may repeat the experience of the Spanish colonies in America,
and have a long period before them of war and revolution.
Human nature is very uniform, and the Spaniards in the six-
teenth century were as advanced a race as we. They had de-
generated before their colonies were cast adrift, and British
communities may hope reasonably for a better future than
befel any Spanish settlement which achieved its independence.
But dangers of some kind there must be, and the Australian
colonists will not expose themselves unnecessarily to the ac-
cidents inseparable from isolation. Their nationality at pres-
ent is English, and if they leave us it will be by the action of
Great Britain herself, not by any action of their own. To the
question what political measure should be taken to preserve
the union they would answer generally, no measures at all
save in a better organisation of the navy. Let well alone.
The ties which hold us together are daily strengthening of
themselves. The trade of England with the colonies grows
far more rapidly than with any other parts of the world. In-
tercourse is increasing. Melbourne and Sydney are as easy
of access now as New York was fifty years ago. Steam and
telegraph have made an end of distance. The English in the
colonies and the English at home will not fall out if the offi-
cials in Downing Street do not set them by the ears. If the
officials persist, there will be the remedy of the unwilling
duellists who turned their pistols on the seconds that had
made the quarrel.

In the present state of public feeling, the danger is rather
from premature experiments on the part of those who are
anxious to see the union assume a more defined form. I
will therefore add a few more words to what was said by Mr.
Dalley, on the different schemes which have been put forward,
and mention the opinions which I heard expressed about
them.

The colonial theory in favour in England in the last cen-

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