was a struggle
between races, and it was only by "merging"--as Lord Durham expressed
it--"the odious animosities of origin in the feelings of a nobler and
more comprehensive nationality" that peace was restored. The Tory
Cabinet of Peel gave Canada Parliamentary Government, and proclaimed
rebels became Ministers of the Crown, and who is there who will contend
that the application of the maxim "trust in the people" of that great
Imperial statesman, Lord Durham, was not justified by the results of the
grant of self-government not to a peaceful and loyal colony, but to one
which was boiling with discontent and rebellion. Twelve years after Lord
Durham's experiment, the Government of Lord Derby gave Australia similar
institutions, and that fact alone shows how successful the policy had
proved. Great Britain has just given representative government to the
Transvaal and the Orange River Colony. Within five years of the peace of
Vereeniging the pledges of that compact were honourably fulfilled in
spite of the forebodings of one of the political parties, and Louis
Botha, the Premier of one of the new colonies, is the most distinguished
of the generals who less than six years ago were leading their armies
against those of Great Britain.

England has realised that it is only by government with the consent of
the governed that she can maintain her colonies, and the contrast
between her treatment of Ireland and that of her colonies is to be seen
in the fact that to them is extended the protection of the British
fleet, while they are at the same time left free to legislate in the
matter of trade, to deal with their own defence, and all the while
contribute nothing to Imperial charges.

The failure of the policy of North and the success of that of Durham are
apparent. The former has been applied in Ireland, although the country
has consistently cried out for the latter. How long do those with whom
the last word in government is the policy applied to-day, imagine that
they can govern a country at the bayonet's edge in such a way that she
has neither the weight of an equal nor the freedom of a dependency? Lord
Rosebery, whose liberalism may be described in the same terms as those
in which Disraeli denounced the Conservatism of Peel--"the mule of
politics which engenders nothing"--has more than once in the last few
years declared his hostility to the principle of Irish self-government,
and the explanation of his position which he offe