a series of intricate foreign negotiations, attend to his administrative duties, study complicated social questions, devise legislative remedies for existing evils, and defend his post and support his opinions in Parliament, night after night, for weeks without cessation, and not run the risk of bungling his work or ruining his health? When, then, such good reasons exist for a division of labour, having regard simply to the benefits such a division would bestow on the mother country, how much stronger the inducement will be for Parliament to lay down a portion of its power when by doing 80 a mighty empire may be consolidated and placed on a firm and enduring basis.

But there is another reason, and one which will commend itself to all Englishmen, why the Imperial councils should be guided by representatives from each part of the Union. It is generally admitted that there should be no taxation without representation; and yet the Imperial Government, when they declare war without our consent, does as effectually tax us as though they repeated the folly which lost the United States. We are put to the expense of providing defences which would not be required except for their action. This may seem a trivial matter, and I am free to confess that I have never heard much importance attached to it; but it is on such little theoretical points that great grievances are hung when circumstances have developed a predisposition to quarrel. Now is the time, when the political horizon is clear, to foresee and remove all possible chances of dispute, and so place our mutual relations on that footing of perfect justice which is the only guarantee for their durability when the rain descends, and the floods come and the winds blow.

I do not pretend to point out what should be the construction of the Supreme Council which J advo.

cate. I simply insist that every colony possessing free institutions should be represented in it. The adjustment of representation to the various interests, and the definition and limitation of the Council's powers, would be a task of the nicest delicacy, demanding the closest consideration by both Imperial and Colonial statesmen, preceded by the fullest enquiry possible. But while admitting the difficulty of the task, it would be a libel on our public men everywhere to doubt their ability to accomplish it. Is it to be imagined that the subtle intellect which grasped the intricate points connected with the Irish Church and Land questions,in all their endless ramifications and their complications of vested interests, and presented them to the House with a completeness and lucidity which won a generous tribute of praise from his great political rival, would fail in his endeavours to reconcile conflicting claims in connection with the subject under notice? Great as is the undying fame which Mr. Gladstone has earned for himself by his able management of those two great measures whereby tardy justice has been done to Ireland, it is as nothing compared with that with which he would be rewarded should he undertake and succeed in the more difficult task of relaying the foundations of the Empire. great and united people, owing their existence to his statesmanlike sagacity and indomitable courage, would look back, as they pursued the career of happiness and honour which he had opened to them, with something more than simple gratitude; they would regard with warm affection the memory of the man, who, in as true and full a sense as Washington is, might be called the Father of his country.

A

But in addition to the creation of the Supreme Council, of which I have been speaking, some link of a more personal nature would be

necessary in order to create an assured feeling that we are one in reality as well as in name. The superior offices of State should be distributed among English and Colonial statesmen alike. A good beginning in this direction was made when Mr. Weld, who had distinguished himself as a politician in New Zealand, was appointed Governor of Western Australia. Why should not such a proceeding become the rule rather than the exception? The Imperial Executive should likewise be chosen indifferently from among the members of the Supreme Council, thus opening up a distinguished career for all possessing the necessary talents, without the accident of their birth being allowed to operate to their disadvantage. The field thus offered to the legitimate ambition of colonial statesmen would stimulate them to exertion in the common cause, without, however, severing their intimate connection with the several provinces from which their powers were derived. The various constituencies also would naturally feel gratified, should their representatives obtain a position among the immediate advisers of the Queen, for it would then be brought home to them, in a practical manner, that they were through them exercising a real power in shaping the policy of the empire. Colonial judges might also be promoted to the Superior Courts of Appeal about to be established, and their brethren on the British bench would do well to quote carefully-prepared Colonial judgments-a courtesy which they extend to the Supreme Court of the United States. In fact, England should endeavour, in every possible way, to make her influence as head of the Empire more felt than she does at present, by showing that any service rendered to a portion is thought worthy of recognition by the whole.

In the foregoing remarks I have perhaps laid myself open to a charge of presumption, and run the risk of being held up to public view as a shocking example of that colonial bumptiousness' of which the full amount has been kindly entered to our credit in the books of the home journals. But it is difficult to meet deprecatory remarks without some appearance of undue self-assertion, or to support a plea of justification for many little eccentricities which are frequently made the subjects of ill-natured comment without indulging more or less in the objectionable tu quoque line of argument. But if I have sought to magnify our position in the Empire, and make it honourable in the opinion of our fellow-subjects at home, it may surely be looked over and forgiven, as being, after all, but a very venial sin, arising from a strong desire to stand well in the eyes of a country which we admire and love. And if I have touched a few of the sores which afflict the body politic at home somewhat roughly, I have set down naught in malice, but only with a view to extenuate the follies of our own youth and inexperience, by showing that Britain, in the full ripeness of her age, with all the talent at her command, and all the lessons of her past history for her guidance, has not yet succeeded in solving many of those problems with which we have been called on to grapple from the time we emerged from infancy. Although we have been guilty of many sins of omission and commission, and have exhibited a somewhat childish disinclination to profit by the teachings of experience, I think I have shown that we are not altogether unworthy of the ancient stock from which we have sprung, even inheriting some of that dogged independence of disposition which is its chief characteristic. We feel assured that could our brethren only see the progress we have made, and the energy we are exhibiting in push

ing forward with true British enterprise and industry, they would feel proud to acknowledge and cherish a connection which is honourable and advantageous to both sides. But unfortunately, while we know them well, they are strangers to our homes and circumstances, and consequently cannot bring themselves to take much interest in our domestic affairs. They fail to realise to themselves that the communities now rapidly growing into nations on these shores are something more than petty parishes under a vestry government administering parochial affairs. That we should claim to treat on equal terms with the paramount Power-although to us who know the country, the merest matter of course-strikes them as being partly impudent, partly laughable. You can hardly read an article on Australian affairs which is not tinged by this view of the case. We see it, too, in the cool proposals put forward from time to time for the regulation of our conduct and the settlement of our destiny. While the subject of separation was lately under discussion, allusion was seldom made to the feelings and wishes of the colonists; the matter was discussed as one which only affected England, and we were to be disposed of like a flock of sheep, if her interest required the adoption of such a course. Not only this, but the spirit of which it is the evidence, must be altered if we are to become one people in heart and soul. It is not much we ask, but we want no more, and will be content with no less we simply wish a return of that fond attachment and devoted loyalty with which we regard the old country. Give us but these, and we will stand by her in the hour of difficulty and danger, without stopping to count the cost, not from any motives of cold, calculating policy, but with the selfsacrifice with which a man defends the mother that he loves.

: Great Britain has achieved a position among the nations of the earth without parallel in ancient or modern times. Her sons may ask, without unmanly boasting

Quæ regio in terris nostri non plena laboris? but the very magnitude of her Empire will prove a source of danger unless the institutions by which it is governed are brought into conformity with her modern requirements. For nations there is no middle course between progress and decay: no sooner does the former cease than the other sets in, its ravages unseen perhaps for a time, but none the less surely undermining their strength and hastening their ruin. Should the time ever arrive when England, emasculated by luxury and wealth, should be too indolent to discharge the onerous duties which her more virile sons laid on her in days gone by, or learn to prefer her ease to her honour, we may confidently calculate on her speedy downfall. For a while lately her future trembled in the balance. Luckily, the people were wiser than their rulers, and neither Lord Granville's desire for rest, nor the pestilent penny-wise policy and creed of which Mr. Goldwin Smith is the prophet, has been allowed to overthrow the fabric of British dominion. I sincerely hope that such a word as 'separation' may never again be breathed amongst us; that the efforts of our statesmen of all classes will be to draw closer the bonds which unite the various units under the Queen's government into one grand whole; and that year by year, as we grow in material power and prosperty, and in that 'righteousness' in all our dealings 'which exalteth a nation,' we may conquer other lands by the force of our example, carrying with us, wherever we may go, the consolations of religion, the art of liberal government, the appliances of civilisation, and the blessings of peace.

THE

HE limits of a nation's greatness depend in some measure on the extent and position of its territory. A temperate climate seems as necessary to the production of vigorous men as wise laws are essential to their preservation, or as education is indispensable to their influence and power. If it is admitted that vigorous and educated men are the strength of empires, it follows that the marriage customs of a country exercise a greater influence on its history than is generally acknowledged. Of two States equally circumstanced, that which is most prolific will ultimately obtain decided advantages over the other. If it takes Prussia sixty-six years to double her population, and if it takes France more than twice as long to arrive at the same result, it would be easy to calculate the time when the German would be able to absorb the French race. Let A, B, and C represent three nations equally civilised and circumstanced, and each containing two millions of adult males, and a like number of adult females. If 80 per cent. of the A's married at thirty years of age, and had each a family of four children, and if the remaining 20 per cent. died without issue; if the B's all married at twenty-five years of age and had each four children; if the C's all married at twenty years of age and had each six children; and if all these people lived at peace and none died prematurely, their numbers at the end of about

VOL. IV.-NO. XXII. NEW SERIES.

two centuries-allowing ten years in each case for births - would in round numbers be something like 47, 256, and 8,748 millions respectively. Comparing these astounding and apparently incredible figures with the actual increase of population in this country or elsewhere, the wealth inherent in man will be made manifest, and the waste of humanity represented by late marriages, baby-farms, infanticide, impure air, bad social customs, disease, and preventible deaths will be more correctly appreciated. If we suppose further, that A, B, and C do not possess more territory than would suffice to sustain fifty millions of inhabitants, it follows that C, through its greater vigour, would become an extensive manufacturing and colonising power, and in all likelihood it would absorb, in the latter capacity, all the surplus population of A and B.

It may be asserted, without undue presumption, that a social community cannot continue to be vigorous unless it continues to increase rapidly; and that a rapidly increasing community cannot remain vigorous unless it spreads itself over an ever increasing portion of the earth's surface. Therefore, it may be concluded, a vigorous community whose territory is limited must either send emigrants to strengthen and enrich other nations, or else become a colonising Power and retain within itself all the elements of greatness. A vi

FF 2

gorous nation, like the boiler of a steam-engine, requires a safetyvalve. That safety-valve is colonising. Stop it and the national boiler will burst into domestic or foreign war. Leave it unregulated, and power will be wasted and weakness developed. Let the regulating hand of a scientific nation guide it, and it will not only continue to supply fresh power to the engine of State, it will utilise the waste energies of other nations. A nation like medieval Spain may be temporarily great when the national mind is directed abroad in search of the precious metals; and a nation like France may be great when pursuing a career of conquest. But no nation can hope to see its flag increasing in influence after it has braved the breezes of a thousand years unless it devotes its chief attention to the multiplication and preservation of industrious homes. A vigorous nation may expend its strength in warring with equals; it may lose its power by submission to unwise social laws and enervating social customs; or it may expose itself to destruction by a warlike people through its neglect of defensive measures. If its wars are waged against barbarism with the object of doing battle with the wastes of nature and turning them into the abodes of civilisation, if it conquers in order to colonise, the result will be wealth and power, and the extent of that wealth and the limits of that power will depend on the wisdom of the nation's laws and on its ability to defend its

treasures.

If vigorous and educated men are the backbone of nations or the spinal marrow of power, it is clear that their removal from one State to another without an equivalent weakens the giving and strengthens the receiving State in a double sense. The nation which parts with a skilled workman to a foreign and competing Power whose policy

is protection not only loses the fruit of his labour, but the expense of his training; and, of course, what is loss to the one ought to be gain to the other. A nation which can count surplus money by millions of pounds, surplus subjects by the hundred thousand souls, and surplus land by thousands of square miles, and yet not only discourages the right union of these elements of national strength, but actually encourages both its men and its money to contribute strength to other nations whose policy is tacitly or avowedly hostile to its own, may be compared to a banker who it may be bolts his door with a patent bolt and locks his safes with something superior to a common padlock, but who is tempted by the promise of a high rate of interest to lend his money to burglars to enable them to purchase the necessary implements for robbing him of his treasures. Or, such a State may be compared to a farmer who, rather than cultivate his own farm, lives at his ease and lends his money, and gives away his trained workmen to his neighbours to enable them to cultivate their lands and to maintain regiments of gamekeepers and armies of land stealers. Judging from the national action of England, there must be many Englishmen who consider that the farmer who acts as we have described must be a great political economist and worthy of all the honours of Bumbledom. But the State which permits a subject to hold any considerable quantity of fertile land in an unused or uncultivated condition cannot well be considered a wise State; and though great in grocery and glorying in its budget, it is likely to become a relatively weak one. Every member of a community enriched after the manner of our farmer would almost certainly insure either the turning of a productive into an unproductive workman, or the crush