OUR COLONIES. 575 



" Hah, Hah, Doctor ! I can imagine your surprise." 



* Surprise ! why my own breakfast costs me just fivepence per 

 day, and here I had been unconsciously, according to his statement, 

 spending three and sixpence every morning, for what I had con- 

 sidered a mere bonne bouche a most scandalous affair indeed ! " 



" A most modest and ingenious set-off truly, Doctor ! but his 

 charge seems very extravagant, Sir." 



" Extravagant ! why, it is abominable ! I have not spent three 

 and sixpence in luxuries for the last dozen years : he has charged me 

 at the rate of three quarts of strawberries and a quart of cream a-day ! 

 It is true I sometimes put a few into the carriage for dessert, and 

 now and then he pressed upon me a few cucumbers, or asparagus, or 

 a bunch or two of grapes, and once or twice a pine. I was really 



quite delighted with the man's kindness, and Mrs. E was equally 



pleased, and she sometimes accompanied me to Hopkins's house. It 

 is a most shameful affair, and will be a lesson to me in future, 

 neither to eat nor drink with patients a thing I generally make a 

 point of avoiding; but the temptation here was too great for my 

 philosophy. Confound the fellow ! he is as bad as his brother, who 

 obliged me to receive a composition of three shillings in the pound 

 on a bill of nearly 300, in common with the rest of the creditors : 

 was ever such a thing known before or since, till this shameful trick 

 of the strawberries ? " 



The Doctor here rose to depart, when I mentioned the patient. 

 " Oh! ay, to be sure! " said he; " I shall see her to-morrow at ten, 

 and you may let her go on just as usual : " and so we left the house, 

 both looking wondrous wise. 



OUR COLONIES.* 



WHEN the time comes, as come it will, in which the " Island 

 Throne" of Great Britain will be mingled with the dust of other 

 nations, we know of no portion of her history that will excite greater 

 curiosity and surprise amongst future thinkers, than her Colonies. 

 Herself a speck on the map of the world, with a limited population 

 and small territorial power, she wields an empire which puts to 

 shame that of ancient Rome, even when Rome was all the world. 

 The question will naturally arise, how was this immense empire 

 obtained ? and by what means was it kept in subjection ? embracing 

 races of men of the most opposite character, having religions of the 

 most militant kinds, and interest of the most diverse complexions. 



* History of the British Colonies, vol. iv. Possessions in Africa and 

 Australasia. By R. M. Martin, Esq. Cochrane and Co., London. 



