and the Fisheries Question had been superadded to make bad worse. The violent speeches of American politicians, we were told, were merely "bunkum," traps to catch the Irish vote. But Englishmen were at all events excusable, if they were inclined to take America's friendship at her own valuation. As we looked on all that was passing around us, it was felt that readiness and earnestness alone might save the country from being plunged, within a short time, into all the half-forgotten horrors which the most terrible of European wars had in one moment revived. And thus closed upon us the year which had been welcomed, by others as well as dreamings diplomatists and fond philosophers, with jubilant anticipations of the coming Millennium. Let the record of one pleasant domestic incident vary and close this dark chapter of history. In the autumn of the year her Majesty in Council gave her consent to the marriage of the Princess Louise to the Marquis of Lorne; and thus, amid general expressions of sympathy and approval, was another old landmark of exclusiveness abolished, and an ungracious rule gracefully broken. The known character of both the parties to this fortunate contract was a hopeful guarantee for the results of the experiment; and the sanction of the Queen (which, in the traditions in which she had been brought up and had lived so long, it was felt must have cost her much to give) supplied fresh fuel to the old fire of loyalty, so tenacious of life in the hearts of the English people, at a time when, in the midst of the convulsions around us, it might be well to keep free from rust the sheet-anchor of the old Faith and the old Name.

CHAPTER VI.

Affairs in India-Relation of England with her Colonial Empire-The Government Policy-Effects of the Maori Insurrection of 1868-9-Loan guaranteed to New Zealand-Letter of the New Zealand Commissioners-Proceedings of Colonists in London in opposition to the Government Policy-Proposal for a Conference of Colonial Representatives-Lord Granville's Despatch upon the subject-Answers from the various colonies-Despatch from the Council of Queensland-Proceedings in Victoria-Debate in the House of Lords-Speeches of Lord Carnarvon and Lord Granville-Fenian raid in Canada-Promptitude of the American Government-The Rebellion at the Red River-Emigration during 1869-Extract from a Report on the demand for Emigrants.

During the year 1870 the affairs of our great Indian Empire, however important, presented no topic of immediate interest such as to require observation in a summary so compendious as ours. The visit of a Royal Prince to that portion of the Queen's dominions; the festivities which attended the visits of the Governor-General to different outlying regions of the viceroyalty submitted to his control; some threatenings of frontier trouble towards the North

West; and the occurrence, unhappily, of one of those local famines which still strive to remind us how little our civilization has as yet effected towards obviating or remedying these terrible visitations (this time, however, beyond the frontier of British India, in the independent states of the North West): these occurrences can alone be chronicled on the present occasion. But with regard to our Colonial Empire in general, the year 1869 had witnessed a certain amount of excitement, not so much in the colonies themselves as among colonial politicians at home, on the general subject of the durability of the tie which connects the mother country with these dependencies. In a long series of years that tie had been becoming in certain respects less stringent. Our greater colonies had received representative institutions. From representative institutions the next step was to the establishment of what was termed "responsible" government; a government modelled on that of Great Britain itself, in which the Governor, representing the Crown, exercised no direct political influence unless, indeed, in matters supposed to affect the empire in general; and all patronage and domestic authority is placed in the hands of ministers, removable by the popular vote. And, finally, the appointment of the members of one chamber by the Crown was in some provinces restricted, in others abolished. Under these circumstances, British statesmen were gradually led to the conviction that the maintenance at British expense of troops in the colonies was, with certain exceptions, not to be justly imposed on the British tax-payer, and injurious at the same time to the defensive energies of the colonists. This course of policy, however, had been only gradually developed. The serious injury, and much more extensive alarm, occasioned in New Zealand by the Maori insurrection of 1868-1869 brought the subject more prominently into notice. For the Government at home, steadily resisting the importunity of the colonists, the strong representations of its own officers in New Zealand, and the pressure exercised by party at home, carried out its predetermined policy, and the last regiment was removed from New Zealand at the end of the latter year.

So far as New Zealand itself was concerned, this much apprehended event led to no special results. The Maori insurrection subsided. New Zealand sent commissioners to London, to treat of her affairs. They did not succeed in obtaining a reversal of our military policy; but they obtained, instead, a guarantee for a loan of 1,000,0007., which they acknowledged in the following letter (19th May, 1870):

"Permit us to thank your Lordship on behalf of the colony for the concession her Majesty's Government have been pleased to make. A long series of discussions, arising out of a war in which the Imperial and Colonial Governments had been jointly concerned for ten years, had unhappily caused misunderstanding between them, and much bitterness of feeling among the settlers. The General Assembly believed this would be set right by personal munication in a kindly and conciliatory spirit; and they desired

nothing so much as that all grounds of complaint on both sides. should be forgotten; and the relations between the two Governments secured on the footing of the most hearty friendship and co-operation. If we have not been able to induce your Lordship to regard in the same light as the Assembly did the question of military assistance, still the chief object of our mission has been gained. It is not a mere matter of money that has been arranged; a lasting tie has been made between the two Governments by their engaging together in objects in which the nation has a common interest with her dependency; in the peopling of a new country which is one of her great offshoots; in the opening up of that country by roads; in the reward, by steady and permanent employment, of those native allies who have so faithfully served the Crown; above all, in the weaning of the turbulent and disaffected tribes from warlike habits to peaceful industry. The pursuit of these objects during many years to come, though this can in practice only be done by the colony, will afford frequent opportunities for the sympathy of the Imperial authority; and if the result shall be, as we believe it will, to bring prosperity to both islands, there will be quite as much pleasure to us as to you, in remembering that you helped us in the means which will have brought it. It is this common interest and object, and not only the saving of the annual interest upon the loan, which will make the present arrangement received with satisfaction throughout New Zealand."

But as regards the general question thus raised between the mother country and the colonies, considerable excitement was produced in the earlier part of the year in those classes which take interest in the subject by the proceedings of a number of gentlemen, purporting to represent colonial feeling, who complained that the tendency of recent changes, and in particular of the sentiments expressed in respect of those changes by the Colonial Office under Lord Granville's administration, tended to loosen yet farther the tie, already so slight, which connected the various portions of the great British dominion.

The leaders of the movement in London addressed (in August, 1869) a circular letter to the governments of the colonies, having responsible Government, suggesting to them the expediency of their sending delegates to "a conference of colonial representatives to be held in London." "As," they said, "the Imperial Parliament will meet probably in February next, it is thought that the proposed conference may conveniently be held about the same time." Lord Granville, in addressing the same governments on the subject of this circular, as Secretary for the Colonies, remarked on it as follows:

"Independently of the consideration that the project assumes at its outset an attitude of antagonism to her Majesty's Government, my opinion is that it is not in itself calculated to answer its purpose. "In the first place, the attempt to cover by one arrangement all the principal colonies enjoying Representative Governments appears

I

to me injudicious. The questions which most seriously affect individual colonies in relation to the mother country, have often in their nature and treatment little connexion with those which arise in others; nor, as far as I am aware, is there any thing in the mode of transacting business between the British and Colonial Governments, which, under their generally cordial relations, obstructs negotiation, or calls for any practical improvement in their means

of communication.

"As a general rule, it appears to me that the wishes of the colonists are likely to be more faithfully and effectually brought before the Home Government by the Local Ministers, who are in immediate contact with the Communities which they represent, and through the Governor, who is responsible to her Majesty for furnishing all requisite information, than by a body of gentlemen resident in London, acting in pursuance of their own views or of mere written instructions, under influences not always identical with those which are paramount in the colony, and without the guarantee which their recommendations may derive from having passed through the Governor's hands.

"It will be obvious to you that these objections to a standing representation of the Colonial Empire in London have no relation to the appointment of several or collective agencies on the system now in force, which, I believe, completely answers its purpose.'

In the course of the early part of this year, answers were received to Lord Granville's despatch from all the important colonies, which, though in varying language, uniformly discouraged the suggestion put forward by the movers of the scheme in London, and disclosed no readiness to join in a conference of colonial representatives. Most of these expressed themselves satisfied with the administration of their affairs by local governments responsible to their own people, under the general link of Imperial authority, and expressed no desire for closer connexion. The following from Queensland (though one of the last established colonies) may be subjoined as going a little more into detail than others :

"1. The Council observe that considerable dissatisfaction has for some years past been caused by the mischievous interference of those self-constituted Colonial Societies and other pretended representatives of the Colonies in England, and trust that in future no statement made at Downing Street, by persons not formally and officially accredited by the Government of the colony, may be permitted to influence her Majesty's Advisers.

"3. That this Government sees no reason to alter the present mode of communication on subjects of mutual interest with her Majesty's Government. That no desire has ever been shown by the colonists of Queensland to withdraw from the British Empire. On the contrary, they have always manifested the most sincere loyalty and attachment to the mother country; but they observe with regret that their countrymen at home display, through the press and in Parliament, a desire to thrust the colonies out of the empire.

"4. That whenever a serious intention shall be shown in the British Parliament to break the Imperial tie, the colonists will claim their right to be heard against a deprivation of their position and rights as Englishmen without their consent.

"7. That the colonies will doubtless, some day solicit from the British Government a solution of the claims of Great Britain, in respect of what are termed Imperial interests, what she claims in respect of them in time of war, and to what extent she will continue to assert her right of interference with the trade and commerce, and with the commercial or domestic legislation of the colonies, and in the separation of portions of their territories-also whether Great Britain will recognize any Imperial duties towards the Colonies in peace or war, and define what they are, and by what means she will perform them, and more particularly whether she will make them such as to entitle her to a complete, or limited, allegiance and support, in the event of war with other countries, and thus afford us a guide to our Colonial duties towards her.

"8. That the colony of Queensland has hitherto had no grave cause of complaint."

In the great colony of Victoria the impulse thus given produced, contrary to the intentions of those who produced it, a movement towards loosening instead of tightening the relations between mother country and colony, which, however, proceeded no farther than the introduction into the House of Representatives of certain significant resolutions :—

"1. That the care of the political rights and interests of a free people can be safely entrusted only to a body appointed by and responsible to that people; and that the Legislative Assembly declines to sanction or to recognize the proceedings (so far as the same may relate to Victoria) of the Conference proposed to be held in London, at the instance of a self-constituted and irresponsible body of absentee colonists.

2. That the people of Victoria, possessing by law the right of self-government, desire that this colony should remain an integral portion of the British Empire, and this House acknowledges, on behalf of its constituents, the obligation to provide for the defence of the shores of Victoria, against foreign invasion, by means furnished at the sole cost, and retained within the exclusive control, of the people of Victoria.

"3. That this House protests against any interference, by legislation of the Imperial Parliament, with the internal affairs of Victoria, except at the instance, or with the express consent, of the people of the colony.

"4. That the official communication of advice, suggestions, or instructions, by the Secretary of State for the Colonies to her Majesty's Representative in Victoria, on any subject whatsoever connected with the administration of the local government, except the giving or withholding of the Royal Assent to or the reservation. of Bills passed by the two Houses of the Victorian Parliament, is a