THE COMMONWEALTH 343 



motherland, for the voices that were raised against the prevailing 

 fervour were almost inarticulate. 



It was not the services of the few thousand men that England 

 needed. It was the practical expression of the sentiment that the 

 lion's whelps were ready at the slightest call to rally round the 

 national flag. The whole of the fighting done by the Australian 

 contingents may have had no appreciable effect on the ultimate 

 result, which assuredly was never in doubt, but their presence in 

 the field was a revelation to some European potentates, who had 

 not been indisposed to offer an indiscreet interference. The pro- 

 fessed willingness of the Colonies to furnish 50,000 men if need be, 

 trained and equipped for the field, was a factor that gave pause to 

 many meddlesome intentions. If this was not loyalty in the old 

 feudal sense, it was something very much akin to it, and although 

 it is undesirable to cultivate a spirit of militarism in a country that 

 is far removed from seats of war, and that needs all its energies for 

 its industrial development, it is a matter of congratulation that the 

 "crimson thread" of kinship still binds the colonists in bonds of 

 love and service to the land from which they sprung. 



Eesponsible Parliamentary Government was called into existence 

 in Victoria in 1855. It was expected to shape the course which 

 should lead an aspiring democracy through ways of pleasantness 

 into the soundest and most liberal form of self-government that its 

 united wisdom could devise. Necessarily much of its work was 

 experimental, and, largely owing to repeated changes of administra- 

 tion, was often marred by want of continuity, sometimes by glaring 

 inconsistency. Every session saw numerous amending Acts passed 

 to correct hurried legislation, and the bare list of repealed statutes 

 would fill a stout volume. It was not to be expected that the 

 foundations of a State, which aimed at theoretical perfection, could 

 be laid without many mistakes. It is but the barest justice to 

 admit the ability and the simple-minded interest which were mani- 

 fested by many of the framers of the charter, the men who gave 

 their time and their labour cheerfully, without exacting a living 

 wage for themselves. When politics became a business worth 

 following for its monetary reward and indirect perquisites, it 

 attracted a different stamp of men to its service it largely sub- 



