F.—Ba

40

and each Government will have the power to direct traffic over the Pacific cable, so as to make it remunerative. The cable business takes its origin chiefly in New South Wales, Queensland, Victoria, and New Zealand, and it is obvious that if these colonies have a proprietary interest in the undertaking its complete financial success will be assured. I have said that, for the reasons given, the difference of one-eighteenth, more or less, in the proportion of guarantee allotted to Canada would be of no practical moment. Equally it can be said that it would not be felt by the combined four Australasian Colonies. It could in truth be affirmed that it would make no difference to them, or any of them, whether their united guarantee be eight-eighteenths or nine-eighteenths of the whole cost. But Australia and New Zealand are much more interested in the establishment of the Pacific cable as an alternative line than Canada can possibly be. It is obvious to me that the Minister of Trade and Commerce means business, and that he will advise his Government to join in carrying out the undertaking on condition that Canada guarantees only what he has fixed in his mind to be a fair share. The Southern Colonies can have the cable on these terms. Yours, &c, Sandford Fleming. The Right Hon. R. J. Seddon, Premier of New Zealand.

Enclosure in No. 18. [Extract from the Westminster, 2nd July, 1898.] The British Empire To-day and To-morrow.—Canada the Half-way House of the Empire. By Principal G. M. Grant, D.D., LL.D., Queen's University, Kingston. Within the last year or two Canadians in general have fully awakened to the perception of certain facts and ideas, which are of fundamental importance to them, alike as citizens and as Christians. That the British Empire is not a myth but a reality, a reality which it is the duty of all its members to make more effective ; that Canada occupies a unique and most important position in that Empire, as its great half-way house, between Australasia on the one side and the United Kingdom on the other, and that it is our duty to rise to the demands of the position and of the time in which we live; that to-day, as during the two thousand years between Abraham and Jesus, God works out His purposes of love to mankind by a sovereign election of individuals and of nations, and that He has chosen the English-speaking race to contend all the world over for the sacred principles of civil righteousness, public order, liberty, and peace—these are the inspiring facts and ideas to which I refer. For these our fathers poured out their treasure and their blood as freely as water. We have entered into the glorious inheritance purchased by them. Is there nothing for us to do but to live at ease, to scoff at every mention of national sacrifice, and to preach the gospel of dirt, that as man is only an animal he does live by bread alone, and that he is a fool to think of anything but material prosperity ? This miserable evangel is preached by men from whom other things might be expected, men who ought to know that our civilisation, with its high thoughts, aims, and inspirations, has come not from rich Sodom, or rich Egypt, or rich Nineveh or Babylon, but from poor, rocky Judea, and next to it from feeble Athens, and from the little city which Romulus and Remus founded on the banks of the Tiber. Let them preach, but let us " arise and build." We have warnings and encouragement enough. For warning, the fate of Sodom ; and " this was the sin of Sodom —pride, fullness of bread, and abundance of idleness in all her borders." For encouragement, the rise of our Motherland from the comparatively weak Britain of Elizabeth and Knox, of Cromwell, Milton, and the Scottish Covenanters, into the world-wide Empire, whose flag stands everywhere for " the open door," and for law, for liberty to the slave, and for universal peace, even though we have to fight for it, just as the twenty thousand well-drilled, highly-paid policemen of London are the army prepared to fight for the preservation of its laws, its liberties, and its peace. How, then, shall we make Canada not only the geographical, but the political and commercial, half-way house of the Empire ? We have duties as a colony or Dominion, as a nation, and as an Empire, for so unique is our position that we may be said to be actually or potentially all three. We must attend to parish politics, and it is needless to say that the hand-to-mouth politicians will not let these be neglected ; but we must also attend to larger affairs, or we shall suffer from our faithlessness. Selfishness puts on airs as the practical guide of life, but it is blindness to all high and permanent interests. Let us pray that the members of our Government may not be blind; but, if we pray honestly, we shall also act; for as we are a free, self-governing people we cannot expect the Government to be far in advance of the popular will. We must press on the Government its duty. We must support it in efforts to promote the general well-being, though there should be nothing for us individually in these efforts. We must discuss intelligently every proposal that has for its object the knitting together of the Empire, to be an effective instrument for the formation of its best moral ideals. All this is our religious duty ; for, as children of the Reformation, we must rise above the mediaeval division of life into sacred and secular regions, and believe, with George Herbert; that Who sweeps a room as for Thy cause Makes that and the action fine. In the Imperial projects, in which we should take a hand, it is our duty to act as all engineers do in construction, " work along the lines of least resistance," act —that is, where the maximum of benefit shall be obtained at the minimum of cost. We should also "do the duty which lies nearest us,".for, when that is done, we shall see more clearly than now what is the next step which we should take. These thoughts have been suggested to me by reading a " return " which has just been published by the Secretary of State to an address of the House of Commons, dated the 18th April, 1898,