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Lorsque le document est trop grand pour dtre reproduit en un seul clichd, il est filmd d partir de Tangle supdrieur gauche, de gauche d droite, et de haut en bas, en prenant le nombre d'images n6cessaire. Les diagrammes suivants illustrent la mdthode. 1 2 3 1 2 3 4 5 6 y^z^. l^Lu^ j^,?H..^^ THE JUBILEE YEAR. AN ORATION DELIVERED BY SILAS ALWARD, D. C. L., M. P. P., BEFORE THE ALUMNI AND ALUMNiC SOCIETIES OF THE UNIVERSITY OF MOUNT ALLISON COLLEGE SACKYILLE, N. B., MAY 31, 1887. I»XJIiXiISS:EI3 E"X- Ii:EQ,XJSST. ST. JOHN, N. B. : dXily telegraph print, canterbury street. 1887. THE JUBILEE YEAR. Mr, President, Ladles and Gentlemen : — Among the ancient Hebrews the celebration of the jubilee year was an event fraught with intense interest. It served a two-fold purpose, marking an epoch in the nation's history and bringing comfort to the soiTOwing and outcast ; to the bondman it meant freedom ; to the prisoner liberty ; to the debtor, a cancellation of all his obligations and to the unfortunate, a return of his ancestral estates. With us the celebration of a jubilee year is a matter of mere sentiment, attended, however, with this advantage, that it serves, or rather should serve, to excite gratitude for the blessings of the past and inspire hope for the future. With such a feeling will wc join in celebrating the approaching jubilee — gratitude for fifty years of unprecedented prosjierity, and hope for a future bright with promise. Of the thirty-six sovereigns who have borne sway in England since the Norman conquest, during a period of eight hundred and twenty-one years, but three have ruled more than fifty. It is a coincidence worthy of mention, that each of these three stood third in his line— Henry the Third, Edward the Third and George the Third. It is also a coincidence, likewise worthy of mention, that during the reigns of these respective sovereigns great consti- tutional changes were effected — changes of far-reaching import. Down to the reign of Henry the Third, the people had little or no share in the government of the country. They in fact constituted an unknown factor in the body politic. So arbitrarily did this sovereign exercise his kingly prerogatives and so repeatedly did he violate the provisions of the Great Charter, the barons rose in rebellion, determined at all hazards to cast off so galling a yoke. To ensure success they sought the alliance of the gi-eat body of the people. Under the leadership of Simon de Montfort, they de- feated the king's army at Lewes, taking him prisoner. Simon, surnamed the Kighteous, decided to call a Parliament. Hereto- fore only Ecclesiastics, the different orders of the Nobility and Knights of the Shire had been summoned to the Council of the nation. The shcriffk were now for the first time directed to return deputies for the Ijoroughs and citizens for the towns. In the Par- liament of 1265 the merchant and tradesman took their seats in the general court of the nation, by the side of the mitred Bishop and belted Earl, for at this time all the estates of the realm sat in one chamber, Th(! [)resence of an order of men, before considered too mean to enjoy a place in the national council, was regarded by prelate and noble as an intrusion and the new-comers were made to feel their position was not an enviable one. This epoch in the Parliamentary history of England marks the commencement of that fierce and bitter struggle between the champions of popular rights on the one hand and kingly prerogatives and caste and pri- vilege on the other. For over six hundred years has it been waged with a vigor as relentless as it has been unpausing. It has taken all these years to curb kingly and priestly authority, break down caste and privilege and change government of the king, for the king and nobility, into government of the people, by the people, for the people. And what a series of splendid victories for justice and right illustrates the history of this unparalleled contest — the confirmation of tlm Great Charter, the Petition of Right, the Bill of Rights, the Ilnbeas Cprpus Act, Catholic Emancipation, the Reform Bill of 1832, the abolition of slavery, the repeal of the Corn Laws, the Reform Bill of 1867, and the Franchise Act of 1884 by which two millions were added to the electorate. Thus has liberty been gradually broadened down from precedent to pre- cedent and thus has the reign of the people been inaugurated. And the end is not yet. The lofty mission of the advocate of popular rights shall not have been accomplished until every wrong is I'edressed, evei'y right vindicated and liberty and justice shall become the inalienable birthright of every descendant of the Anglo Saxon race. The rise of the House of Commons, popularly so called, dates from the time of Edward the Third. In the fifteenth year of this sovereign's reign the representatives of the people first sat in St. Stephen's Chapel, apart from the lords, elected their own Speaker, and began to exercise the power of granting supplies. For over live hundred years this august assembly, the greatest and freest the world has yet seen, has exercised its functions, whose annals are illustrated by the genius of a Pitl, a Ruiko, a Fox, a Bright and a (JladHtone. In the reign of George the Third, that great constitutional prin- ciple was established beyond question— that representation and taxation are co-ordinate rights The want of its earlier recognition ?ost England the loss of her tJiirteen American colonies. Soon our gracious Queen will rank fourth among the jubilee sovereigns, a " Queen m true to womanhood, as (jueenhood, (Jlorying in the glories of her people. Sorrowing with the sorrows of the lowest."' Not only has her reign been distinguished by great constitutional changes, it has been rendered illustrious as well by the most won- derful advance in art, science, literature and material progress in every department of human enterprise. Who can adequately describe these Fifty years of ever-broadening commerce I Fifty years of ever-brightening science ! Fifty years of ever widening empire? Of all the sovereigns who have assumed the globe and the scep- tre none surpass her in all the great qualities of queenhood and womanhood, for in her we see *• Nothing of the lawless, of the despot, Nothing of the vulgar or vainglorious, < All is gracious, gentle, great and queenly." In the record of the world's history never did nation occupy the proud position of Great Britain and her world-embracing colonies and dependencies. Gibbon, in his Decline and Fall, sketches with a master's hand the extent of the Roman Empire, when at the zenith of its greatness, stretching as it did from beyond the Eu- phrates in the east to the Pillars of Hercules in the west, a distance of three thousand miles' ; and from the arid sands of the Libyan desert in the south to the eternal snows of Sarmatia in the north, a distance of two thousand miles, euibracing the fairest portions of the then habitable world. Yet the mighty expanse of the Roman Empire constituted in area only one-fourth part of the British Empire of to-day. Its population of 120,000,000 being- only one-half that of India, one of its dependencies. a As by contrast w(^ are the better able to form a just estimate of tli(j qualiti fate. Vanquished, all but annihilated, it was driven back to the shores of Spain, whose star of empire hastened to its setting, while that of Eng- land rose in the ascendant to shine with increasing splendor as the years pass, and destined, we trust, never to pale. What a striking contrast does tli.e England of throe Inindied yenra ago present to the Great Britain of 18JS7. Then Scotland was a separ- ate kingdom. Then Ireland, although u subject, was virtually an alien, nationality. Then th(; population of England was less than five millions — not more than the Dominion of Canada today. The population of the empire is now three hundred millions, hav- ing increased sixtyrfold. Then England was without colonies. Now her dcspendencies and colonies, constituting Greater Britain, embrace an area seventy-fold greater than the area of the Ignited Kingdom. Then she was virtually without commerce. But as .Spain and Holland had wrested from the free states of Italy the commercial primacy of the Mediterranean and the trade of the east, so England in turn wrested from Spain and Holland the commercial supremacy of the world. In 1582 the vessels of all sizes owned by England amounted to only 1232, of which only 217 were above eighty tons. Their united tonnage was 50,000, not one-tifth that of New Brunswick, only one-tweniy-eighth that of the minion of Canada. Her seamen numbered only 14,295, less than those who go down from Canadian shores >a\<\ smite the sounding furrows of our own ' iters. Now her ^reat war-ships patrol the watery highways of .he world unchallenged, and her merchant navy of 30,000 ships, manned by 270,000 sailors, are found on all seas. Her flag floats over forty-nine per cent, of the carrying power of the world. Nearly one-half of the world's com- merce is moved in British bottoms. During the reign of Elizabeth two events occurred, considered at the time trivial, yet fraught with the greatest results for the nation and the world. A.n ex- pediiion set sail from England across the western main and at- tempted colonization in the northerly portion of this continent. Another, under Sir Walter Raleigh, sailing further south, pro- ceeded to colonize what is now known as the State of Virginia. These were the first serious attempts at colonization on the part of England. All the far-reaching results of British civilization on this continent are traceable to these expeditions. At the close of the year 1599, some London merchants formed themselves into a company, under the title of The Governor and Company of Mer- chants of Ix)ndon Trading to the East Indies. The stock of the corporation amounted to seventy two thousand pounds, divided 8 into one hundred and twenty-five shares. In 1600 the Queen gmnted them a patent. Four small vessels were fitted out and in a humble way the company entered into competition with Portugal, Holland and France for the trade of the East. The venturt? proved successful beyond expectation. Territorial possession soon followed, which finally paved the way for the acqui.sition of a de- pendency for the nation, of nearly one and a half million square miles, with twelve great provinces and one hundred and fifty feudatory states and j)rincipalities, rich in the accumulated wealth of centuries and possessing the grandest possibilities and contain- ing a population of two hundred and forty millions. The great constitutional changes wrought during the last three centuries deserve more than a passing notice. Freedom, as now understood, was then undreamed of. Then might was largely right. Then offence's gilded hand was often seen to shove by jus- tice. The last of the Tudors exercised her royal ])rerogatives with all the rigor of a Plantagenet. Then there flourished those two infamous Courts, the .Star Chamber and High Commission ; one claiuiing jurisdiction for all sorts of contempts and of- fences beyond the reach of the Common Law and for which no sufficient punishment had been j^rovided ; the other, juris- diction in matters of conscience and exercising its usurped functions contrary to all ideas of justice and equity, both wielding tinliraited authority of fining, imprisoning and inflicting corporal punishment. These despotic and illegal tribunals were not abol- ished until the following century. Then arrests were made on mere suspicion and jails filled without the warrants of commitment specifying any charge, and the victims of the despotic power de- tained in custody for years without being able to obtain any remedy from the law. Now, happily, the liberty of the subject is a sacred thing, guarded with watchful jealously. Then taxes were frequently levied, not by constitutional means, in fact rather ex- torted in the shape of benevolences and forced loans, and by the imposition of jmrveyance, i>re-emption and embargoes on merchan- dise. Then the Crown could supersede legislative power by means of proclamations. Then the nobility could not marry without the permission of the sovereign, and no man could travel abroad with- out the like permission. Teiiipora mutcintur et lion mutumur. 9 "Who would care to forego the freedom of the nineteenth century for these so styled halcyon days 1 Distance lends enchantment to the days of long ago. A nearer view, however, dispels the illusion. The progress of the United Kingdom, during the present reign, evokes unqualified admiration. It is not measured solely by the growth of population, the expansion of trade and the accumulation of vast wealth. It is seen as well in the broadened liberty, which enlightened civilization brings and the thousand and one conveni- ences which add so much to the comfort of life and make it worth the living. The growth of population has been less in the United Kingdom than in the larger colonies. Between 1837 and 1887 it increased in the former by only forty-one per cent., while in British North America, by two hundred and twenty-hve per cent., and in the Australasian colonies, by two thousand three hundred and forty-tive per cent. Wealth for the like period has made a gain of one hundred and twenty-four per cent., or at a rate three times greater than population. The repeal of the Corn Laws in 1846 and of the Navigation Laws in 1849 gave a wonderful impetus to trade and opened up a new era of prosperity to the country. The trade of the Emjtire expanded from two hundred and nine millions in 1837, to one thousand and seventy-nine millions in 1886, or over five hundred per cent. Steam power has proved a great fac- tor in promoting the prosperity of the nation. The year Her Majesty ascended the thi'one the first two steaiijers, the " Great Western " and " Sirius," crossed the Atlantic In shipping, in- cluding streamers, the effective carrying power has increased from three and a quarter million tons in 1837, to twenty-two million tons in 1887. The ascension of Her Majesty to the throne is co- incident wiuh legislative progress, which constitutes a marked fea- ture of her reign, among which may be classed : the granting of State aid for educational purposes, the opening of the Civil Service to all classes, the abolition of the purchase of army commissions, the Educational Act of 1870 and the broadening of the franchise so as to embrace all classes of the State. The growth of Australasia is unprecedented in the annals of colo- nial history. During the reign of our sovereign this island con- tinent has leaped into almost national existence. One hundred years ago, this month, six transports, having on board 757 con- 10 victs, sailed from England for Botany Bay, They were eight months in making the voyage and eventually founded a penal set- tlement not far from the present capital of New South Wales. In 1803 Van Diemen's Island, (now Tasmania) became an auxiliary penal station. For years these places were popularly supposed to be beyond the pale of civilization ; as altogether unfitted for coloni- zation and useful only as places of transportation for the vicious and outcast. In 1810, Governor Msujquarie described New South Wales, which then had under control all the settled portions of Austi-alia, as barely emerging from a state of semi-barbarism ; without trade, credit or revenue ; its people depressed by poverty and utterly discouraged ; with agriculture languishing and indus- trial enterprise at a stand still ; the morals of the people in the lowest state of debasement, and religious worahip almost wholly neglected. In 1837 there was but a single Crown Colony in all the islands under the Southern Cross, and the population of the settlements amounted to only 1 34,000. Now there are two Crown Colonies and six large self-governing states, whose united popula- tions is not far from three and a half millions. Within the last fifteen years its population has doubled. Its trade has risen from ^2,800,000 in 1837, to £1 15,500,000 in 1885. Last year the sum total of the imports and exports of Sydney equalled those of Lon- don in 1837. Fifty years ago the roads of the interior were almost impassable and there were scarcely any means of inter-communica- tion save by water. There are now over 7,000 miles of railway in operation and more than 50,000 miles of telegraph, with the work of construction going rapidly on. In 1837 Melbourne consisted of "a wooden church, two wooden in as, three wooden shops and twenty wooden huts." It is now a flourishing city, with a popula- tion of 365,000, having private and public buildings quite the equal of any to be found in European cities of the' same size and possessing wealth, enterprise and educational facilities which render it a most desirable place of residence. With vast mineral resources, splended agricultural capabilities and great manufactur- ing and commercial facilities the futur3 of these colonies is assured and in the not distant future they will, doubtless, rank among the great states of the world. I I I II I 11 I Still shall freedom keep her hold Within the sea's inviolate fosse, An(* boast her sons of English mould, lU islands of the Southern Cross ! The progress of Canada, during Her Majesty's reign, has sur- passed that of any p".rt of the Empire, except Australia. From a number of disjointed, sparcely settled colonies, with but slight bonds of cohesion, British North America has developed into a nationality, whose resources, population and merchant marine entitle it to take high rank among the leading countries of the world. In 1837 the population did not exceed one million four hun- dered thousand ; now it is not far from five millions. Then there was in all British North America but a single line of railway, only a few miles in length ; now there are in operation over eleven thousand miles, including that great international highway, spanning with bands of iron two oceans, over which may yet pass the travel and commerce of continents. When Her Majesty ascended the throne a deep-seated feeling of hostility existed against constituted au- thority throughout all the Provinces. The first year of her reign was signalized by rebellion in both Upper and LoA^er Canada. If ever an appeal to arms were justifiable in seeking a redress of grievances and the end reached were pleadable in extenuation of what might technically be called a constitutional wrong, then was the armed uprising of 1837 both justifiable and right. It secured for these Provinces responsible government and all the benefits that followed in its train. It broke down privilege in the hands of the few and placed power in the hands of the many. The causes that led up to this rebellion are not far to seek. Although representative institutions had been granted the colonies, there was not, as in England, executive responsibility. The officers of government were nominated by the Crown on the recommendation of the governor, irrespective of the wishes of the people. The distribution of patronage was in the hands of an irresponsible executive. All offices of trust and profit were held by the favored few within the charmed circle, called the " Family Compact." The assembly might vote or withhold supplies, yet they could not exercise any influence in nominating a single servant of the Crown. The people denounced, and justly denounced, a govern- 12 ment that was ruled by despatches from the Colonial Office, and whose actions were governed by back-stair influences and court favoritism. A little knot of officials at the respective capitals held all the important offices, discharged in a supercilious manner their duties and lorded it with high hand over their subordin- ates. Adverse criticism of their acts or a discussion of existing grievances waa resented as an unwarrantable inteiference with congvituted authoiity and subjected the author to all the pains and penalties of the law of libel as then practised and understood. After the suppression of the rebellion the British Government acted with commendable despatch in striving to restore the waver- ing allegiance of the colonies. In 1838 that able champion of popular rights and advocate of parliamentary reform. Earl Dur- ham, was sent to Canada as Governor General, clothed with special powers as High Commissioner to enquire into and report upon the alleged grievances and suggest a remedy for the settlement of ex- isting difficulties. As the sequel proved no better selection could possibly have been made. Of all the great names that adorn Canadian history none stands higher in public estimation than that of Earl Durham. His able and exhaustive report, addressed to the Queen, is a monument of impartial research and elaborate criticism and constitutes the Magna Charta of Canadian rights. He pointed out with great clearness all the abuses and evils that had been allowed to creep into the colonial system, and then pro- ceeded to discuss at great length the needed reforms. He insisted with repeated iteration upon the necessity of the immediate adoption of executive responsibility in the different Colonial Gov- ernmeiits, or what with us is popularly called " responsible gov- ernment." The coupling of representative government with an irresponsible executive, he contended, not only led to constant collision between the different branches of the legislature, but was the fruitful source of the many ills that had produced such an unhappy state of affairs. He advocated with an almost equal in- sistence the introduction of municipal institutions, or local self- government. This would relieve the assembly of mere local and parish business and train the people for the discharge of public duties. In the third place he favored the immediate abolition of the clergy reserves. By the Act of 1791 one-s6venth of the lands 13 granted by the Crown was reserved for the benefit of the clergy ■of the Episco])al Church. Thib had long constituted a standing grievance. It was regarded as an insult and an injustice to other religious denominations ; and, besides, the lands thus set apart remained uncultivated and as a consequence retarded settlement. He urged, in the fourth place, ti.e necessity of the construction of a railway from the Atlantic seaboard to the valley of the Saint Lawrence, to be supplemented by the union of the colonies. Lord Durham's report was made the subject of the most bitter attack by some of the leading English statesmen. His scheme, they said, was Utopian, revolutionaiy and impracticable. Such unmerited ■abuse told upon a constitution already enfeebled by overwork, and hastened the death of this eminent statesman. The best vin- dication of the manner in which he discharged the important and delicate trust committed to his charge is found in the fact that under the sovereign, whose sign-manual adorns his commission, <5very one of the reforms he advocated has been successfully carried out and as a result we have, in the various Provinces of British North America, the models of the finest form of government in the world. Of all the achievements of these fifty years of progress that which excites in our breasts the highest degree of ])ride is the perfecting of a system of common school education, generally ad- mitted to be second to none in the world. Let us, in the next place, as proposed, proceed to consider the probable destiny of the Empire. . Of late years the subject of Im- perial Federation has received a large share of attention. It has been discussed in the leading newspapers of the V nited Kingdom and Colonies, and in weighty articles of the principal magazines. At the In)perial Conference opened on the 4th of April last, at the Foreign OflSce, under the piesidency of Sir Henry Holland, ^Secretary of State for the Colonies, the subject underwent length- ened disLUSsion ; yet the speakers indulged for the most part in glittering generalities and seemed exceedingly chary of propound- ing any definite scheme. The Marquis of Salisbury, in the course of an able speech, referred to such aspirations as somewhat senti- mental and yet not separated by so deej) a chasm from actual practical undertaking as some might think ; although hazy, they were the nebulous matter that in the course of ages, of much less u tlian ages, raiglit cool clown and condense into some tangible fonu and possible shape. AVhilc several distinguished leaders of public opinion strongly favor some kind of federation, others, equally as^ vehement, denounce it as ultogeth^^r visionary and beyond tho range of practical politics. It would be impossible, say the^ latter, to weld into a homogeneous whole countries separated from each other by vast stretches of ocean, so diverse in climate, re- sources and the habits and customs of its peoples. Pointing to the- Achaian League, the federation of the Swiss Cantons, the confeder- ation of the United Provinces of the Netherlands and that grand- est of federations, the United States of America, they say, these were confederacies between contiguous states, which readily coal- esced from their homogeneity. The ojjponents of every and any scheme of federation, in discussing the matter, overlook two im- portant factors that have nlready revolutionized the world, steam and electricity ; agencies that have annihilated time and space, brought distant countries near and caused them to assimilate in many respects. An English paper, the other day, contained the somewhat striking announcement, that the " Ormuz, " a steamer of the Orient line, had made the voyage from Adelaide, tho capital of South Australia, to London, by the way of the Suez Canal, in twenty-seven days, a distance of over eleven thousand miles. Should an event of importance happen to-day in London, ill a few hours afterwards, it would be discussed on the streets c>f Hong Kong, Melbourne, Vancoiver and on the Islands of the Sea. It is said, so few were the facilities of travel and so limited the means of communication, the news of Cromwell's usurpation was weeks, nay months, in travelling to certain parts of the Kingdom. Under the altered circumstances of the present, wrought largely . by these agencies, the most distant parts of the Empire are not moi'e remote from each other than were some of the States, when the union to the south of us was formed. The existinjr status between the United Kingdom and her dependencies and colonies cannot, from the very nature of the case, be continued for many years. We are gradually, yet surely, nearing ^^e parting of the ways. Should Australia, possessin great agricultural and commercial capabilities and a territory nearly e(iual to the whole of Europe, progress for the next fifty O" 15 years, in tlie same ratio she has during the hist fifty, she will doubtless have attained by her pojmlation, wealth and importance, a position, the equa', in many respects, of the mother country. Can her present state of tutelage then Ite expected to continue ? So witli Canada. Their relative positions will so have altered, that their political relations towards each other must necessarily undergo change. Cin it be for a njoment supposed, we will con- tinue to wear the badge of colonialism for all time to cornel that we will for many years consent to import our Governor General 1 carry our cases of appeal three or four thousand miles across tlu? sea to be decided by judges no better qualiHed than our own to determine our rights? or submit to the possibility of our interests being sacrificed by the parent state in making treaties with foreign countries in matters directly affecting us ? Such a proposition needs only mention to insure its refutation. But when we shall have outgrown our present state of colonialism, what next 1 This is a question that i»ust needs give us pause. But one of two courses seems open to the Empire ; either disintegra- tion or integration in an Imperial Federation. In the case of Canada, should disintegration eventually take place, we will be left either to build up an independent nationality or driven to seek political alliance with the sixty millions of people to the south of us. Which shall it be? This is one of the living issues that will tax the best energies of our statesmen in the not remote future. The question of commerci al union between Canada gjOLd JtUfi United Stajtes is now being vei;y^ generally discussed by the lead- ing Canadian journals. Whether any practical results will grow out of it is exceedinglv doubtful. TTn(][uestionably the Maiitimc Provinces would be greatly benefitted by the Tree exchange betwe^ji th e two countries' of th^if natural itroducLs— of the for^rsLJarm. mine and the sea . But would the United States be willing to adopt restricted reciprocity or a qualified commercial union — one that would exclude the free interchange of manufactui-ed goods ? Certainly not. And would thegieat Province of Ontario consent, to throw do\vn all^ commercial barriers between the respective countries and freely admit manufactured articles or, in other ^ words7adopt unrestricted reciprocity 1 She certainly would not ' / IG And then, too, under such a union, how "ould sufficient revenue be raised to meet the burdensome obligations that press upon us 1 Would not its adoption bo a declaration of commercial war against Great Britain '{ But is commercial union so desireable, that in order to obtain it , we would forego our lo^-alty and attachment to Briti sh inftitutions and seek political alliance with our neighbors 1 We thi nk no t. We incline to believe there is a settled determin- ation, on the part of our people, to build up on the lines of these latitudes a nationality modelled after the free and wise institutions of our Fatherland. For years the people of these provinces strug- gled to secure the great boon of Responsible Government. WilL we, their descendants, consent to i'orin. a political alliance with ^a country, where there is no executive responsibility as understood and practTcecTTii TTngland and Canada] We admire the Americans for tireu-'^vondeTTul 'enierp and energy ; we willingly accord them fitting meed of praise for their many excellent traits and char- acteristics and find much to extol in their enlightened form of government ; yet, for a ll this, we are so wedded to British insti- tutions, nothing but the most violent wrench could force us from our allegiance. Then, it would seem, independence or membership in some .sort of Imperial Federation is the destiny of Canada. Is there, then, any practicable scheme of federation or is it the day-dream of the visionary, unworthy serious consideration ? Three different forms of Federation have been outlined, each having its special advocates. First, a political or parliamentai'y union ; second, a Zollverein or customs union ; and third, a Kriegs- verein or an alliance offensive and defensive, for mutual protec- tion. Two kinds of parliamentary union have been formulated ; one, the admission into the House of Commons of representatives from the different colonies and dependencies upon the basis of popula- tion ; the other, the relegation of purely local matters to subsi- diary parliaments and the formation of a grand, paramount parlia- ment, charged with legislative powers in matters of imperial con- cern. Against the former it has been urged in objection, that it would be improper for colonial representatives to take part in and vote upon matters relating to the intei'nal economy or government i: of the United Kingdom ; also, tliat with an increased representa- tion and the introduction of additional suhiects for legislative con- sideration, parliament, if constantly in session, could scarcely dis- pose of all business biought before it. In favor of the latter, it has been contended, it would effectually settle the Irish question; for under its provisions local self-government would be granted to England, Scotland, Wales and Ireland as well. Sir Samuel Wil- son's scheme of two chambers an upper and lower house — of one hiindred members each, has been considerably canvassed. The representatives of the lower house to be elected by the lower house of each colony or dependency and the upper house by the members of the upper house of the different colonies and divisions of the Empire. As there are about fifty millions of the English race in the British dominions, he would make the electoral unit half a million ; and in the more important colonies, each fraction of half a million to have a member. In such a union India and the Crown Colonies would be excluded. Opposed to such a scheme stands the high authority of so distinguished a name as the Right Hon. W. E. Forster. This eminent statesman thought it would be regarded with suspicion in the colonies as they would fear being dwarfed individually, and if combinefl, of being weak in comparison with England ; while, on the other hand, England would not con- sent to a paper constitution and a form of government involving- state rights and the necessity of establishing some tribnnai to de- termine tho infringement of these rights. The Marquiu of Salis- bury, in the sjieech referred to observed : " I am not here now to recommend you to indulge in any ambitious schemes of constitu- tution-making." England, doubtless, would hesitate long before consenting to give up the immemorial usages and customs of her unwritten Constitution for a paper one. So revolutionaiy seem such schemes and so beset with difficulty their accomplishment, their serious consideration, at this stage of development, is gen- erally considered premature. In this connection may be njentioned the proposal of Lord Grey, to make the agents of the colonies Privy Councillois and constitute them a Board of Advisors to assist the Cabinet and Colonial Secretary in the mana<»ement of Colonial affairs. A ZoUverein, modelled after the form of the North German 18 Customs Parliament of 1867, or Customs Uhion, has also found its advocates. This also, at tlu? present, seems impracticable. It •would necessitate the adoption of a system of perfect free* trade be- tween the United Kingdom and her depcmdencies or tlie imposi- tion of unifonn duties upon like articles imported into eucli coun- try. In 1846 England adopted the principles of free trade. On the other hand, latterly, several of her colonies and dependencies, especially Canada, New Zealand, Victoria and South Australia, have adopted the protective system. All the tariffs of the self- governing colonies differ not only from the Mother Country, but from each other, no two being formed on similar lines. The strongest proof of their wide divergence, in this respect, is found in the fact, that while in Great Britain only twenty-seven per cent, of the whole revenue is raised by customs duties, in the colonies, the proportion ranges from sixty to ninety per cent, of the taxation. Victoria and New South Wales gross contiguous states, have formed altogether different fiscal ])oUcies — the one based on the lines of high })rotection, tlie other on free trade or revenue tariff. Can all these discordant policies be made to har- monize, as harmonize they must, before such a system of union can be inaiigurated 1 The thoughts of men may be so widened ■with the process of the suns, that in due time they may be brought to such a plane of thought and action, but, as yet, the day seems far distant. Lord Salisbury, in speaking of Customs Union, re- marked : " But the results which we came to with respect to our fiscal policy forty years ago set this idea entirely aside, and it can- not now be resumed until on one side or the other very different opinions with respect to fiscal policy prevail from those which pre- vail at the present moment." If neither a Political nor Customs Union seems jmicticable, what may be said of the Kriegsverein or combination for purposes of defence ] Certainly this foim of union seems not only desirable, but feasible as well. Seventeen millions are annually expended by Great Britain for the support and maintenance of the army and ten millions for the navy ; twenty-seven millions in all for defence. If this were supplemented by an amount, on the part of the Dependencies and Colonies, proportionate to their wealth and population, the Empire could be put in such a state of defence as 19 would render it safe from foreign aggrossion. A suitable state of