efforts towards confederation, he would be a bold man who, as an
Englishman, would dare assert either that his country protected her
children, or her dependent races, or that there is any settled
British policy in the very Continent, where vigour, firmness, and
consistency, combined with mere justice, seem to be absolutely
essential.

"South Africa has yet to be won over to England, or, in other
words, confidence has to be restored. The effort is surely worth
making, and anything like a determined effort on the part of the
Sovereign, and Her Majesty's immediate advisers would find a most
vigorous and cordial response.

"The idea of confederation seems to be quite dependent upon such
preliminaries, as mutual confidence, and a measure of common
necessity, in order to such a question being seriously entertained.

"The Colonial Conference of two years ago, seems however to have
paved the way for effective development in the direction of
confederation.

"For it must be remembered, that the somewhat complex British
constitution is not the creation of any one Monarch, or Parliament.
It has grown to its present dimensions little by little, influenced
always by the necessities of particular cases. The House of Peers
has ever been summoned by writ, and early precedents indicate, that
the Sovereign was not always limited to a particular class of
Barons, who alone could be invited to the deliberations of the
nation.