liberal movement did not last long.
Lord Shelburne retired, and from 1784 till the passing of the Reform
Bill in 1832 the Tories mismanaged the affairs of Great Britain and
her colonies.

One great advantage of American independence was that it gave the
world a fair chance of judging between the results of republican and
royal government in colonial affairs.

We have certainly much that is rotten in the United States; but, when
we compare our republic at its worst with British colonial
administration, we can find good reason to be thankful for the
crowning mercy of 1781, when Washington, Lafayette, and De Grasse
gained their decisive victory over the troops of King George.

I will not now refer to England's use of her immense power in India,
China, and Japan. As I watched the course of the Congress of Religions
at Chicago in 1893, I could not help thinking that the impressions
taken from that Congress by our Oriental visitors would bear fruit
that in due course may teach even his Grace, the Archbishop of
Canterbury, something about England's criminal neglect of Christian
duty to these people. For us it is enough to compare our position with
that of the two unfortunate islands nearer our own shores, Ireland and
Newfoundland.

Suppose we had been cursed with the rule of British Tories since 1783,
is it likely that our condition would have been better than that of
these islands?

Even such small instalments of justice as Mr. Gladstone has been able
to secure through his splendid fight for "justice to Ireland" are due
far more to the pressure exercised on England by the Irish in America
than to British sense of right. Poor Newfoundland has had no Ireland
in America to help her. She has been among the most loyal of England's
colonies, and because of her loyalty she has been the most shamefully
treated.

It might be expected that Irish Catholics would emigrate in large
numbers to Newfoundland to escape the infamous penal laws by which
King George oppressed them in Ireland, and that sailors from all parts
of Great Britain would seek there a shelter from the press-gangs at
home. Dr. O'Donnell, the first regularly authorized Catholic priest on
the island, applied in 1790 for leave to build a chapel in an outport;
and, the Tories being in power, Governor Milbanke replied: "The
Governor acquaints Mr. O'Donnell [omitting the title of Rev.] that, so
far from being disposed to allow of an increase of places of religious
wor