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PROBLEMS OF EMPIRE. maintenance of common interests, and adequately provide for an organized defence of common rights,

Lord Rosebery was the second President of the League, and to him and Mr. G. R. Parkin is mainly due the growth of the idea of Imperial Unity during the eighties and early nineties. 'Imperial Federation,' Lord Rosebery once said, 'is a cause for which any man might be content to live; it is a cause for which, if needs be, any one might be content to die.' Those words (I trust I may be pardoned for this personal allusion) profoundly influenced my life.

Of the tangible results of the League's work the most important was the Colonial Conference of 1887, which it was instrumental in bringing about through a deputation to the Prime Minister. The League was challenged over and over again to produce a scheme for carrying out the objects it had in view; but this was felt to be outside its functions. Its work was in the main educational, and by the results it amply justified its existence. It produced a complete change in public opinion as to the future relations of the various communities of which the Empire is composed, not only in the mother country, but in the Colonies. The tone of the public press was revolutionised. A profound effect was produced on the attitude of public men. Statesmen, such as the Duke of Devonshire, Mr. Chamberlain, Mr. Asquith, and Sir Edward Grey, had no part in the work of the Imperial Federation League. To-day they are the most prominent advocates of Imperial Unity.

Of the change of public opinion in the Colonies I can speak from personal experience. When I first visited Australia, fifteen years ago (in 1887), it was an open question whether Australia would remain an 74