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 action. So long as the connection is an unequal one—all give and no take—and they enjoy real independence, they are content; but no longer."

This was written as far back as March 25th, 1865. Twenty years afterwards the retired Downing Street official appended the following footnote to the very passage I have quoted:—"Feb. 1885.—In the very week in which this chapter is passing through the press, the Canadian and Australasian colonies have taken steps which are at direct variance with the views I have expressed, whether as to facts or as to forecasts. They have offered to contribute at their own cost contingents of colonial troops to our forces at war in the Soudan. It was not without reason that I concluded my letter to Mr. Merivale, with the acknowledgment that on political questions my opinions are nothing more than conjectures." In these words Sir Henry Taylor, with the gracious frankness so characteristic of him, admits that these recent events seem destructive of the theory which he had held and endeavoured to enforce on the colonial question for the best part of a lifetime. It was until very recently the traditional policy of the head permanent officials in the Colonial Office, and originated