resentation in
Parliament with the indifference which Mr. Froude imagines that he
detected. No one yet seems to have made even an effort to settle the
details of a scheme by which a navy could be kept up for the defence of
the Colonies, and an Imperial Zollverein formed between England and her
foreign possessions. But the 'advanced men,' according to Baron Huebner,
feel convinced that the idea can be carried out, and they are desirous
of finding, as a preliminary, direct representation in some form at
Westminster. The growth of this idea, says Baron Huebner, 'of a grand
confederation, which would completely revolutionize Old England, or
rather, which would create a new England by the handiwork and after the
pattern of her children in Australia--the growth of this idea among the
masses is, to my mind, an indubitable fact.' More improbable things have
happened than that England, weakened at home by the selfish ambition of
her statesmen, and by the frenzy of party warfare, may be saved by the
patriotism of her descendants in other lands. The first opportunity
which the colonists have had of evincing their determination to stand by
the old country was promptly taken advantage of, and with a heartiness
of spirit that we hope is not yet forgotten, quickly as all events,
great or small, are nowadays crammed into 'the wallet of oblivion.' The
offers of colonial aid during the Egyptian war roused a feeling
throughout the Colonies which astonished all Europe, and probably took
many of the colonists themselves by surprise. 'When English interests
were in peril,' Mr. Froude tells us, 'I found the Australians, not cool
and indifferent, but _ipsis Anglicis Angliciores_, as if at the
circumference the patriotic spirit was more alive than at the centre.
There was a general sense that our affairs were being strangely
mismanaged.' The men who think and talk like this are not struggling for
place and power amid the demoralizing surroundings of modern
Parliamentary life. They are able to take a cool and dispassionate view
of us and our affairs, and they begin to think that public life has
degenerated into a mere scramble for the spoils of office. Their
indignation, when Gordon was deserted by the Government which he had
tried to serve, was far greater than we seem to have had any experience
of amongst ourselves. They looked upon him as 'the last of the race of
heroes who had won for England her proud position among the nations; he
had been