erent
sides. That would prove that in England they did not regard this
great question as one of party politics. One of the most important
results in connection with that League had been the celebrated
Colonial Conference, which the League had been able to induce the
Government to summon two years ago at Westminster. They all knew
what a remarkable gathering that was, which was presided over by
Lord Knutsford (then Sir Henry Holland), the summons being
responded to by the self-governing Colonies of the Empire sending
their foremost men to represent their interests. From South Africa
were sent such men as Sir Thomas Upington, Sir John Robinson, and
Mr. Hofmeyr, and he confessed that, when he had the honour of being
at the first meeting of the Conference, and seeing these men
gathered in the Foreign Office, and having present the Prime
Minister, Lord Salisbury, if his dream of Imperial Federation was
to be anything more than a dream, he felt that these were the first
symptoms of its realization. It was the first time in history that
the Colonies of Great Britain had come to the Mother Country to
consult on great National questions. He had read nearly the whole
of the large Blue Book which contained the reports of the
Conference, and all he could say was that he challenged any
assembly of public men to meet together and show more ability and
statesmanlike thought in the discussion of the questions submitted
to them than was shown by that Conference during its short reign.
He was delighted with the noble words of Lord Salisbury, when he
expressed his satisfaction, and said he hoped this would be only
the first of many similar Conferences, but Lord Salisbury, like
other public men, sometimes saw occasion to change his views,
because not long ago he said, on a public occasion, that all he
knew about Federation was, that it was a word spelt with ten
letters, which was somewhat of a wet blanket to some of those who
had reckoned upon Lord Salisbury as an ardent supporter. More
recently he said, in reply to a question put to him at a public
meeting at the East End of London, that geographical considerations
would prevent the realization of such a scheme; but his allusions
to geographical difficulties vanished before modern science. Was it
not in their cog