the Transvaal War was the occasion, not the
cause, of the manifested unity of purpose which resulted in immediate
common action between communities so far apart, geographically, as the
British Islands, Canada and Australasia. As early as July 11 the
Governor of Queensland had telegraphed that in case of hostilities the
colony would offer two hundred and fifty mounted infantry, and on
September 29 the Governor of New Zealand sent a message of like tenor.
Before the Boer ultimatum was issued, Western Australia and Tasmania
had volunteered contingents. The other colonies rapidly followed these
examples. There were, indeed, here and there manifestations of
{p.076} dissent, but they turned mainly upon questions of
constitutional interpretation and propriety, and even as such received
comparatively little attention in the overwhelming majority of popular
sentiment.

The attitude of the Imperial Government throughout was strictly and
even scrupulously correct. The action of the colonies was left to be
purely voluntary, the aid accepted from them being freely proffered,
and the expenses of equipment and transportation by themselves voted.
Not till the landing of the colonial troops in Africa were they taken
into pay as an integral part of the Imperial forces, to which they
were assimilated also as regards support in the field, and in matters
of pension for wounds and other compassionate allowances.

The rapidity which characterised the movements on the part of the
various colonies affords the most convincing proof, not only of the
cordial readiness of their co-operation, but of the antecedent
attitude of thoughtful sentiment toward the home country and the
interests of the Empire, which is a far more important matter than the
relatively scanty numbers {p.077} of men sent. Imperial Federation is
a most momentous fact in the world's history, but in material results
it concerns the future rather than the present.

On the 9th of October the Boer ultimatum was issued. On the 23rd the
contingent from British Columbia left Vancouver, to cross the
continent to Quebec, where the Canadian force was to assemble; and
from that port, on the 30th of the same month, the "Sardinian," of the
Canadian line, sailed with 1,049 officers and men. The New Zealanders
and part of those from New South Wales had already started, and by the
5th of November there was left in Australia but one small steamer's
load, of less than one hundred men with their