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I turn to Professor Seeley's thoughtful book on 'The Expansion of England.' He is not a colonist, nor does he move in circles where the colonial view is likely to be contracted, and he tells us plainly that the feeling constantly crops out in the daily speech of the English people. We constantly betray by our modes of speech,' he writes, 'that we do not reckon our colonies as really belonging to us. Thus, if we are asked what the English population is, it does not occur to us to reckon in the population of Canada and Australia.' If we are not reckoned as English people, and yet not as foreign people, what kind of status must we occupy in the British-Isleslimited English mind? If we are neither flesh nor fowl, are we regarded as good red herring?

I do not belong to those who attribute to the Liberal party in England a settled desire for the disintegration of the Empire, or a lopping-off of some of its far-away outshoots. We must recollect that an essential part of the political creed of English Liberals is a watchful care for the English taxpayer, the enforcement of economy in the public expenditure. Every vote in Parliament, and every word of advocacy out of doors, must be made to harmonise with these professions of Liberal policy. It may be expected, therefore, that all proposals to create new offices, and to extend the territorial limits of the Empire, will be viewed with scrutiny and caution, not to say unreserved objection, by the Liberals. The justification for a new advance, or for the maintenance of the old lines, must be made palpably clear to them before it receives their sanction. But I can call to mind no public utterance of any leader of the Liberal party which, fairly examined in connection with his public life, would lead to the conclusion that he is indifferent, any more than his fellow subjects outside the ranks of his party, to the maintenance of the Empire in all its colossal proportions. I believe I am justified in saying that the great Englishman at the head of the Government is fervently anxious to preserve for Her Majesty's successors the free and united Empire over which she herself reigns. As I have no evidence to support any charge of this kind, I do not complain of the conduct of any individual statesman. On the contrary, it must be admitted, and it is acknowledged with gratitude, that the Australian colonies owe a large part of the liberties which they at present enjoy to the wisdom of Liberal statesmen. Still less can it be reasonably charged against the English public that there is any design to inculcate a feeling of indifference towards the colonies. What is alleged and what is keenly felt, is that the English people in the colonies are insensibly regarded as holding some kind of secondary place in the relations of the Empire, as not belonging to the English people at home in the same sense as one part of the nation belongs to all other parts in the United Kingdom. If this prevailing tendency not to 'reckon' us as Englishmen arises from habits of thought and the

casual interchange of sentiment in daily life, it only makes the national slight the more pointed and galling. If it is part of the growth of the contemporary mind, silently assented to by governing men and people alike in the mother country, the prospect of a true consanguineous and enduring relationship is next to hopeless.

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Amongst the population which I have tried to describe as fast taking form in Australia, the rude sentiments of independence will not lack indigenous nourishment. The thought, expressed or unexpressed, will be, If England has difficulty in reckoning us as Englishmen, we are all the prouder of being Australians.' Some form of national pride must take root, and spread itself wide and deep in the soil, and it must inevitably be one of two forms-either truly British, as sharing on equal terms in all the glory of the Empire, or separately and purely Australian, creating a peculiar glory all its own. There will be no possibility of contentment with the status of a Dependency in the Imperial system. In another ten years there will be an addition to the population of Australasia of two millions or nearly, and the boundless resources of the wide territory will be developed to an extent beyond the power of the imagination to foreshadow. The sense of having achieved will stimulate the passion for higher achievement. The successful in adventure and enterprise will want other rewards than the mere accumulation of wealth. The awakening ambitions of the gifted and heroic will need fitting spheres for their honourable gratification. There will be room for all on the common field of a great and united Empire. Or possibly, by some untoward turn of events, a field may be found under the flag of a new Commonwealth.

I believe most thoughtful men in the public life of Australia are in favour of the British path of destiny. But it may be doubted whether any of the schemes for political change which from time to time have been propounded would help us much in that direction. The representation of the colonies in the Imperial Parliament, which has been more than once proposed, would be abortive from the first, and end in creating new jealousies and discontents. Any number of members for Australia that could in the nature of things be entitled to sit in the House of Commons would have no appreciable. weight in the decisions of that body, while their admission would be in conflict with the principle that no member should be charged with the advocacy of special interests. This seems to me fatal to any such scheme, without touching upon the difficulty of sending properly qualified men to Westminster from the other side of the globe, and keeping them correctly informed of the progress of matters at so great a distance. The scheme for introducing into the British Cabinet a Minister in some way specially designated by the colonies. would, I think, fail from kindred causes of failure, to say nothing of it being inconsistent with the free selection of colleagues by the

person charged with the formation of a Government. In meeting the needs arising out of the steady and rapid growth of the colonies some organic change in the constituted form of the Imperial Government must be faced. The constitution of our fathers must be made to fit the great Empire for which it certainly was not in the first place designed. What was suitable to the time of William and Mary, and gave embodiment to the notion of Dependencies which then prevailed, is no longer applicable to the vast proportions of the Empire and the spirit of freedom which has been rooted and is actively stirring in the more distant parts. I naturally treat the whole question from an Australian standpoint, and my reasonings and suggestions can only incidentally or inferentially have any bearing upon India, or Canada, or Africa. But if we can get at a true principle in relation to Australia, its application to all, under necessary modifications, will not be involved in much uncertainty. In Australia the Liberal statesmen of England have with their own hands sown the seed of freedom and independent authority. They must have foreseen the fruit which the seed would bear. Yet very much the same routine treatment as followed upon the first introduction of Parliamentary Government twenty-seven years ago is pursued at the present day, without any apparent reference to the amazing growth of all the elements of political power which has taken place in the colonies since their emancipation from Downing Street bureaucracy. Even in the act which many persons regard as the most important in the Imperial connection-that of filling the office of Governor-it would be extremely difficult to trace any increasing anxiety, as the colonies advance in the work of self-government, to select the representative of the Crown from men of larger constitutional knowledge and experience. But it would not be at all difficult to point out persons who have received that high appointment in the later years who were less fitted to discharge its functions. than Governors in the earlier years of Responsible Government. This would hardly deserve notice if it did not lead to the popular impression-and such impressions sink deep in the popular mind, and are not easily removed-that the office is occasionally made a convenience to influential persons at the seat of the Imperial Government rather than the means of strengthening the constitutional relations of the Empire.

Before venturing upon any suggestions of my own as to changes in the Imperial connection, it does not seem out of place to glance at what would probably happen if Australia at any time in the near future separated from England; an event which, whatever surfaceloyalists may say to the contrary, is unquestionably not out of the range of possibilities within the next generation. This is no imaginary ground; for there are persons in Australia, and in most of VOL. XV.-No. 83. L

the Australian Legislatures, who avowedly or tacitly favour the idea of separation. If Australia were independent, say towards the close of the century, with five or six millions of inhabitants, she would speedily and beyond all question rise to the position of a great power. Distance from other Powers would alone be to her the element of immense strength. She has already learnt to rely upon herself for the means of armed defence. Unitedly she could pour upon any point large bodies of enthusiastic defenders, without being under the necessity of burdening herself with standing armies. She could easily create a navy adequate to her wants. Within her own shores she would possess all that is imperatively necessary to keep the machinery of civilised society going with the minimum of privation and inconvenience. In the possible case of being cut off from the rest of the world—a very remote probability—she could, better than any other country on the face of the globe, sustain herself. So much for her capabilities. In the event of her national independence, whatever form of government she assumed, she would in all moral certainty receive the cordial recognition of the great Powers. If not sympathy with new-born freedom, jealousy of England would prompt that recognition. Undoubtedly in such an event Australia would put on a new attraction to foreign nations, and possibly to England herself, so perverse is the intellect in discovering too late the value of what is lost. New population and new capital, fresh streams of brain and muscle, and material power, would flow in upon her; and while she rose in the estimation of foreign nations, her own prosperous citizens would abide with her, as they do not now abide, and help to do her honour. There would be no fear for the career of Australia as an independent nation. But in my view she would miss her higher destiny, her rightful share in what may be a more glorious. rule than mankind has ever yet seen.

The English people in Europe, in America, in Africa, in Asia, in Australasia, are surely destined for a mission beyond the work which has consumed the energies of nations throughout the buried centuries. If they held together in the generations before us in one worldembracing empire, maintaining and propagating the principles of justice, freedom, and peace, what blessings might arise from their united power to beautify and invigorate the world! To share in the pacific grandeur of a rule transcending all other forms of dominion, and superior to all other governing powers in capability of improving the condition of mankind, would be better, nobler, more elevating for young Australia than separate national existence, though it were the freest and most prosperous. Under the flag of the United English People, the work of human progress might well go on till the poet's dream melted into the reality of the statesman's achievement

Till the war-drum throbb'd no longer, and the battle-flags were furl'd
In the Parliament of man, the federation of the world.

To bear an honoured part in a consummation so glorious, to be included in a confederation so all-powerful and so beneficent, is what my feeble voice would claim for Australia. And this amazing destiny lies clear before the English people, waiting to be entered upon, and easy of accomplishment. England, in her day of narrow purposes, has done many things more difficult than placing herself at the head of the civilised world in the present age.

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But to take the colonies with her in this work of world-empire, they must be made part of England herself. The very nomenclature of colonies must be dropped out of existence. In large measure the Australian group have outgrown the condition of colonies. To all intents and purposes they are young States. They govern themselves, they are prepared to defend themselves if occasion should arise, they have led the way in political changes where England herself has followed. Why should they not be designated in future the British States of Australia? In this designation the British feeling and the Australian feeling would habitually and perpetually blend. The term colony means nothing; the term British-Australian State would mean everything. Let the Imperial Government formally invite the present colonies to enter into a federation under some such name as is here suggested, which would signify a closer and higher relationship with the parent State, and in which the sentiments of British pride and Australian patriotism would commingle in one glow of loyalty. What signifies a name?' may be asked by men who are ever talking of the integrity of the Empire. It is only a matter of form,' said the ease-loving monarch, and evoked the memorable reply of the wiser counsellor, 'Your Majesty is only a matter of form!' Momentous issues have been decided by a sentiment; feelings that live in immortal deeds have been called forth by a name. But if this be so, it is not less true that an absurd name has the opposite effect, and puts a damp on everything. The impediments to federation, and there are impediments, would one by one give way. The union would come almost as a matter of course, though the basis of federation would probably be imperfect at the beginning. There might, for example, be conflicting tariffs left out of the provisions of agreement, to be brought into harmony afterwards. But all the more thoughtful men engaged in political life in Australia have thought out in one form or other the question of federation. As soon as we have an Australian federation in any form, let a Council of Australia, to sit in London, be created on some basis of Australian representation which would afford a fair prospect of securing Australian confidence in its proceedings. This body should be charged with all business