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 aU 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 



