een to a
young man severely compromising, writing on the palm of my hand, by
the light of a dark lantern, in a post-chaise and four, galloping
through a wild country, and through the dead of the night, at the
then surprising rate of fifteen miles an hour. . . . I have worn my
knees by writing on them on the old back-row of the old gallery of
the old House of Commons; and I have worn my feet by standing to write
in a preposterous pen in the old House of Lords, where we used to
be huddled together like so many sheep--kept in waiting, say, until
the woolsack might want re-stuffing. Returning home from exciting
political meetings in the country to the waiting press in London,
I do verily believe I have been upset in almost every description
of vehicle known in this country. I have been, in my time, belated
on miry by-roads, towards the small hours, forty or fifty miles from
London, in a wheelless carriage, with exhausted horses and drunken
post-boys, and have got back in time for publication, to be received
with never-forgotten compliments by the late Mr Black, coming in the
broadest of Scotch from the broadest of hearts I ever knew."

During these later years England came to look upon her duties and
responsibilities toward her colonial possessions in quite a
different light. Imperialism became a factor in the political life
of the nation.

The builders of Empire in the time of Queen Elizabeth took a very
narrow view of their responsibilities; they were not in the least
degree concerned about the well-being of a colony or possession for
its own sake. The state of Ireland in those days spoke for itself.
The horrors of the Indian Mutiny in 1857 was the first lesson which
opened England's eyes to the fact that an Empire, if it is to be
anything more than a name, must be a united whole under wise and
sympathetic guidance.

The rebellion proved to be the end of the old East Indian Company.
England took over the administration of Indian affairs into her own
hands. An "Act for the better Government of India" was passed in 1858,
which provided that all the territories previously under the
government of the Company were to be vested in Her Majesty, and all
the Company's powers to be exercised in her name. The Viceroy, with
the assistance of a Council, was to be supreme in India.

In 1867 a great colonial reform was carried out, the Confederation
of the North American Provinces of the British Empire. By this Act
the names of Up