A great dinner was given to the :Colonial Delegates on
Wed- nesday at the Mansion House, at which Sir Henry Holland announced that the Conference bad been most successful. Not only had the representatives of the Colonies ascertained that the bogey in the Colonial Office was not nearly as black as he was painted, but effective work had been done. Important decisions had been taken. Mr. Stanhope hinted that the defence of Australia had been provided for, and that the Imperial Govern- ment and that of the Cape Colony had arrived at an agreement for the defence of Table Bay, which is now recognised as one of the most important positions in the Empire. With the Suez Canal closed—and a ship would be wrecked there within a week of the declaration of war—Table Bay would be the governing point of the route to be kept open for our Asiatic trade. Lord Rosebery made a speech in which he said, oddly enough, that the Anglo-Saxon race could and would take care of itself, its tendency being to expansion, but that in so widely scattered an Empire, "union" was to be valued above everything. He does not exactly apply that doctrine to Ireland ; but perhaps he thinks that while a man can control his arms and legs, or at least maintain with them a medial vivendi, a little irregularity in the heart's action does not signify. A good many Home-rulers sympathise with Mrs. Jellyby, and are full of solicitude for the well-being of Borrioboola Gha.
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