aps a survival of the
dependence which colonialism had bred, a dawning aspiration toward an
independent place in the world's work, and a disposition to draw
tighter racial and religious lines in order to offset the emphasis which
imperialists placed on Anglo-Saxon ties. Now their sympathies went out
to a people, like themselves an alien minority brought under British
rule, and in this attitude they were strengthened by the almost
unanimous verdict of the neutral world against British policy. Laurier
tried to steer a middle course, but the attacks of ultra-imperialists
in Ontario and of ultra-nationalists in Quebec, led henceforward by a
brilliant and eloquent grandson of Papineau, Henri Bourassa,
hampered him at every turn. The South African War gave a new unity to
English-speaking Canada, but it widened the gap between the French and
English sections.

The part which Australia and New Zealand, like Canada, had taken in
the war gave new urgency to the question of imperial relations. English
imperialists were convinced that the time was ripe for a great advance
toward centralization, and they were eager to crystallize in permanent
institutions the imperial sentiment called forth by the war. When,
therefore, the fourth Colonial Conference was summoned to meet in London
in 1902 on the occasion of the coronation of Edward VII, Chamberlain
urged with all his force and keenness a wide programme of centralized
action. "Very great expectations," he declared in his opening address,
"have been formed as to the results which may accrue from our meeting."
The expectations, however, were doomed to disappointment. He and those
who shared his hopes had failed to recognize that the war had
called forth a new national consciousness in the Dominions, as the
self-governing colonies now came to be termed, even more than it had
developed imperial sentiment. In the smaller colonies, New Zealand,
Natal, Cape of Good Hope, the old attitude of colonial dependence
survived in larger measure; but in Canada and in Australia, now
federated into commonwealths, national feeling was uppermost.

Chamberlain brought forward once more his proposal for an imperial
council, to be advisory at first and later to attain power to tax and
legislate for the whole Empire, but he found no support. Instead, the
Conference itself was made a more permanent instrument of imperial
cooperation by a provision that it should meet at least every four
years. The essential