her children, or her dependent races, or that there is any settled British policy in the very Continent, where vigour, firmness, and consistency, combined with mere justice, seem to be absolutely essential.

“South Africa has yet to be won over to England, or, in other words, confidence has to be restored.  The effort is surely worth making, and anything like a determined effort on the part of the Sovereign, and Her Majesty’s immediate advisers would find a most vigorous and cordial response.

     “The idea of confederation seems to be quite dependent upon such
     preliminaries, as mutual confidence, and a measure of common
     necessity, in order to such a question being seriously entertained.

     “The Colonial Conference of two years ago, seems however to have
     paved the way for effective development in the direction of
     confederation.

“For it must be remembered, that the somewhat complex British constitution is not the creation of any one Monarch, or Parliament.  It has grown to its present dimensions little by little, influenced always by the necessities of particular cases.  The House of Peers has ever been summoned by writ, and early precedents indicate, that the Sovereign was not always limited to a particular class of Barons, who alone could be invited to the deliberations of the nation.

“Although it is not admitted, it is nevertheless the fact, that, at the present time, all who are most anxiously desirous of seeing a way to establish a means of drawing together, in Council, the Colonies and the Mother Country, are quite disagreed, as to what is the best means to this end.

“A formal confederation is desired, but all are agreed upon the difficulties which, for the present, at any rate, stand in the way of completing an exactly defined treaty, or definition, to confederate as between the Mother Country, and the Colonies.

     “Perhaps a means to this much-desired end may be discovered, by way
     of less formal, but almost equally effective, courses of policy as
     regards Colonial possessions.

“Every one feels the difficulty in the way of summoning Colonial Representatives to either the House of Lords or the House of Commons, for, while special provision would be required to increase the numbers of the House of Commons, there are apparent and real obstacles in the way of inviting Colonial Representatives to sit in the House of Lords, either as ordinary, or as Life Peers.

“It does not seem too much to hope that, before long, the Crown, may desire to see assembled in London, during some period of the annual session of the Imperial Parliament a Council of Colonial Delegates, meeting in a place to be assigned to them, who will have no voice in other than Colonial Policy, just as now, the House of Lords has no voice in the originating of Money