THE NEXUS OF THE COLONIES.
TEE interference of the British Government with the Colonies is reduced to a minimum, yet at no time has 'the connexion between the Mother-country and the Colonies been closer, or bound by more ntmerous and complicated ties. Testimony io the fact was given at the entertainment to celebrate the departure of the first of the new line of mail-steamers between this country and Aus- tralia. We have established a postage with Australia, not ex- ceeding in cost the average postage of inland letters before Row- land Hill's time. Mr. Youle, the secretary to the General Postal Association of the Australian Colonies, mentions that there are between fifteen hundred and two thousand Australian. children in Europe for the purposes of education ; which shows how desirable it is to have a free letter communication. Of all the British Colo- nies, Victoria, first visited twenty years ago by an European settler, stands highest in the proportion of letters to the Mother-country. It would be difficult to find many circles of society which are not directly or indirectly bound with the soil of Australia by blood or marriage ; and it is the same with many of our other colonies. While, therefore, coercive interference has been reduced to the slenderest thread, there are relations which call for the auxiliary interference of the Imperial Government ; and by giving that aid, as in the ease of this new mail-line, the Imperial Government is at once increasing the connexion and securing a grand exchange of influence between the parent land and its settlements. At the present day, England and her Colonies possess the beau ideal of an affiance—a community of defence as against foreign countries, with the freest intercourse uninterrupted by passports or vexatious interference of any kind whatsoever. It does not amount to a federation, because the Colonies have no share in the general government, and do not indeed share some of those advantages which might render the alliance more com- plete. This is felt in the Colonies. Our North American. Provinces have often expressed a desire for a more posi- tive connexion of the Government with the people—with the English nation in that part of the world. In a South Aus- tralian paper we see a strong desire expressed that exploration towards the North and North-west should be aided by the Go- vernment; and as an incentive towards such enterprise, a writer in the paper proposes grants of land for the discoverer and a dis- tribution of honours. He suggests, in fact, an order of knight- hood for South Australia, resembling the Maltese order of St. Michael and St. George ; certain persons being ex-officio members of the order, such as the Governor for the time being, members of the Executive Council, the President of the Upper House and the Speaker of the Assembly; the rank of Knight or Companion being given likewise to those who are distinguished for assisting in the colony, its development, exploration, or administration. Similar proposals have been thrown out before now in England ; here they come to us from a colony ; and there is no question that every step which increases and marks the family connexion be- tween the colonists and society at home adds another screw in bind- ing together the most important congeries of states in the whole world.
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