tter, and the
quaint parody of the Athanasian Creed in which he epitomised what he
supposed to be the Radical faith is merely an intellectual
amusement. On the virtues of Rodney, and the future of the Colonies,
he is serious, though scarcely practical.

"Imperial Federation," he wrote in 1887, "is far away, if ever it is
to be realised at all. If it is to come it will come of itself,
brought about by circumstances and silent impulses working
continuously through many years unseen and unspoken of. It is
conceivable that Great Britain and her scattered offspring, under the
pressure of danger from without, or impelled by some purpose, might
agree to place themselves under a single administrative head. It is
conceivable that out of a combination so formed, if it led to a
successful immediate result, some union of a closer kind might
eventually emerge. It is not only conceivable, but it is entirely
certain, that attempts made when no such occasion has arisen, by
politicians ambitious of distinguishing themselves, will fail, and in
failing will make the object that is aimed at more confessedly
unattainable than it is now."*

--
* English in the West Indies, p. 168.
--

So far Froude's predictions have been realised. When he wrote, the
Imperial Federation League had just been formed, and Lord Rosebery was
arguing for Irish Home Rule as part of a much wider scheme. Except
Australia, which is homogeneous, like the Dominion of Canada, the British
Empire is no nearer Federation, and Ireland is no nearer
Home Rule, than they were then. The depression of the sugar trade in
the West Indian Islands has been met by a treaty which raises the
price of sugar at home, and makes those Colonies proportionately
unpopular with the working classes. It has since been proposed to
carry the principle farther, and tax the British workman for the
benefit of Colonial manufacturers. For these strange results of
imperial thinking neither Froude nor any of his contemporaries were
prepared. But they correspond accurately, especially the second of
them, with the "attempt made by politicians ambitious of
distinguishing themselves," against which Froude warned his
countrymen. Froude was no scientific economist. He believed in "free
trade within the Empire," which is not free trade. He was for an
imperial tariff, a thing made in Germany, and called a Zollverein.
But his practical experience and personal observation taught him
that proposals for closer