In answer to the argument that our Colonial Empire presses
hardly on the British taxpayer, Mr. Forster showed that at present at least it is not true, and is becoming less true every day. He showed that in 1872-3 it was only £370,000 on the group of colonies to which Englishmen really emigrate, and £150,000 of this had been spent in Nova Scotia, chiefly on the port of Halifax. Then it seems highly probable that our trade to the Colonies is far larger than it would be if they were separated from us,—that it is now far more than proportionate to their population ; in short, that trade follows the flag to a large extent ; and that as regards our Navy, we should probably have to keep up for our own sakes almost as large a Navy, at a greater cost, if the Colonies were gone, as we do now. As regards war, Mr. Forster showed that our Colonial Empire would tend to restrain us from unreasonable wars, and that in either a war of self-defence, or one waged to redress some great wrong, the Colonies would in• all probability be eager and able to assist us. " Would it not be their duty to remember that they also owe their existence to the principles of freedom, and that they are as much bound as even we ourselves to keep those principles living in the world?" Finally, whenever the time comes to replace independence by association, " each member of the association would find in the common nationality at least as much scope for its aspirations, as much demand for the patriotism and energy and self-reliance of its citizens, as it would if trying to obtain a distinct nationality for itself." The address was one of great force, pith, and moment, and on the chief objec- tions taken to it we have commented at length elsewhere. No recent speech of Mr. Forster's has illustrated better the warm national affections which restrain from all kinds of cosmopolitan dilettantism the broad Liberalism of his political creed.
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