tween all its members, and of the transformation of Great into Greater Britain."
These words were written more than ten years ago. How far have we travelled the Imperial highway then pointed out? Not far, I fear. Since then the Australian colonists have had frequent opportunities of gauging the political aims and aspirations of Mr. Gladstone as head of the State, with the inevitable result of deepening their admiration of Lord Beaconsfield. The foreign and domestic policy of Great Britain since 1880 has been more minutely submitted to colonial critics, thanks to the cable, than was ever before possible. As a result, nowhere is Mr. Gladstone so completely discarded as in Australia and New Zealand. The crowning disgrace—as the majority of colonists regard it—was, of course, his Irish Home Rule Bill. If anything could have destroyed their loyalty, and made them despair of the Empire, it was this deplorable measure of disintegration.
