194 AN AMERICAN FARMER IN ENGLAND. 



of our ascendancy gradually waned, and a dominion planted by 

 our own hands, an empire boundless in extent, fertility, and nat- 

 ural resources, the proudest exploit of the nation, the noblest 

 proof and offspring of our civilization, was violently rent from us 

 for ever. One would have thought that so signal and disgraceful 

 a calamity, so terrible an exception to that career of prosperity 

 with which we have been blessed, would have made an indelible 

 impression on the then present and all'future generations, and that 

 a dread of quarrels with our colonies, and an aversion to union 

 between them, would be among the traditional instincts of the 

 empire. It is now sixty years since we set ourselves to repair, 

 in the great southeastern continent of Australia, the disgraces and 

 reverses which our arms and policy had sustained on the shores 

 of the Northwest." 



