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PREFACE

Nor can I forget the kindness with which the several Governors received me; a reception partly due in some cases to a previous personal friendship, but in all mainly, as I could perceive, to my humble connection with the Imperial Parliament.

Finally, I have laid particular, but not, I think, unnecessary emphasis, in the last chapter of the book, on a point which I regard as of vital importance to the future of the Empire; the necessity, I mean, under the coming Federal Constitution of Australia, of maintaining unimpaired the judicial prerogative of Her Majesty the Queen, and the right of every subject, whether at home or in the colonies, to appeal, in the last resort, to the Privy Council of the realm. This is a question less striking, indeed, but perhaps, ultimately, of not less constitutional importance, than that which is now finding its solution in South Africa.