he additional advantage of being founded upon a
personal residence in one of the islands of the Western Pacific. Travels
based upon something more substantial than a mere flying visit are not
too common, and we are grateful to Mr. Romilly for making a very
entertaining addition to the number. We should be equally glad to
receive the account of North New Guinea which a Russian gentleman, Mr.
Miklaho Maclay, is so well able to furnish. It so chanced that he was
landed one night on the north coast of New Guinea, and in the morning
the natives found him sitting upon his portmanteau, like a man waiting
for a train. They took him for a being of supernatural origin, but by
way of making sure, they fired arrows at the stranger, tied him to a
tree, and forced spears down his throat. As he survived these injuries,
though by a narrow chance, the first impression of the natives was
confirmed, and Mr. Maclay was afterwards treated in a manner which seems
to have left him little ground for complaint. Thus far Mr. Maclay, as
Mr. Romilly informs us, has declined to commit any account of his
experience to paper; but a resolution of this kind is seldom unalterable
when a man has anything new to tell the world.

Mr. Froude, as we have already intimated, intersperses the records of
travel with weighty reflections, or with valuable information, no part
of which can be prudently ignored by the reader. We do not know, for
instance, where in a short compass the arguments for and against
Colonial Federation have been so clearly set forth. As a rule, the
colonists everywhere view with great aversion the idea of placing
themselves under the direct authority of Downing Street, and no one will
be surprised at this who recollects the treatment they have almost
invariably received from that quarter. On the other hand, they are by no
means impatient or eager to proclaim their independence. 'British they
are,' says Mr. Froude, 'and British they wish to remain.' It will not be
their fault, but ours, if total separation ever becomes a popular cry in
Australasia or in Canada. There have been projects of a purely _local_
colonial confederation, but they are not regarded with much favour by
the leading public men. Mr. Dalley of Sydney, expressed strongly his
disapproval of the scheme, and he also objected to the plan of having
the colonies represented in the Imperial Parliament by Colonial
Agents-general. The one thing which seems at present to be universall