Lord Brabourne^‡

Said that when he first went to the Colonial Office, where he had the honour of serving for more than three years as Under-Secretary. He well remembered that there were men in England at that time who spoke lightly of the Colonial connexions, who spoke of Canada, for example, as a country with which England might part with great advantage. He set himself from the very first day he entered that office till the day he quitted it to counteract such views. (Cheers.) There would be no clay so evil for England as that when any political party should cease to cherish the Colonial Empire as an integral part of England. If Colonists and Englishmen would meet more frequently and learn more to understand each other's interest the more would they find that these interests were identical, and they would form and create such feeling in this country and the Colonies that the man who would hereafter speak of the possibility of any severance would be laughed at as a visionary, whose opinions could not be tolerated. (Hear, hear.)