m? Surely these: that Imperial unity and Imperial
supremacy are in no degree dependent on the control exercised by the
central power on its dependent members." Facts, however, are more
conclusive than any arguments; and we have only to look back to the
state some forty years ago of Canada, New Zealand, and the various
colonies of Australia, and compare that state with their condition
to-day, to come to the conclusion that the fullest power of local
government is perfectly consistent with the unity of the Empire and the
supremacy of the British Parliament. Under the old colonial
Constitutions the Executive of those colonies was under the control of
the Crown; and Mr. Merivale says "that the political existence consisted
of a series of quarrels and reconciliations between the two opposing
authorities--the colonial legislative body and the Executive nominated
by the Crown." England resolved to give up the control of the Executive,
and to grant complete responsible government--that is to say, the
Governor of each colony was instructed that his Executive Council (or
Ministry, as we should call it) must resign whenever they were out-voted
by the legislative body. The effect of this change, this relaxing, as
would be supposed, of the Imperial tie, was magical, and is thus
described by Mr. Merivale:[11]

"The magnitude of that change--the extraordinary rapidity of its
beneficial effects--it is scarcely possible to exaggerate. None but
those who have traced it can realize the sudden spring made by a young
community under its first release from the old tie of subjection,
moderate as that tie really was. The cessation, as if by magic, of the
old irritant sores between colony and mother country is the first
result. Not only are they at concord, but they seem to leave hardly any
traces in the public mind behind them. Confidence and affection towards
the home, still fondly so termed by the colonist as well as the
emigrant, seem to supersede at once distrust and hostility. Loyalty,
which was before the badge of a class suspected by the rest of the
community, became the common watchword of all, and, with some
extravagance in the sentiment, there arises no small share of its
nobleness and devotion. Communities, which but a few years ago would
have wrangled over the smallest item of public expenditure to which they
were invited by the Executive to contribute, have vied with each other
in their subscriptions to purposes of British interes