to the occasion to dwell
for a few moments on the influences of honest trade in raising the
standard of civilisation and elevating the character of men. The
prosperity of commerce depends on intelligence, on industry, but above
all on character. Cleverness may sometimes win a stroke. There have
been financiers in the City of London whose career might have been
painted in the language applied by Earl Russell to Mirabeau--"His mind
raised him to the skies; his moral character chained him to the
earth." I can quote no instance in which men of this stamp have
achieved an enduring success. It is not the men whose craft and
cunning people fear, but the men in whom they trust and whom they love
who in the end succeed. It is the office of commerce to give to the
world perpetual illustrations of the homely but ennobling truth that
honesty is the best policy. Commerce puts before those engaged in it
many temptations. The good man of business must rise superior to them
all, and thus it is that in his life and work he can do so much to
communicate advantages, to advance material welfare, and to raise the
tone of morals. Such, and not less, is the mission of the merchant and
the trader. For myself, I am proud to know that I am the son of a
contractor for public works, whose good reputation was the best part
of the heritage which descended to his sons.'

* * * * *

MELBOURNE, JUNE 25TH, 1887.

A complimentary dinner was tendered to Lord Brassey, K.C.B., the hon.
treasurer of the Imperial Federation League, by the members of the
Victorian branch of the League, at the Town Hall on Saturday evening.
The banquet was laid in the council chamber, and about eighty
gentlemen sat down to the tables. The chair was occupied by Mr. G.D.
Carter, M.L.A., president of the Victorian branch. On his right were
the guest of the evening, the Premier (Mr. Duncan Gillies), and the
Postmaster-General of Queensland (Mr. M'Donald Paterson), and on his
left the Mayor of Melbourne (Councillor Cain), the President of the
Legislative Council (Sir James MacBain), Mr. Justice Webb, and Mr.
Nicholas Fitzgerald, M.L.C. The company included a large number of
other prominent citizens, many of them not being members of the
League. In giving the toast of 'The Queen,' the Chairman said that
they could not better have given expression to their loyalty to Her
Majesty than by meeting to advocate the unity of the empire over which
she reig