At a Colonial dinner given last Saturday to Sir G.
Verdon, the outgoing general agent in England for the Australian Colony of Victoria, who has just been succeeded by Mr. Childers, the general tone of the speeches was exceedingly satisfactory, show- ing a very different and much more cordial relation between the Colonial Office, indeed the British Government generally, and the Colonies, than has prevailed for many years. Lord Kim- berley made a sensible and very amusing speech, with which we only find one fault. Why must he, and not he only, but Colonial Secretaries in general, always be suggesting and harping upon the possible separation between England and her Colo- nies which the Government professes to dread so much, and which we have no doubt Lord Kimberley does really dread? It is the very way to bring it about,—thus to accustom the pub- lic mind to think of it as inevitably forcing itself on the most reluctant imaginations. For the rest, Lord Kimberley was very wise as well as entertaining, and told a capital story of the attempt of a fidgetty colonial governor to consult him from the other end of the world by telegraph on the minutiae of colonial business. Lord Kimberley promptly telegraphed back, " Matter much too difficult to decide by telegraph, write by post." It would have been better still to say, " Either decide for yourself, or write by post ;" but the notion of governing the antipodes by telegraph is positively alarming. These great discoveries may break up empires, after all, if we are not sober-minded enough to know the limits within which to use them.
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