ces
interpose. It is when we consider the real life, the material
pursuits, the solid interests, the separate frontiers and
frontier-policies of the colonies, that we perceive how deeply the
notions of Mr. Seeley are tainted with vagueness and dreaminess.

The moral of Mr. Seeley's book is in substance this, that if we allow
'ourselves to be moved sensibly nearer in our thoughts and feelings to
the colonies, and accustom ourselves to think of emigrants as not in
any way lost to England by settling in the colonies, the result might
be, first, that emigration on a vast scale might become our remedy for
pauperism; and, secondly, that some organisation might gradually be
arrived at which might make the whole force of the empire available in
time of war' (p. 298). Regarded as a contribution, then, to that
practical statesmanship which is the other side of historical study,
Mr. Seeley's book contains two suggestions: emigration on a vast scale
and a changed organisation. On the first not many words will be
necessary. They come to this, that unless the emigration on a vast
scale is voluntary, all experience shows that it will fail inevitably,
absolutely, and disastrously: and next, that if it is voluntary, it
will never on a vast scale, though it may in rare individual
instances, set in a given direction by mere movement of our thoughts
and feelings about the flag or the empire. It is not sentiment but
material advantages that settle the currents of emigration. Within a
certain number of years 4,500,000 of British emigrants have gone to
the United States, and only 2,500,000 to the whole of the British
possessions. Last year 179,000 went to the United States, and only
43,000 to Canada. The chairman of the Hudson's Bay Company the other
day plainly admitted to his shareholders that 'as long as the United
States possessed a prairie country and Canada did not, the former
undoubtedly offered greater advantages for the poorer class of
emigrants.' He would not force emigrants to go to any particular
country, 'but _everything else being equal_, he would exercise what
moral influence he could to induce emigrants to go to our own
possessions' (Report in _Times_, November 23, 1883). The first step,
therefore, is to secure that everything else shall be equal. When
soil, climate, facility of acquisition, proximity to English ports,
are all equalised, it will be quite time enough to hope for a change
in the currents of emigration, and when