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been to "-ather together young men from the lout coiners of the earth and to assemble them at Oxford. "Already this has proved a great thing for the individual. Its Imperial effect lias yet to be discovered. There are many who consider this a great Imperial scheme. It may be so, but to me n seems that exactly the converse of Cecil Khodes's scheme Would be of infinitely greater service to England and the Empire. Instead of gathering young men .if unformed character and ideas from amongst the nations of the world, 1 should choose able Englishmen from England, ami send them into every corner of the earth that is worth visiting; and let them carry their knowledge to those among whom they make their homes, and then bring or semi back to us here the information that they derive from moving amongst the people of the world, and particularly of the Empire. The overseas Briton sweeps the Imperial horizon, for his gaze is ever outward to his " home so far across the seas, ills eyes are upon it, and his heart is with his people there. The gaze ot the home-staying Briton is ever at his feet, where nothing new is. So, not unnaturally, it comes to pass that th« Australian, the Canadian, the Ncw-Zoalandcr, the South-African, takes perhaps a wider view of the power and purpose of Imperial union than do many who have never lived in the newer lands. We must send Englishmen but to live among the people of the Empire oi the world, it is true that nowadays travel is BO easy and cheap that many more people journey abroad than in the old, uncomfortable, and expensive times. Naturally we are gradually getting to know our Imperial possessions and our oversea relations better than we did; but most people who travel do so for pleasure, and do not stay long enough in one place to obi am any sound and useful knowledge of its characteristics, its inhabitants, its laws, or its customs. Nor, generally speaking, >yen if they did, would they have any means of communicating the result of their study and observation to those less fortunate ones who have to stay at home. There are only two ways of influencing thought widely, by writing or speaking. Now, of the Rhodes scholars who come up to us, but a very small proportion are naturally writers or speakers. Of that small proportion not all will follow the profession of writing or speaking, and, ot those who elect lo do so, but a very small number will ever earn the right to be heard in London—tor that takes much earning. So it seems that to serve the cause of imperial union best a man must be a writer or a speaker, an alert man and a thinker- not necessarily of high academic qualification. From men such as these —men whose characters are formed, and whose minds are sullieiently moulded to enable them to observe accurately, and to digest those observations intelligently—our Imperial Scholarship holders must be chosen. They will hold their scholarships for, say, the same period as .locs a Rhodes Scholar now, and upon the same financial conditions. They will go forth to their appointed or chosen land, to study their allotted subjects, with all the prestige of a great Imperial foundation behind them Iney will be welcomed upon the platform and in the Press. Every door will be open to them, be thenstudy social legislation in New Zealand, technical education in America, or the ways of life amongst the dominions of the Empire. They will spread by voice or pen among the people with whom they sojourn the message ot true Imperialism. They will earrv to their km across the sea the latest thought, the latest knowledge, the latest feeling that pours always to the heart and brain of the world—London. Ami in return they will absorb much of the fresher thought and strong virility of the new lands; tor the scales will fall from their eves, and they will see England as no man who does not know the Empire can see her—a land the worthiest te be loved, and fought for. and worked for of all the lands of the earth- a land for whom her children will pledge their last jewel and shed their last drop ot blood should the occasion ever arise—and that is not flag-wagging or melodrama, but just sober fact We might have to borrow the money from dear old John Bull : but he knows we would repay it We did borrow the blood from him, ami it is our duty to remember it, ami we do. 1 here is in surgery such a thing as transfusion of blood. For many, many years the Imperial dominions have drained old England of much of her best blood. It is time for some of it to flow back to the heart It is beginning to How. The Imperial sentiment is tingling in the veins oi England s children For all his alleged indifference there is no man on the face of the earth .pucker than the Englishman to respond to patriotic feeling when he knows that it is necessary, ll is necessary now, and there is little doubt as to what the response will be. The present ,s pregnant with issues of vast importance to the Empire. That Empire must no longer remain a series oi scattered units. By its bonds of steel beneath the ocean waves it must be drawn more closely together; by its intangible gossamer-steel bonds of mutual love and respect it must Ik- drawn more closely together : and this can only be fully accomplished by a wider knowledge oi each other. So when our Imperial Scholars have had time to settle down in the,, temporary homes they will send up each month or each quarter to the people at Home the results of their observations Thus we shall have a continuous stream of the thought of the Empire, expressed by those best able to do it, flowing to and from the heart of the world; and when the term of the scholarship has expired we shall have our speakers and writers h0,,,,' amongst us again, and in terms of their scholarships Bpeaking ami writing for a slated period throughout the dear old lam. And, again, each mans way will be easy, tor he will be hack with his own taperial-scholarship foundation ~;.,,„„, hill , ; /returned Imperial-scholarship holder, with something to tell, something to say o those lands across the sea-those wonderful, vast, beautiful possessions that are to so many but a class of men who know something of that vast and marvellous "concern," the British Empire, a "concern" that men who have never seen aught o mesume to meddle with; ay, indeed, so do many men who have never assisted to manage anything so big and complicated as a coal-yard. Thus in time it would not be necessary, as indeed ft is now, to follow Lord Rosebery's suggestion and send our legislators away to take even a fleeting glance at that wonder of the ages-thc Empire on which the sun never sets.