the best ends of a civilized community, has been
achieved by this scattered people in a marvellous manner. But all
through this great, this noble, this successful effort, we have had
different sources of irritation, of bad neighbourhood, of turmoil, of
aggression, which, if they were to go on, must make these co-terminous
communities instead of being one people of one blood, one faith, one
jurisprudence, one in the very principles of civilization
themselves--instead of that must make us cavilling, disputatious,
foreign countries. The only way to stop that is for the whole
people--and remember that the whole people in the final result must be
the arbiters--to join in creating one great union government which shall
act for the whole. That government must, of course, be sufficiently
strong to act with effect, to act successfully, and it must be
sufficiently strong to carry the name and the fame of Australia with
unspotted beauty, and with uncrippled power throughout the world. One
great end, to my mind, of a federated Australia is, that it must of
necessity secure for Australia a place in the family of nations, which
it never can attain while it is split up into separate colonies with
antagonistic laws and with hardly anything in common.

I regret to say, Mr. President, that my strength is not such as will
enable me to keep on my feet many minutes longer. I have submitted these
resolutions--perhaps it is all the better--without any great effort in
their support. I trust I have indicated with a clearness sufficient what
the great object we aim at must be, and the means by which alone we can
hope to accomplish it. I do not doubt that the gentlemen present will
each of them address themselves to the subject, which, I think, the
resolutions have the merit of fairly launching, in a spirit of
patriotism, always keeping in view the welfare, the prosperity, the
united strength, and the ultimate glory of our common country.

_March 13th._ I am aware that outside these walls, at any rate, there is
a feeling that we ought to wait; that the time has not yet come. I can
only repeat what I have said in other places. If we miss this particular
opportunity, every year that rolls over us will make the difficulties
greater; these difficulties which our separate existence have imposed
will go on increasing. They can only have one crop of fruit; they can
only produce antipathy, disunion, aggression, reprisal, wide-spread
discontent, and, if