§ 1.—Colonial Resources.

No country has invested her resources to greater advantage than Britain has invested hers, in planting and peopling her splendid Colonies and Dependencies. For India and Canada Britain fought many a battle, and paid a high sum. But Australia cost scarcely any amount, except, if we may so say, the money value of the men and women sent thither to work. From 1853 to 1885 upwards of one million emigrants went to Australia from the United Kingdom. At £100 each they represent a capital of one hundred millions. But the golden trophy at the Exhibition shows that within that period Victoria alone has produced £216,000,000 in sterling gold. And how shall we estimate the money value of the enormous resources, in esse or in posse, developed already, or as yet only partially developed, represented in this magnificent Exhibition? Sovereigns have been wont to invite one another, and especially those whom they most dreaded, to witness their military or naval forces at grand reviews or parades. Her Majesty the Queen invites the world to witness the imposing resources of her Empire, happily destined not to destroy, but to feed, clothe, and comfort the sons and daughters of toil all the world over.

The British Colonial Empire has been constructed, not under instruction or guidance of authority, not on the initiation or dictation of the State, but by the spontaneous action of the people, who, as by instinct, sought the countries best suited for their labour and wants, or most likely to open for them a new field for trade and commerce. And experience shows how vastly superior is a colonial system, free and untrammelled, over one close and fettered. So long as India was the monopoly of a commercial company the commercial relations between England and India were of the most limited nature. Immediately the monopoly ended the trade with India immensely increased. Happily, all the other colonies were made free from the very first to all comers, and they are to this day the land of promise to every strong arm and stout heart willing and ready to land on their shores. The conditions of a virgin soil like Australia and British North America, previously lying helpless for want of workers, and a page 4 well-trodden and thickly-peopled state like India, are of course widely different, but both India and the Colonies manifest the strength of purpose, the skill and tact, which make the British race the colonisers par excellence.