sometimes heard to the contrary, we may be permitted to believe very loyally, on the foundation of self-governing freedom. Whatever fault there may be to be found with our colonial Empire, it may be safely asserted that no such successful development of external expansion has been made by any nation in the world's history. The organism of Great Britain has grown into Greater Britain, and it lives and moves and breathes as freely as before. It has lost nothing of the individuality which characterized it. Practical science has kept pace with political development, means of communication have multiplied, and the whole is as near to us as the part once was.
Those of us who believe in the future of the United Empire see promise of the fulfilment of our most sanguine hopes. We believe that the framework of a great liberty has been constructed which will stand the test of a nation's growth. But with the settlement of South African questions it would seem that the most important affairs of the self-governing Colonies have been brought to the stage in which the self-governing Colonies must for the most part take charge of them for themselves. The interest and the attention of those responsible for the conduct of Imperial affairs is about to be liberated from the claims which have hitherto held it absorbed, and the possibilities of a new chapter of colonial history may engage consideration. Questions of self-government may give place to questions of Crown colonial government, and ability which has hitherto been directed to the self-governing Colonies may turn to the Crown Colonies. The Crown Colonies are, for the most part, the tropical Colonies, and tropical development may easily become one of the most acutely interesting questions of the future.
The conception of the development of our tropical resources has one great charm for the English imagination. This is that to realize it rests mainly with ourselves. Within the limits of benevolent autocracy, we may do as we please in the greater part of the Crown-governed
