The New Orleans bulletin. [volume] (New Orleans [La.]) 1874-1876, 1876-03-22
BRITONS WANT NO EMPRESS.

A prolonged debate occurred in the Com.
mons on March 18th, on q bill to confer
on the Queen the title Of Empress Of India.
The discussion began soon after dinner and
lasted until after midnight At first it was
tame and technical, but the interest increased
to intensity as speech after speech was made
on either side. There was developed an un-
usual warmth and energy of feeling in oppo-
sition, which took the government somewhat
BY surprise. The vote being taken the propo-
sition was rejected by large majority, leav.
ing the venerable and very amiable Victoria
to bear quietly through the remnant of her
reign the title which satisfied her ancestors,
and which she, perhaps, personally prefers to
the more lofty sounding one which was pro-
posed.
There is little that is sanctioned By law or
justified by precedent or in conformity
with the spirit of British institutions, which
either the Lords or Commons would with
hold from the good lady who has grown in the
love and admiration Of her countrymen during
reign of nearly forty years. But If Britons
esteem their Sovereign according to her vir-
tues and in proportion to the exalted charac-
ter of her great Office, they esteem the rights
and liberties Of British subjects equally as
much. They call her WIDE realm the British
Empire" but they are not willing to enlarge
the title Of the Queen by calling her an EN-
press over the whole or any part Of the do
main upon which "the sun never sets. p"
Imperial authority is welded over the whole.
not by person. but by government repre-
senting . nation, Q government which is
the embodied will of sovereign, peers
and Commons. 1t is personi6ed Britain
which rules over India as well Is over Canada,
Australia or South Africa. They salute Bril-
tannis with imperial honors; but Britons at
home are jealous Of the liberties Of Britons
abroad, and are suspicious Of any measure
out of which may grow innovations upon the
order Of government. They are
not willing to bestow upon Victoria title
that would indicate anywhere that she was
more than Queen as to any portion of her
subjects, or . title which, descending to her
son or other successor, might be made pre-
text for enlarging the sphere of executive
function and royal prerogative. Strongly in
clined as they are to maintain the crown in ell
it's dignity and all its appertaining rights and
constitutional authority, they have no more
desire to enlarge than they have to curtail
them.
The advocates of the new title probably
urged that the relations of the crown to the
East Indians were unlike those to the people
Of other colonies, or Of the home islands, and
that because the Sovereign, through her civil
and military agents, exercises imperial sway
over hundreds of millions who can now only
appeal ffom.her authority to that Of the Parlis-
ment, she should, therefore, be known by
them under . tile that will indicate to them
their relations to her and the government
which she represents. Plausible as such an
may have seemed, there was not
enough in it to induce the Commons to take
! departure 90 ct variance with the Lawn, Gus
Eoms, Institutions and prejudices Of the Brit
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