Lord Carrington, who has just returned from governing New South
Wales, made a speech on Wednesday at the City Liberal Club in Walbrook, in which he declared that the federation of the Australasian Colonies would not, in his belief, diminish by one jot the loyalty of those Colonies to the Mother-country. We are very glad to hear it, and hope that the same report may be made for generations to come, of the disposition of these Colonies towards the United Kingdom ; but we are far from thinking that, even if separation comes, separation need be more than a matter of political convenience, indicating a new stage in the growth of Australia, when it has become difficult, if not impossible, for Australia to keep step, as it were, with these small islands of ours on the opposite side of the globe. Our first object should be so to use our existing relation to our greater Colonies as to secure cordial allies in them even when they no longer find it possible to take instruc- tions from us, an era which, sooner or later,—may–
it be later rather than sooner!—must arrive almost inevitably.
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