"I look, I say, on the Imperial rights of Great Britain, and the
privileges which the colonies ought to enjoy under those rights, to be
just the most reconcilable things in the world. The Parliament of Great
Britain sits at the head of her extensive Empire in two capacities: one
as the local legislature of this island, providing for all things at
home immediately and by no other instrument than the executive power;
the other, and I think her nobler capacity, is what I call her Imperial
character, in which, as from the throne of heaven, she superintends all
the several Legislatures, and guides and controls them all without
annihilating any. As all these provincial Legislatures are only
co-ordinate with each other, they ought all to be subordinate to her,
else they can neither preserve mutual peace, nor hope for mutual
justice, nor effectually afford mutual assistance."[9]

The means by which the possessions of Great Britain were acquired have
been as various as the possessions themselves. The European, Asiatic,
and African possessions became ours by conquest and cession; the
American by conquest, treaty, and settlement; the Australasian by
settlement, and by that dubious system of settlement known by the name
of annexation. Now, what is the link which fastens each of these
possessions to the mother country? Surely it is the inherent and
indestructible right of the British Crown to exercise Imperial
powers--in other words, the supremacy of the Queen and the British
Parliament? What, again, is the common bond of union between these vast
colonial possessions, differing in laws, in religion, and in the
character of the population? The same answer must be given: the joint
and several tie, so to speak, is the same--namely, the sovereignty of
Great Britain. It is true that the mode in which the materials composing
the British Empire have been cemented together is exactly the reverse of
the manner of the construction of the American Union. In the case of the
Union, independent States voluntarily relinquished a portion of their
sovereignty to secure national unity, and entrusted the guardianship of
that unity to a representative body chosen by themselves. Such a union
was based on contract, and could only be constructed by communities
which claimed to be independent. Far different have been the
circumstances under which England has developed itself into the British
Empire. England began as a sovereign power, having its soverei