The British peoples have acquired by long practice in very various
politics a way of making existing arrangements "do" with some slight
patching. They are instinctively seized of the truth of Edmund Burke's
maxim, "Innovation is not improvement." They have "muddled along" into
precisely the institutions that suit any exigency, their sanest
political philosophers recognizing that the exigency must always be
most amenable to the most flexible system.
It is because the existing arrangements between London and the several
Dominion capitals don't suit logicians that they do suit experienced
statesmen pretty well. Because these institutions can be patched as
occasion may require, they are retained for patching on occasion.
Because the loose, go-as-you-please organization of the so-called
"empire" has revealed almost incredible unity of sentiment and purpose,
practiced statesmen regard it as a prodigious success. They are mighty
shy of affiliating with any of the well-meaning doctrinaires who have
been explaining any time within the last century that the system is
essentially incoherent and absurd and urgently needs profound change
with doctrinaire improvements.
Sir Robert Borden, for instance.
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