262 TlMEHRI. 



There are some thirteen differen' tariffs in op ration 

 amongst the British W.st Indian I lands, and th«' same 

 number of sets of postage stamps in use, and this where 

 some of the colonies are within sight of each other on 

 a fine day. One would expect to learn that the Abbe 

 SlEYES, and not ALEXANDER HAMILTON, the great Fede- 

 ralist, had been born in one of these islands. 



If the Colonial Policy of Great Britain were adminis- 

 tered on the principle of divide and govern, one could 

 understand the peculiar condition of isolation in which 

 the several West Indian colonies stand towards one 

 another. Imperial statesmen are, however, openly 

 favourable to the consolidation of the outlying parts of 

 the empire, and Secretaries of State have indeed shown 

 themselves over anxious to secure the confederation of 

 some of the West Indian Islands. Bygone attempts to force 

 UNION upon some of these colonies have not forwarded, 

 but have seriously hindered the good work, so it cannot 

 be too often enjoined upon those who would ''rush" the 

 joining together of even two colonies, that Union, Con- 

 federation, and Imperial Federation, all and each must 

 grow, and not be forced in their growth, and that they 

 must grow up amidst the colonists themselves. There 

 never was a more earnest, well-intentioned Imperial 

 Unionist than King GEOKGE III., and yet the very vehe- 

 mence of his objections to the dismembering of the 

 empire was a main cause of the loss to Great Britain of 

 a vast Colonial Empire. 



The struggle against the system of bounties upon 

 sugar has laid bare the weakness inherent in the condi- 

 tion of isolation in which these colonies stand towards 

 one another. Petition after petition has been addressed 



