610 TRAVEL IN EUROPE AND AMERICA. [1870, 
But what sort of a policy is this which Great 
Britain seems to have been pursuing in weakening, 
and as if inclined to sever, her connections with her 
principal colonies? Why not contrive some mode of 
uniting home and colonial interests, giving the col- 
onies imperial representation, or something of the 
sort, or somehow be making sure that the men you 
will be wanting one of these years shall be sturdily 
growing up on these virgin soils, where crowding is 
out of the question, and who may feel as they grow 
up that they are part and parcel of a strong empire. 
For myself, I can’t abide the idea of the English 
nation ever coming to play any secondary part. 
As for ourselves, I feel more and more what a good 
thing it is, and what an economy in the long run, to 
have no neighbors, but the whole breadth of country 
to ourselves, and to be so far away from Europe that 
we may look with unconcern upon the rise or fall of 
states there, so far as they affect any interests of ours. 
That does not prevent our being all alive to events in 
Europe, however. The telegraph feeds our lively 
curiosity, day by day; but what I write about to-day 
will have ceased to interest by the time it reaches you: 
perhaps the strife all over there ; devoutly do I wish 
it may be. 
I see you have taken up “ Anselm” again ; and that, 
I presume, is the book you are going to send me, and 
which I shall be pleased to see. 
Yes, you must come over here ; but when you do, 
please arrange for time enough. When you cross the 
ocean, be sure to stay long enough to get your money’s 
worth. If it be the summer after next, perhaps we 
may cross the continent together, and see the parent 
of your Wellingtonia tree on the lawn, and the rest 
