nce of the unity of the British Empire
may be less difficult than might perhaps in former days have been
anticipated. Science has done much to shorten distances; it has given
us the electric telegraph, an improved and improving steamship, and
railways. As the colonies grow in importance, it must necessarily
follow that the Imperial policy will be concentrated more and more
upon objects which are common to them and to the mother country. The
foreign policy will be directed to the maintenance in security of the
communications between the mother country and the colonies, an object
of common interest to yourselves and to ourselves. Looking forward to
a not very distant time, it is evident that your growth in population
and power will give you the command of the neighbouring seas. Your
relations with India will become closer and closer, and you will be in
a position not less strong, and your interest will be as great as that
of the mother country in preventing the hoisting of any flag hostile
to your own upon the ports of India. All the countries of the British
Empire will hold together, because it will be for their advantage.
Trade follows the flag. While other branches of our foreign trade have
been languishing, the trade with the colonies has remained flourishing
and elastic. We lend you our capital on much easier terms than we
would ask if you were under a foreign flag. We hold before you in
external relations the shield of a great empire. The advantages of the
present arrangement, from a colonial point of view, were happily put a
short time ago in a speech by Sir John Macdonald, from which I will
ask leave to quote two or three sentences. Speaking at Montreal, he
said: "We want no independence in this country, except the
independence that we have at this moment. What country in the world is
more independent than we are? We have perfect independence; we have a
Sovereign who allows us to do as we please. We have an Imperial
Government that casts on ourselves the responsibilities as well as the
privileges of self-government. We may govern ourselves as we please,
we may misgovern ourselves as we please. We put a tax on the
industries of our fellow-subjects in England, Ireland, and Scotland.
If we are attacked, if our shores are assailed, the mighty powers of
England on land and sea are used in our defence." There may be some
who think that the union of the empire cannot be maintained, because
it is difficult to reconcile the