Federation would be the maintenance of common armaments and the establishment of a common tariff. But to neither of these, I am persuaded, would Canada ever consent; she would neither contribute to Imperial armaments nor conform to an Imperial tariff. Though her people are brave and hardy, they are not, any more than the people of the United States, military, nor could they be brought to spend their earnings in Asiatic or African wars. The other day when there was talk of sending a regiment to the Soudan, the most Conservative and Imperialist journals anxiously assured their readers that no expenditure of Canadian money on such an object was contemplated or need be feared. Remember that Canada is only in part British. The commercial and fiscal circumstances of the colony again are as different as possible from those of the mother country. Canadian statesmen visiting England, and finding the movement popular in society here, are naturally disposed to prophesy smooth things; but not one of them, so far as I know, advocates Imperial Federation in his own country, nor am I aware that any powerful journal has even treated the question as serious. It is right to be frank upon this subject. A strong delusion appears to be taking hold of some minds and leading them in a perilous direction. It would be disastrous indeed if the United Kingdom were broken up or allowed to go to pieces in expectation of an ampler and grander unity, and the ampler and grander unity should prove unattainable after all.

Why not leave the connection as it is? Because, reply the advocates of Imperial Federation, the connection will not remain as it is; the process of separation will go on and the attenuated tie will snap. Apart from this not unreasonable apprehension, there are, so far as I know, only two reasons against acquiescence in the present system. One of these may be thought rather vague and intangible. It is that the spirit of a dependency, even of a dependency enjoying the largest measure of self-government, is never that of a nation, and that we can make Englands only in the way in which England herself was made. The other is more tangible, and is brought home to us at this moment by the dispute with the Americans about the Fisheries. The responsibility of Great Britain for the protection of her distant colony is not easily discharged to the distant colony's satisfaction. To Canadians, as to other people, their own concerns seem most important; they forget what the Imperial country has upon her hands in all parts of the globe; they have an unlimited idea of her power; and they expect her to put forth the whole force of the Empire in defence of Canadian fishing rights, while perhaps at the same moment Australians are calling upon her to put forth the whole force of the Empire in defence of their claims upon New Guinea. Confiding in Imperial support, they perhaps take stronger ground and use more bellicose language than they otherwise would. But the more democratic England becomes, the more impossible will it be to get her people to

go to war for any interests but their own. The climax of practical absurdity would be reached if England were involved in war by some quarrel arising out of the Canadian customs duties, imposed partly to protect Canadian manufactures against British goods. Trusting to the shield of the Empire, Canada has no navy of her own, and though she has a militia numbering forty thousand, it is not likely that more than two or three regiments at the very outside could be got ready for the field within the time allowed by the swift march of modern war. Again, if England were involved in a war with Russia, or any other maritime power, the mercantile marine of Canada. would be cut up in a quarrel about an Afghan frontier or something equally remote. Nothing could be more calamitous to the colony than a rupture with the mother country. The separation of the American colonies from Great Britain was inevitable: their violent separation was disastrous. The Republic was launched with a revolutionary bias which was just what it did not want, and it was left without a history to steady and exalt the nation. Both in freedom from revolutionary bias and in the possession of a history Canada has a great advantage over her mighty neighbour. On these points opinions and sentiments differ. For my own part, I attach little value to the mere political bond. I should not mourn if nothing were left of it but mutual citizenship without necessity of naturalisation, which might remain even when the governments and legislatures had been finally separated from each other and diplomatic responsibility had ceased. This part of the political connection is little noticed, yet it seems to me the most valuable as well as the most likely to endure.

But, let what may become of the political connection, the nobler dominion of the mother country over her colony, and over all her colonies on that continent, those which have left her side as well as those which still remain with her, is assured for ever. The flag of conquering England still floats over the citadel of Quebec; but it seems to wave a farewell to the scenes of its glory, the historic rock, the famous battle-field, the majestic river which bore the fleet of England to victory, the monument on which the chivalry of the victor has inscribed together the names of Wolfe and Montcalm. For no British redcoats muster round it now. The only British redcoats left on the continent are the reduced garrison of Halifax. That morning drum of England, the roll of which, Webster said, went round the world with the sun, is now, so far as Canada is concerned, a memory of the past. But in blood and language, in literature and history, in laws and institutions, in all that makes national character and the higher life of nations, England, without beat of drum, is there. Nor-if one may be believed who has lived much among Americans and watched the expression of their feelings-is the day far distant when the last traces of the revolutionary feud will have disappeared,

when the hatred which the descendants of British colonists have been taught to cherish against their mother country will cease to exist, even in the most ignoble breast, and when Westminster Abbey and Westminster Hall will again be the sacred centre of the whole race. This is that realm of England beyond the Atlantic which George the Third could not forfeit, which Canadian independence if it comes cannot impair, upon which the Star of Empire, let it wend as far westward as it will, can never shed a parting ray.

GOLDWIN SMITH.

THE PRIMROSE LEAGUE.

MANY seek to know the origin and purposes of the Primrose League, and how it has come to possess a Creed, a Prophet, and a Symbol, and to be a distinct and vivifying factor in the politics of England.

It is the manifestation of the latent strength inherent in the patriotic and constitutional party. The old Tory had become too fossilised to march with the age, while the Conservative as he existed a few years ago was sadly deficient in vigour. To the Radical cry of 'Peace, retrenchment, and reform' he could only respond that he was more peaceful, more disposed to retrenchment and to reform. At the battles of the hustings men haggled at words and were supported on either side by endless arrays of figures. The contest waxed fierce about small measures and raged about still smaller persons, till the bewilderment of the newly enfranchised voter was complete. To remedy this state of things on the Radical side, Birmingham called the Caucus into existence. This new institution does not pretend to enlighten, but only to control the elector. It compels him to delegate his choice to a select few, who in their turn are subordinate to a central authority, which imposes its will both upon the constituency and the representative. The Primrose League, on the contrary, interferes neither with the choice of electors nor with the candidates. It seeks to educate the masses and to organise them, so that they shall voluntarily vote for the cause of order.

In October 1883, when the fortunes of the party were at their lowest ebb, a few friends met in a private room of the Carlton Club, to discuss the depressing subject of Conservative apathy, and to listen to a scheme which had sprung from the brain of Sir Henry Drummond Wolff. This was a project for enlisting the young men of various classes, who hitherto had borne no active part, in some body which should replace with advantage the paid canvassers, abolished, and wholesomely abolished, by Sir Henry James's new Act. It was thought that if the opportunity were offered, there was abundance of active spirits willing and ready to enrol themselves in small clubs of friends, and to take up the work of aiding registration, promoting sound principles, and generally encouraging the nearest Conservative association. The 'Habitation' or club scheme was founded on the VOL. XX.-No. 113.

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probability that a strong spirit of emulation would be developed among the members and also among the Habitations. There was ample ground for believing that recruits might be obtained with ease, by appealing to the veneration with which the memory of Lord Beaconsfield was cherished. Gifted as that statesman was with marvellous political instinct, he had touched chords which did not cease to vibrate when he expired, and he left to his countrymen a legacy of convictions which only needed expression in a formula. Of the profound regard in which the memory of Benjamin Disraeli was held we had ocular demonstration every nineteenth day of April, the anniversary of his death, when all classes in numberless thousands bore the primrose. It was obvious that if the young and energetic of these multitudes, instead of wearing the flower for the day, were to take it as a permanent badge of brotherhood, a confraternity might be established with an unlimited future.

The principles of Lord Beaconsfield and of the constitutional cause were pre-eminently those opposed to the spread of atheism and irreligious teaching, to the revolutionary and republican tendencies of Radicalism, and to the narrow and insular mode of thought which despised our colonies and found utterance in the words 'Perish India.' The creed of the League, therefore, was set forth as the maintenance of religion, of the Constitution of the realm, and of the Imperial ascendency of Great Britain,' or, in shorter form, Religion, Constitution, and Empire.'

At first the intention prevailed of shrouding the appearance of the League under a certain veil of mystery. Those who belonged to it were to have grades, but the Ruling Councillor' was not to be publicly named. There were several excellent reasons for this. Never was an important undertaking more modestly begun. We did not approach the chiefs of the party. We did not communicate with the men of leading or even with the rank and file, because we knew-and it proved so for a long year and more--that so novel a conception would not find favour amongst those wedded to old methods of procedure until it should command attention by success.

The League was started in a somewhat dismal and dilapidated second floor in Essex Street, Strand, where the original band of enthusiasts met constantly. A paragraph in a newspaper and a few advertisements at once awakened public curiosity and interest, and adherents speedily sent in their names.

The very class for which the League was instituted was the first to respond, and only a few weeks had elapsed when already some hundreds had joined, and the work of forming Habitations was in full swing. The hundreds soon swelled to thousands, and a grand banquet in Freemasons' Tavern marked the first public appearance of the League upon the world's stage. Since that day it has increased by hundreds and tens of hundreds until this moment, when a thou