if all colonies eventually became self-governing. Among other concerns, it would be very difficult for British interests to be maintained if every colony was essentially already sovereign. Creating an Imperial Federation thus became a popular alternative proposal to colonial imperialism. The plan was never firm, but the general proposal was to create a single federal state among all colonies of the British Empire. The federation would have a common parliament and would be governed as a superstate. Thus, Imperial unity could be maintained while still allowing for democratic government. The colonies would increase their influence while Britain would be able to share the costs of imperial defence. The best features of large states could be combined with the best features of small states. It was seen as a method of solving the Home Rule problem in Ireland, as England, Scotland, Wales, and Ireland (along with the other members of the Old Commonwealth) would have their own Parliaments. Westminster would become a purely Imperial body. Supporters of the Imperial Federation regarded the United Kingdom as having two possible futures: imperial union of its colonies consisting of different ethnic groups and continued long-term importance in global affairs, or imperial dissolution and the reduction of the status of the country to a second-class nation with little to no power projection. In response to claims that geography was against federation on such a large scale, it was said that scientific advancements would solve the difficulty. Edward Ellis Morris reminded listeners to his lecture in 1885 that it was now as easy to reach London from Melbourne or Singapore as it had been to reach London from Orkney at the time of the Acts of Union 1707, or to reach Washington, D.C. from San Francisco before 1869. Albert Venn Dicey in 1897 proposed an Anglo-Saxon "intercitizenship" during an address to the Fellows of All Souls at Oxford. Organisation The Imperial Federation League was founded in London in 1884 and subsequent branches were established in Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Barbados, and British Guiana. While the proposal was often associated with segments of the British Conservative Party, it was also popular among Liberal Imperialists (proponents of New Imperialism) such as William Edward Forster. Several members of the Imperial Federation League were motivated by ethnonationalism, drawing inspiration from the writing of theorists such as Sir Charles Dilke and John Robert Seeley to call for a "Greater Britain" which