the future than most men and of preparing his own
mind for developments which were yet hidden from the view of
contemporary statesmen. Hence his famous Exhibition of 1851 and the
realization of the fact that to encourage trade and commerce some
knowledge of the world's products and resources was not only desirable
but necessary. Hence the early perception, which he shared with the
Queen, of the coming importance of the Colonies and of the necessity of
bringing the Crown into touch with those over-sea democracies which were
growing up to nationhood in such neglected fashion and with such little
practical concern in the Motherland. Hence the dislike of the Queen and
himself--because she had the statesman's understanding as well as her
husband--to the Manchester school, and their opposition to the line of
thought which said that Colonies were useless except for commerce and
not much good for that. Hence the Queen's long-after regard for Lord
Beaconsfield and her appreciation of his stirring and romantic
Imperialism.

The Prince of Wales unquestionably inherited this capacity for
statecraft from his parents. Natural and hereditary pride in his future
Crown and in the greatness of the United Kingdom was developed by
teaching and study and visits into an intense pride in the vast Empire
which grew so rapidly from year to year around his country and under
its Crown. Having a broader and saner outlook than many of those about
him, without the spur of ordinary ambitions, or the hampering influence
of partisan considerations, he was enabled to view this development more
carefully, wisely, and clearly than the busy diplomatist or the
much-occupied statesman. Hence the pleasure with which he saw the
Imperial Federation League formed in 1884 and watched the efforts of Mr.
W. E. Forster and Lord Rosebery to build upon the preliminary principles
already evolved by Lord Beaconsfield. It was not long before he saw an
opportunity to promote this sentiment of unity and encourage the
extension of Imperial trade. He had visited different parts of the
Queen's dominions and understood something of the immense possibilities
which were still lying dormant. His sons had since travelled over an
even larger portion of the Empire and had, no doubt, in private as well
as in their published journals, told him much of the more recent
progress of those great outlying communities. Contemporaneously,
therefore, with the founding of the League just mentio