shape of Professor Goldwin Smith, to grumble, if at times the faith of Molesworth in the Empire is not apparently as firm as that which is our present heritage.

A further article, however, in Molesworth's political creed cannot be so easily dealt with. Whoever reads these speeches will note the stress laid on the necessity for economy in the administration of the colonies. It would be dishonest as well as foolish to shirk this side of Molesworth's teaching. Molesworth, it cannot be too often repeated, was a strong Radical, brought up in the old creed of Radicalism, " Peace, Retrenchment, and Reform," when such a creed was a simpler thing to believe in than it has become under the pressure of State socialistic tendencies at home, and economic competition, fostered by political influences, abroad. As a Radical of the Reform Bill period, Molesworth Molesworth naturally spoke and thought as such. Consequently it is not unnatural to find him using language which, divorced from its context and the general tendency of his teaching, would rejoice the heart of the Little Englander. The judicious Imperialist, however, need not quarrel with the denunciation of the "prestige of might." By prestige we merely mean credit, and the credit, which has not, in the last resort, assets behind it, is, we should all allow, a house built upon the sand. Moreover the economist represents a side of the shield which can never with safety be neglected. The most stalwart Imperialist may well be given pause when he reflects on the thousands of pounds expended upon the fortification of the Ionian Islands, which for present

purposes might as well have been thrown into the Mediterranean Sea. It should further be remembered that the ships of the Royal Navy were not propelled by steam before the accession of Queen Victoria, and that, at the time of these speeches, strong coaling stations, though already of importance, were by no means the indispensable adjunct of sea power which they afterwards became. One way to apprehend Molesworth's attitude towards colonial expenditure is to compare it with the attitude of the Army reformers of to-day, who are opposed to huge estimates for military purposes, not because they do not realise the importance of military strength, but because they fear an inevitable reaction if the strain on the taxpayer be made too great. Molesworth, however, arrived at his conclusions on more positive grounds. His contention was that the colonies should be treated on a footing of equality; not as Cinderellas, which had been the old way; nor as pampered children, which had been the way substituted after the loss of the American colonies. Much depends upon the manner in which a change is made, and the men by whom it is carried out; and, if the Liberal policy of leaving the colonies to provide for their own local wars had been entrusted to the hands of a Minister who, like Molesworth, appealed strongly to colonial sympathies, it is probable that much future friction and discontent would have been avoided. In one colony at least the policy advocated by Molesworth was boldly adopted by the Colonial Government. There is always the danger of assuming post hoc, propter hoc; nevertheless the satisfactory manner in which the Maori

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War was ended by General Whitmore with colonial troops afforded strong primâ facie evidence of the wisdom of the general policy advocated by Sir William Molesworth. That independence in all local affairs implies responsibility for all local burdens is a sound doctrine, though, when first preached to the colonies, it was far from a popular one. That Molesworth placed it in the forefront of his colonial policy is a clear proof of the simplicity and transparent honesty of purpose which so remarkably characterised him.

But though it would be unfair and misleading to shirk this side of Molesworth's teaching, it must be confessed that the wealth of detail and statistics, with which the speeches dealing with colonial expenditure are loaded, makes them hard reading to the modern student. In this matter especially, quisque suos manes patimur. Each generation has enough to do in concerning itself with the figures and the facts of its own burden. Here at least the average man is inclined to say, "Let the dead bury its dead." Still, without labouring on figures, there is much in Molesworth's criticism which is even now full of suggestion. The over-hasty individuals, who would end the day after to-morrow the British Empire, if the colonies are not prepared to give the exact contribution to the amount of the cost of the British Navy which we may consider reasonable, should surely remember the past history, which abundantly shows that it was the Mother Country which fostered the habit in the colonies of dependence in the matter of defence. Rather is it a matter for congratulation that Molesworth's policy, carried through as it was under

most untoward circumstances, and by Ministers possessed with a far fainter faith in Greater Britain, still did in the long run justify its wisdom, so that the words spoken by Molesworth fifty years before received their literal fulfilment on the South African veldt. "In certain cases it would not be unreasonable to expect that the colonies should assist the Empire both with troops and with money, and I feel convinced that if the colonies were governed as they ought to be, they would gladly and willingly come to the aid of the Mother Country in any just and necessary war.

It is perhaps fitting that a selection of Sir William Molesworth's speeches on colonial questions should close with the speech, delivered in 1853, on the Clergy Reserves of Canada Bill. That measure was a distinct recognition, on the part of the Ministry of which Molesworth was a member, of the principle, which he had advocated throughout the whole of his political life, the principle that the colonies should possess full and complete independence to manage their own local affairs in their own way. It was after all an accident that the view taken by the majority of the Colonial Parliament on this question was a view which commended itself to the judgment of English Radicals. Molesworth at least would not have hesitated to apply the same principle had the circumstances been altogether different. It is amusing to note the manner in which deep-seated beliefs caused English statesmen to hesitate in their adoption to the full of this principle. Thus Sir John Pakington during his short tenure of the Colonial Office had shown remarkable readiness to

allow the colonies the full management of their own affairs. It was not till colonial measures tended to disturb his temper as sound Churchman and upholder of existing rights of property that he cried halt to the application of the principle. Again, Lord Grey deserves great credit for his recognition in British North America of the principle of responsible government. At the same time it never occurred to him that the application of this principle involved the recognition of the right, if need were, to go wrong even to the length of overturning the sacred image of Free Trade which the Home authorities had set up. Molesworth alone of the statesmen of the time anticipated the attitude of the British Ministers of to-day.

The present volume contains all the more important speeches delivered by Molesworth upon colonial questions, with the exception of the speech of January 23rd, 1838, on the Canada Bill. That speech, though remarkable for its eloquence and power of invective, has been omitted because Molesworth himself afterwards frankly admitted that many of his former views with regard to the Canadian question had been modified by the conclusions of Lord Durham's Report, and because purely hostile criticism, directed against persons, has no light or leading for another generation. For the same reason, some omissions have been. made in the speech on colonial expenditure of 1851 of passages dealing at great length with controversial aspects of the Kaffir Wars. No one who read the delightful autobiography of Sir Harry Smith can suppose that he was the kind of semicharlatan, semi-firebrand imagined by Molesworth;