4 ROYAL SOCIETY OF CANADA 
later stages of a movement, so clearly in the direction not only of the 
commercial development of the colonies, but also of imperial strength and 
unity, as is this important conference. Conferences of this character give 
us the best possible evidence that colonial statesmanship at the present 
time has a decided tendency, not towards isolation from the parent state 
and the establishment of independent nations, but rather towards placing 
the relations between England and her colonial possessions on a wider 
basis of community of interest and action. 
LE 
Whatever may be the immediate commercial results of the intercol- 
onial conference, it is quite likely that so important an assemblage of 
representatives of the scattered colonies of the empire must more or less 
stimulate a deeper interest in the affairs of each other. It was for many 
reasons a happy idea that this second colonial conference—-the first hav- 
ing been held in London seven years before—should have met at the poli- 
tical capital of the Canadian Dominion, which occupies a pre-eminent 
position among the colonia] possessions on account of it having been the 
first to carry out successfully a plan of colonial federation. The fact 
that the parliament of the federation was sitting at the time of the con- 
ference was a fortunate circumstance from which no doubt the Austral- 
asian and South African delegates derived not a little practical benefit. 
A federal parliament, composed of two Houses, in which seven provinces 
and a vast territory, extending over three million and a quarter square 
miles, were represented by upwards of three hundred members, was of 
itself an object lesson for colonies which still remain politically isolated 
from each other, and in a very little better position than that occupied 
by the Canadian provinces thirty years ago, when the Canadians recog- 
nized the necessity for closer union for commercial and government pur- 
poses. It is true the federal idea has made some advance in Australasia. 
A federal council has been in existence for a few years for the purpose 
of enabling the Australian colonies to confer together on various ques- 
tions of general import, but the experience of the eight years that have 
passed since the first meeting of this body has not been satisfactory in 
view of the want of co-operation of all the Australian dependencies, and 
of the very limited scope of its powers. The larger project of a federa- 
tion, including the whole of the island continent, as well as New Zealand. 
was fully discussed some years ago, in a convention of delegates from all 
the colonies of Australasia, and a bill was drafted for the formation of a 
“Commonwealth of Australasia,” but the measure has not yet been dis- 
cussed and adopted by the legislatures of the countries interested, although 
there is no doubt that the scheme is gaining ground among the people. 
and no great length of time will elapse before we see its realization. In 
