Sir Wilfrid Laurier made an admirable speech in the Dominion
House of Commons on Monday in defence of the British cause in South Africa as viewed from the Colonial standpoint. After expressing the hope that the war would end in a victory which would rob the Dutch of none of their rights, while it compelled them to grant others the same treatment they had always insisted on for themselves, he went on to say that the Colonies stood behind Great Britain to-day "not to give her assistance—she does not need that— but to affirm to the world that the unity of the British Empire is a real and living fact, and is based upon and derives its strength from the most complete local autonomy and unbounded respect for the rights and privileges of all its subjects." That is not only admirably expressed, but it is absolutely true. If the Colonies believed that it was our intention to make "helots" of the Boers, not a hundred men would have volunteered for active service under our flag.
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