REVIEWS.

Globe, Volume IX, Issue 1352, 14 June 1878, Page 3

REVIEWS.

THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. APRIL, 1878.

THR TREES.]

Sir Julius Vogel is doing the colonies a good service at home. His papers read at the Colonial Institute, his letters to the " Times," and his able articles in "The Nineteenth Century," must raise the interests and prospects of the Australian dependencies into the prominence they require and deserve. To obtain even place arid hearing in such high quarters aB the "Nineteenth Century" is no mean advantage. And when this privilege is used to such signal account, as it undoubtedly is by our Agent-General, the fact is a very gratifying one. The new number of this leading monthly has a fine article by Sir Julius Yogel on "The British Empire," intended as a reply to Lord Blaehford and the Hon. Robert Lowe. Each of these gentlemen, for diverse reasons, would leave the olonies out in the cold. Lord Pdachford would let them quietly drift away : Mr Lowe would retain only those t'oat are useful for military purposes. Sir Julius answers both, and to our minds most effectually, because quite convincingly, for these two men are clearly the kind of Cosmopolitan critics defined by Disrai li as " men who love every country but their own." They exhibit; singular evidence of a weakened national spirit. One would have thought that the same language, the same traditions, the same educa« tion, the san-e n-aterial, territorial, financial, and trading interests, would make up a common group of \urposes, sufficient to bind in imperishable tics the provinces of the Empire. The differences are only such as exist, between the different parts of the United Kingdom.

Having by reasoning oF this kind answered Lord Bine 1 dor-d's main argument for the disintegration oi the colonies, and having pointed to Colonel unanswerable reply to Mr Love, Sir Julius gives considerations of liis own for the vai; tenanee of the unity of tbe Empire, and be shows clearly enough that it is woi-th E.igland'a while to keep up a friendly feeling with the colonies, as well as a political connection wiih them, if only for their being a nece?pary and profitable outlet for her enormous wealth. For in what better way can she get rid of it ? " She cannot use it all within her own dominions unless for communistic purposes. Safe investments now return vevy low rates of' interest. There must be a limit within the kingdom to the power of finding fairly profitable occupation of money. Should her surplus savings go to foreign countries, or to her own dominions? If they go to foreign countries, they go where her own la a 3 give her no redress. She will not fight to protect her subjects' foreign investments. The money sent by her subjects abroad passes out of their control, and may be subject to irnumerable contingencies arising from the laws and necessities of the countries to which it snds its way. Need we seek a better warning than that supplied by the silver legislation which is now proceeding in the United State? ? British investments within British dominions are protected by British laws. In this short sentence lies the utter refutation of all the arguments by which it is attempted to be Bhown that Knglaud may regard with equanimity' the loss of her exterior possessions." In this way the writer substantiates his theory that the real secret of England's prosperity is not free-trade merely, nor railway develop ment merely, but the practice of moneylending. " Foreign countries have bought British goods with the money good British people have lent them. The remittances to foreign countries are not in gold, but in goods. What with the money lent to foreign governments, and invested in private foreign undertakings, the capital supplied by G-reat Britain to exterior countries is enormous." Tne colonies arc, therefore, the red Ei Dorados, the true lands of promise. This investment of British money in the British dominions, a'id our consequent and concurrent merchant trade, are the two golden chains which should bind mother and daughters in the closest relationship ; and it is really worth while for the aged mother to do all she can- to retain and maintain the affection and devotion of such a profitable offspring. For., aa Sir Julius observes, it is singular that Lord Blachford " should fail to seo a significant common purpose in the large investments of British, capital in the colonies. The subject of the prospects of the colonies, as future arteries for the trade and enterprise of Great Britain, is of peculiar interest now, when the question of the foreign trade of the country occupies such anxious attention. The commercial future of the country largely depends upon the choice between disintegration and federation. The vast place which thy shipping of Great Britain takes in tha development of the trade of the country will not bo doubted. That shipping depends for its existence, not only upon the trade that employs it, but upon the protection il at its country is able to afford it. Whiht Great Britain owns possessions, and has ships of war in all parts of the world, her merchant; marine is but the embodiment £? V.or wide-spread dominions.