morning drumbeat following the sun and keeping company with the hours, circles the earth with one continuous and unbroken strain of the martial airs of England." And since then what an advance!
Whether, indeed, we shall continue to be in a manner apart from the stream of world-politics, leaving international relations largely in the hands of our brethren across the sea—or whether we shall enter into a closer relationship with our fellow-subjects in the British Isles and so with those in the other Dominions and Commonwealth under the same flag, thereby ceasing to occupy the position of daughter and taking that rather of sister, is upon the knees of the gods—or rather of God.
One thing is certain.
There will be by the Mother Country no intermeddling with our purely domestic affairs—any more than there will be intermeddling by Canadians or Australians or New Zealanders or South Africans with the purely domestic questions of England or Wales or Scotland or Ireland. The desire is wanting—it has been recognized that people of our race must govern themselves whether they govern themselves well or ill—this is of the genius of our people and the right can never be surrendered.
But we cling to British connection with a sincere affection and a whole heart—the tie which binds us is not simply the legal and constitutional bond and not alone the silver cord of sentiment, but also the heartfelt conviction that there exists no single agency for good in the world at the present time to be compared with the British Empire. Great is Britain and she has made great mistakes; but with all her faults, she
22
