THE COMMONWEALTH 341 



assist Great Britain in the conquest of the Soudan was the first 

 occasion when the Colonies volunteered a loyal service in acknow- 

 ledgment of the generosity with which the mother-country had 

 admittedly treated her dependent provinces. It was far from being 

 a spontaneous outburst of patriotic feeling, for it really emanated 

 from one man, Mr. W. B. Dalley. Such enthusiasm as it evoked 

 was largely due to the strong emotion which the fate of General 

 Gordon had excited in all parts of the Empire. To speak of this 

 handful of men "going to the assistance of the mother-country in 

 her hour of peril," as some of the journals of the day phrased it, 

 bordered on the ludicrous. In a country like Australia, with a 

 restless, nomadic population, there could, of course, be no difficulty 

 in recruiting 500 men, who, for three times the pay of the ordinary 

 British soldier, and the normal love of excitement and adventure, 

 would be ready for adventure in any part of the world. The senti- 

 mental impulse of Mr. Dalley, though at first doubtfully received by 

 the press, and specially denounced by Sir Henry Parkes, soon caught 

 popular approval, and brought New South Wales to the front with a 

 rush. Even so unemotional a man as Mr. Service was touched by 

 it, and though he admitted that if the idea had first occurred to him 

 he would have put it aside as impracticable, he fully recognised the 

 value of its effect on European politics. "It is a step," he said, 

 "that has precipitated Australia in one short week from a geo- 

 graphical expression into a nation." While the militant spirit was 

 abroad, the other Colonies, jealous of New South Wales receiving 

 all the glory of action, cabled their offers of assistance if necessary. 

 But they were politely declined, with the somewhat discouraging 

 intimation that the offer of a New South Wales contingent had been 

 accepted " out of compliment to the Colony ". 



Sixteen years passed away without any further call upon the 

 military ardour of the colonists than the annual Easter encamp- 

 ment. During this period the general question of the defences of 

 the Colonies occupied an important place in Parliamentary dis- 

 cussion, in negotiations with the British Government, and in the 

 practical training of an abundant and willing raw material. In 

 the last year of the century a more urgent case arose, when 

 England, taken by surprise and in a state of criminal unprepared- 



