Such a federation would make Great Britain an enormous power.  The British possessions are scattered all over the globe.  Were she to federate with her colonies the declaration of war on her part with any country would mean that Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and British South America would all join in the fight, and help to uphold England’s quarrel.  England could then dictate to the world, and her power would exceed that of ancient Rome in its days of greatest glory.

This scheme has always been a dream of ambitious English statesmen, but the policy of the British Government has always been against it.

The idea was so vast that no one dared advise the taking of the first step.

The British Ministers feared that the result of the federation would be a combination of all the rest of Europe against England, so they adopted the policy of keeping good friends with their European neighbors, and allowing the colonies to wait yet a little longer for federation.

The modern statesmen have been extending British influence ever further and further, in the hope of one day accomplishing the great federation.

It was this dream that was behind the Transvaal raid.  The Colonial Secretary, Mr. Joseph Chamberlain, desired to see the whole of South Africa under the sovereignty of England, and Mr. Cecil Rhodes had no objection to making the effort to realize this wish, because the scheme would have proved as profitable to himself as to the Government.  That to accomplish his purpose he had to crush the Boers, and drive them out of their own country, was nothing to him; he did not hesitate at anything that was to be for the honor and glory of England—­and the subsequent enriching of Cecil Rhodes.

The scandal over the Raid brought the idea of federation to the front again, and when the Jubilee celebrations took place a move was made to secure it.

Eleven of the colonial premiers, or prime ministers, attended the Jubilee, and during their visit to London they held a conference to discuss the project.

At this meeting the Colonial Secretary took the old ground that the matter was of such vast importance that it must not be approached hastily.

The Canadian premiers were, however, anxious that some step should be taken, and Sir Wilfrid Laurier, from Canada, voiced the sentiments of his brother premiers when he stated that the time had come for the colonies to draw more closely to the empire, or separate from it altogether.

England found herself in a dilemma.  While she had been careful to bring up her colonies to be independent of her, she had not realized that one day they might become too independent, and seek to break away from her rule altogether.  She had repeated none of the mistakes of oppression and greed that had cost her the American colonies, and she had supposed that her other colonies would be satisfied to belong to the British Crown.