ghtful men to weigh the principles contended for, calmly,
wisely, and without prejudice or passion. The flippant, the
superficial, the thoughtlessly ambitious, and those who did not
take a fair, judicial, and comprehensive view of the great issues
involved in it to each portion of the Empire over which the British
Crown held sway, might deride and condemn it, but he, as one of its
most ardent pioneers and supporters, recommended it to all
colonists as well as to his countrymen at home, as the best
preservation of their commercial, social, and political interests
in the future, which they would lose altogether if they abandoned
it in favour of the disintegration of the British Empire. He had
studied this question for some years, and by a sort of instinct he
felt that it was the right thing to be brought about. He had
brought before them proofs that some distinguished men were already
feeling the desirability of some such thing being effected, and he
could not but help thinking that their ranks would be augmented by
other people of influence and power, who may hereafter be brought
to think seriously and carefully over this great question. He took
the opportunity himself, some three years ago, to put a letter in
the London _Times_ suggesting that as the question had now been
some years before the public, both in the Colonies and the Mother
Country, it would be very desirable indeed if a Royal Commission of
Inquiry were sent out, under distinguished auspices, for the
purpose of ascertaining the opinions of the various Colonies. This
could be carried out on parallel lines to the celebrated Commission
sent to Canada, and which resulted in the consolidation of the
Dominion. The obtaining of these opinions would be invaluable
evidence as to the consensus of feeling in the Colonies on the
subject. If the question was to be more than a dream, and became
one of practical politics, it would require all the Colonies to
express an opinion on the subject. He could not conceive that
anything could be more desirable than to take the evidence of
distinguished representative men on such a great National question.
Those were the views he expressed in the leading journal; they were
individual ideas, which did not yet appear to be acceptable, though
he could not help hopi