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concession on our part, by the great Colony of Canada; and Australia will do the same. Canada has obtained it by its own growth, and by the force of events, so that it practically knows and feels that it has self-government, which is as good a security as any Colony can desire. But here, again, the whole difference lies in the manner in which the end has been reached. Canada has reached it by a process which has brought with it no gratitude, no attachment to this country, and, above all, no adequate assimilation of the character of the Colonial mind to the best elements of our society at home, which, as I have said, is what ought to be the main object in our view. We ought to look on our Colonial empire not as a great machinery of export and import trade, and of material benefit to ourselves, but as imposing on us the responsibility of worthily founding great nations, which they will be, throughout the world; and, therefore, the character of the communities we are so founding, is the one great point for our consideration.

My Lords, I further regret this Bill when I consider the particular character and condition of the Australian Colonies. Whatever the North American Colonies may be, they are pretty nearly beyond our reach now, to mould or to influence them. The Australian Colonies are still in their youth: it is still in our power, as I believe, to train them towards what we would wish them to be, by communicating to them good political institutions. The present Bill, while it gives them too little power of self-regulation in some respects, gives them too much in others. We ought to give them the outline of their system ourselves, leaving it to them to fill it up: whereas here we give them an outline which is confes

sedly not the best, and we leave it to them, if they please, to alter that outline; while, at the same time, we keep to ourselves a universal power over all the smallest details of their local administration.

My Lords, it is true that a sort of satisfaction is felt in these Colonies at this measure, compared with the still worse system which they had before; but this very circumstance makes it the less likely that a really good system will ever be introduced, when we have induced them to acquiesce in the inferior one; and therefore causes me to lament still more the passing of this Bill.

My Lords, for these reasons, though I cannot think of dividing the house, I shall say-Not Content, to the third reading of the Bill,

ON THE

COLONIAL EMPIRE OF GREAT BRITAIN.

Read to the Amblecote Church of England Young Men's
Association.

When I had the honour, some time ago, to preside at the Annual Meeting of this Association, a wish appeared to be entertained by some of its members that I should follow the example set by many of its friends since its formation, by delivering a Lecture on some subject of general interest. At the time I did not much expect that I should ever be able to comply with that wish. In my view, the due performance of such a function implies a systematic knowledge of some subject involving some, not inconsiderable, amount of research and reflection; and the course of my life, which has mainly been. one of practical duties in various directions, has not been favourable to the acquisition of such knowledge. It recently, however, occurred to me that there is one subject concerning which, from particular circumstances, I happen to have been called to think and inform myself, far indeed from completely, yet still perhaps to a greater extent than most of those whom I am now addressing : and I immediately felt, as I need hardly say, that it would be a great pleasure to me if I could confer any, even a slight, benefit upon the Association, by calling their attention to it in the form of a Lecture. That subject is the one which has been announced to you--namely,

our Colonial Empire, and that especially in its religious aspect and condition.

I must say a few words at the outset on both parts. of this designation. I have not said simply our Colonies, but our Colonial Empire; nor that again generally, but mainly in its religious aspect. To advert first to the latter point it is clear that there are several reasons, in the consideration of such a question on an occasion like this, for limiting in some measure the scope of the inquiry to some one prominent part of the subject. The whole subject of our Colonial Empire is too large to be completely gone through, both in respect of my own powers and of your time. I might indeed have attempted to do this with respect to some one Colony. But such information as this is within your reach without much difficulty from various publications and my object being rather to endeavour to set before you some general principles relating to Colonies and their relation to the mother-country, it seemed clear that that could be better done by treating of our Colonial dominions as a whole, than by confining myself to only one part of them.

In considering then in what point of view it would be most suitable to place the subject, I could have no hesitation in fixing upon the one which I have namednamely, the religious view. For this there is a general reason, that it is the most important one, and therefore entitled to the preference when a selection is to be made. But there is also a special reason, derived from the character of the body whom I am addressing. I doubt not that I am but expressing a feeling common to all its members, when I say that it is the peculiar happiness and pride of this Association that a strong and dis

tinctive religious character is of its very essence, and is that which in its collective utterances it would always place in the strongest light and the most leading position. I cannot be mistaken in this, for it is no more than has been recognised in the prominence given to what I lately read with hearty approval and satisfaction, the first sentence in your last Report: "The Committee of the Amblecote Church of England Young Men's Association desire to present their Sixth Annual Report, with humble thankfulness to Almighty God for the continued progress of the Society, and with earnest prayer that its progress may be attended by that holy influence on the hearts and lives of its members, without which no prosperity can be truly valuable or lasting." This alone would therefore have justified the arrangement which I have proposed.

I by no means, however, intend to confine myself wholly to the religious, or to any other distinct part of the question. It is, again, a happy incident of the constitution of this Association, that its members are not precluded, within the limits of propriety and fair discussion, from reference to any matter which may tend to elucidate the subject before them. It would be indeed, if not contrary to positive rule, still probably unadvisable, to introduce on such an occasion as this, what is commonly understood by the term party politics. But the politics of Colonies, or rather the politics concerning the relation between the Colonies and this country, do not seem to fall within the designation: and I intend, occasionally, to advert to them.

I have only to add on this point-namely, the religious aspect to be given to the question—that though I

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