Mr. Edward Wilson, an eminent Australian colonist, and one of
the chief proprietors, we believe, of the Melbourne Argus,—the greatest of the colonial newspapers,—wrote a very able letter to Wednesday's Times on national disintegration, particularly in relation to the case of New Zealand, in which he shows with great force that the danger of losing our colonies by our present policy is not the chimerical danger which it suits the Times to consider it. He shows that the late Prime Minister of New Zealand, Mr. Stafford, had used language which was, in effect, a denial that there is any Imperial Government of the colonies,—any government at all except that of a British Government eager to disavow all ties and 'duties, and he showed, also, that the other colonies are taking alarm at this policy, and rapidly making up their minds that it is -our purpose and policy to break with them. The Times was -evidently at first alarmed at this influential manifesto of colonial opinion, and on Wednesday was anxious to insist on the ease with which Lord Granville's policy could be reversed. But by Friday it had gained heart again, and was all hector once more. It is, in fact, a far more critical situation than the English people -at all suspect, as we shall know before long. The Colonial Office .know it already, and desire the crisis which they are urging on. When it comes, we shall see how far England is prepared for it.
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