that parties consider first their own interests; and that the
interests of no party which has hitherto held power in this
country have been involved in the wise administration of
our colonial connections. The patricians of England had
nothing in common with the colonists in America. Those
colonists had sprung from the people. They were plebeians;
they were, many of them, dissenters; they inherited the prin-
ciples of the Commonwealth; they were independent, and
chose to have the management of their own affairs. The gov-
erning classes at home tried to master them, and did not suc-
ceed. Equally little have our present colonies been an object
of intelligent concern to the class which has ruled us during
the last fifty years. It used to be considered that the first
object of human society was the training of character, and
the production of a fine race of men. It has been considered
for the last half-century that the first object is the production
of wealth, and that the value of all things is to be measured by
their tendency to make the nation richer, on the assumption
that if our nation is enriched collectively, the individuals
composing it must be enriched along with it. Accordingly
the empire, for which so many sacrifices were made, has been
regarded as a burden to the tax-payer. We have been called
on to diminish our responsibilities. Great Britain, it has
been said, is sufficient for herself within her own borders.
Her aim should be to develop her own industries, keep her
people at home, that the prices of labor may be low enough
to hold at bay foreign competition, and 'with the national
genius for mechanical pursuits, with our natural advantages,
&c., we could constitute ourselves the great working firm of
the world, and our little England a land of manufacturers,
growing, and to grow, without limit. People would increase,
wages would increase, to the desirable point and not beyond
it. Free trade would bring cheap food, and on a soil black-
ened with cinders and canopied with smoke, the nation

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