was not until then, and not until Australia spoke
with one voice rather than with six, that the Colonial Conference was
to come into its own as an established body for inter-imperial
discussion.

Outside the Conference there was much discussion of imperial relations.
It was for the most part vague and rhetorical, but it showed clearly
the new-born interest which was stirring wide circles in the United
Kingdom. As yet Imperial Federation was the only scheme for closer
union which had been at all clearly formulated, and, though it had been
discredited by the failure of its advocates to find and agree upon any
feasible plan, its phraseology still held the field. Sir Wilfrid
himself sometimes expressed his vision in its formulas. In a striking
passage in his first speech at Liverpool he pictured Macaulay's New
Zealander coming not to gaze upon the ruins of St Paul's but to knock
for {181} admission upon the doors of Westminster. Yet even these
earlier speeches forecast the newer conception of the Empire as a
partnership of equal states. 'A colony,' he described Canada, 'yet a
nation--words never before in the history of the world associated
together.' Making a dramatic contrast between the rebellion and
discontent which marked the beginning of the Queen's reign in Canada,
and the willing and unquestioned allegiance which marked it now, he
showed that the secret lay in the ever-wider freedom and
self-government which had been claimed and granted.

From London Sir Wilfrid passed to Paris. It was before the days of the
_entente cordiale_. In Egypt, in Soudan, in Siam, in Newfoundland, the
interests of Britain and those of France were clashing, and there was
much talk of age-long rivalry and inevitable war. The reports which
had reached Paris of the strong expressions, uttered by a son of New
France, of attachment and loyalty to the Empire and the Queen had made
still more bitter the memories of the 'few acres of snow' lost in 1763.
There was much wonder as to what Laurier would say on French soil. His
message there was the same. The French Canadians, he said, had not
forgotten the {182} France of their ancestors: they cherished its
memories and its glories. 'In passing through this city, beautiful
above all cities, I have noted upon many a public building the proud
device that the armies of the Republic carried through Europe--Liberty,
Equality, Fraternity. Very well: all that there is of worth in that
device, w