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 both hemispheres with the modern apparatus of production and transport; we were the original creators of that technical spirit of Western civilization which has resulted in the awakening of Japan.

Whether an Empire which could only have reached its present extent under political and commercial conditions that have passed away can be maintained under the conditions now prevailing—this is the large question of our national policy. That question governs more or less every other domestic and external issue. It raises a problem admitted at the outset to be at least equal in magnitude and difficulty to any task ever yet presented to constructive statesmanship. Opinion, even amongst ourselves, is not unanimous in believing that a solution can be found. Foreign judgment, until recently, was almost wholly adverse, nor is this scepticism altogether prompted by hostility to the ideal of British Federation. Let us state the main elements of the problems in moderate terms.

The difficulties most usually dwelt upon are, as a rule, exaggerated. What we may call the mechanical difficulty—distance between the Mother Country and the greatest of her Colonies and possessions—remains considerable, but it is the least serious impediment. Objections as to the infinitely heterogeneous character of the races of the Empire are rather abstract than substantial. Practically that aspect of the problem, confused as it appears at first glance, narrows down to the large and complex, but after all limited and definite, business of reconciling the interests of the Mother Country with those of the three great self-governing colonial groups and of India. To extend any arrangement effected between these main portions of the Empire to the various minor portions would be an interesting but secondary and perfectly manageable question. The real difficulties, then, which must be surmounted if the Empire is to be consolidated and held, are questions of man-power and money-power, questions of defence and trade. The more thought-