permanently pursued by measures founded on the actual state of things as they arise, leading to this great end, is, at this crisis, the precise duty of Govern ment. To enable the British nation to profit of these present circumstances, or of the future events, as they shall successively arise in the natural procession of effects, it is necessary that the Administration form itself into such establishments for the direction of these interests [the British commercial interests] and powers, as may keep them [the Colonial commercial interests then beginning to arise] in their natural channel, as may maintain their due connections with the Government, and lead them to the utmost effect they are capable of producing towards this grand point. The first spring of this direction, the basis of this government, is the Administration at home. If that Department of the Administration which should have the direction of these matters, be not wisely and firmly bottomed, be not so built, as to be a practical-be not so really supported by the powers of the Government, as to be an efficient Administration, all measures for the administration of these interests, all plans for the government of these powers are vain and self-delusive; even those measures that would regulate the movements and unite the interests under a practical and efficient Administration, become mischievous meddling impertinences where that is not, and must either ruin the interests of these powers, or render a breach of duty necessary to the Colonies that they may avoid that ruin. That part of the Government, which should administer this great and important branch of business, ought, in the first place, to be the center of all information and application from all the interests and powers which form it; and ought from this center, to be able, fully, uniformly, and efficiently, to distribute its directions and orders. Wherever the wisdom of State shall determine that this center of information shall be fixed; from whatever Department all appointments, orders, and executive administration shall issue, it ought somewhere to be fixed, known, of record, and undivided. That it may not be partial, it ought to extend to all times, and all cases. All application, all communication, all information should center immediately and solely in this Department. This should be the spring of all nominations, instructions, and orders. It is of little consequence where this power of administration is placed, so that the Department be such as has the means of the knowledge of its business, is specially appropriated to the attention necessary to it, and officially so formed as to be in a capacity of executing it. Whether this be a Secretary of State, or the Board of Trade and Plantations, is of no consequence; but it ought to be entirely in either the one or the other. Where the power for the direction is lodged, there ought all the knowledge of the Department to center; therefore all officers, civil or military, all servants of the Government, and all other bodies or private persons ought to correspond immediately with this Department, whether it be While the the Secretary of State or the Board of Trade. military correspond with the Secretary of State, the civil in one part of their office with the Secretary of State, in another with the Board of Trade; while the navy correspond in matters not merely naval with the Admiralty, while the engineers correspond with the Board of Ordnance, officers of the revenue with the several Boards of that branch, and have no communication with the Department which has, or ought to have, the general direction and administration of this great Atlantic and American, this great commercial interest, who is to collect-who does, or ever did collect-into a one view, all these matters of information and knowledge? What Department ever had, or could have, such general direction of it, as to discuss, compare, rectify and regulate it to an official real use? In the first place, there never was yet any one Department formed for this purpose; and in the next, if there was, let any one acquainted with business dare to say, how any attempt of such Department would operate on the jealousies of the others. Whenever, therefore, it is thought proper, (as most certainly it will, some time or other, though perhaps too late), to form such Department, it must (if I may so express myself) be sovereign and supreme, as to every thing relating to it; or to speak plainly out, must be a Secretary of State's office in itself. When such is formed, although the military, naval, ordnance, and revenue officers should correspond, in the matters of their respective duties, with the Departments of the Government to which they are more immediately subordinate and responsible, yet, in general matters of information, or points which are matters of government, and the department of this State Office, they should be instructed to correspond and communicate with this Minister. Suppose that some such Minister or Office now existed, is it not of consequence that he should be acquainted with the geography of our new acquisitions? If, therefore, there have been any actual surveys made of them, should not such, or copies of such, be sent to this Minister or Office? If a due and official information of any particular conduct in our Colonies, as to their trade, might lead to proper regulations therein, or might |