mother country.

Brilliant talkers there are none. But any London visitor who might
imagine that he was about to find himself in a company of clownish
provincials would be much mistaken. A very large proportion of
colonists have travelled and even lived in more lands than one. They
have encountered vicissitudes and seen much that is odd and varied in
nature and human nature. In consequence they are often pleasant
and interesting talkers, refreshingly free from mannerism or
self-consciousness.

They both gain and lose by being without a leisured class; it narrows
their horizon, but saves them from a vast deal of hysterical nonsense,
social mischief and blatant self-advertising. Though great readers of
English newspapers and magazines, and much influenced thereby in their
social, ethical, and literary views, their interest in English and
European politics is not very keen. A cherished article of their faith
is that Russia is England's irreconcileable foe, and that war between
the two is certain. Both their geographical isolation and their
constitution debar them from having any foreign policy. In this they
contentedly acquiesce. Loyal to the mother country, resolved not to be
absorbed in Australia, they are torpid concerning Imperial Federation.
Their own local and general politics absorb any interest and leisure
not claimed by business and pastimes. Their isolation is, no doubt,
partly the cause of this. It takes their steamers from four to six
days to reach Australia, and nearly as long to travel from one end
of their own land to the other. Most of them can hardly hope to see
Europe, or even Asia or America, or any civilized race but their own.
This is perhaps the greatest of their disadvantages. Speedier passage
across the oceans which divide them from the rest of the human race
must always be in the forefront of their aims as a nation.

Industrious, moral, strong, it is far too soon to complain of this
race because it has not in half a century produced a genius from
amongst its scanty numbers. Its mission has not been to do that, but
to lay the foundations of a true civilization in two wild and lonely,
though beautiful, islands. This has been a work calling for solid
rather than brilliant qualities--for a people morally and physically
sound and wholesome, and gifted with "grit" and concentration. There
is such a thing as collective ability. The men who will carve statues,
paint pictures, and write books will come,