On other subjects, the speeches were not of the first
import- ance. Mr. Gladstone reviewed the foreign and colonial policy of the Government, and laughed at the impression which seemed to be abroad that Liberal Governments thought lightly of the great Colonial Empire of Great Britain. He paid a high compliment to the Lord Mayor's own family, for their "colonising genius" in Australia during the last hall-century, and said that there was no statesman worthy of the name who is not sensible "that the business of founding and cherishing our colonies is one which has so distinctly been entrusted by Providence to the people of this country, that we should almost as soon think of renouncing the very name of Englishmen," as of renouncing these duties. Mr. Gladstone was, of course, sanguine as to the convention with the Transvaal,— more sanguine, we think, than its terms at all warrant.
