care—had given Free Trade throughout the continent by a tariff which was a compromise between the highest and the lowest of the former rates; they had established uniform systems both for postal and defence purposes, which save increased efficiency at a reduced cost; and (with the capable assistance of General Sir Edward Hutton) they had passed laws by which the process of a State Court could be enforced throughout the continent Nor was this all! They had established a common suffrage, which gave a vote to every citizen irrespective of sex; they had set up a High Court to interpret the Constitution, and to serve (as events have proved) as a much-needed Court of Appeal from State Courts; they had made the Patent Law uniform, so that one application and one fee gives an inventor protection in the six States; and, above all, they had secured Australia for the white races by providing for the deportation of the Kanaka from the Queensland sugar-fields at the expense of the taxpayer, and by adopting the Canadian law against the influx of undesirable immigrants. And they had done all this (as has already been explained) without Press support, in a country where Governments depend upon the Press, and in the teeth of the bitter and persistent opposition of the New South Wales Provincialists. In one respect only have the anticipations of Federalists not been realized: the wider view and better tone which it was hoped that union would have introduced into politics was not immediately apparent. The Federal Parliament was certainly superior to the State Parliaments, but it showed at tunes a distressing want of dignity, and a tendency to subordinate larger interests to intrigues and personalities. But this is only to say that politicians changed their sky in coming to Melbourne, but not their manners; and it is noteworthy that the loudest complaints come from the most persistent intriguers, and those whose most frequent argument is the imputation of motives.
Unfortunately, the record of the second Parliament is not so good.
