A great festivity was held yesterday week at the Cannon
Street Hotel, to celebrate the completion of the Telegraph to Australia, and certainly the meeting was remarkable for one thing,—the vast enthusiasm with which "the integrity of the Empire" was drunk by the colonists assembled, and the pressure put upon the somewhat coy Colonial Minister, Lord Kimberley, to commit the Government as unreservedly as might be to that sentiment. Lord Kimberley did, however, maintain, as Mr. Goschen the other day maintained, that there was no party in the Ministry or elsewhere in favour of disintegrating the Empire. We are glad to accept Lord Kimberley's
authority, and on the whole we believe him, but that there are indi- viduals, and those of very high authority, who speak of Canada as a great burden and responsibility, and who habitually regard it as her destiny to separate from us, everybody knows, and Lord Kimberley himself would hardly deny. If that grumbling against our Canadian responsibilities has not ended in even an attempt at disintegration, it is due to the attachment of our Colonies rather than to Ministerial Conservatism and pride. In this respect it is very curious to contrast the present period with a century ago. Then the American Colonies were eager to be off, and we were re- solved to keep them. Now the Colonies are eager to stay, and some of our ablest politicians are all but resolved that Canada, at least, shall be off. The last state is better, far better than the first. But why should the centripetal imperial instinct fade away with the development of a liberal Colonial policy?
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