claimed the right to till her precious possessions with the thieves and cut-throats, the récidivistes of her cities and jails. But after all, this "foreign pressure" has not been continuous enough to weld the Australian colonies into a single dominion. A kind of loose Bund has been established between Victoria, Queensland, Tasmania, and the still inchoate Western Australia; the colonies of New South Wales, South Australia,[1] and New Zealand remaining aloof. There is what is called a Federal Council, which Sir Henry Parkes describes in the spirit of Brown, the tragedian, gazing with undisguised contempt upon Smith's Hamlet, as "a phantom that pops up now and again at Hobart." So far the history of Australia presents a series of disintegrations, and the only successful attempt in the opposite direction has been effected in New Zealand, where the original provincial governments have been supplanted by a centralised authority, not, however, without the active opposition of a most influential section of politicians. Mr. Edward Jenkins would, of course, point to the example of Canada; but, if I mistake not, that great Dominion
- ↑ We just learn, by the cable, that South Australia has tardily consented to enter the Federal Council.
