NOTES AND COMMENTS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXXII, Issue 10010, 23 December 1895, Page 4

NOTES AND COMMENTS.

Thk Hon. J. Chamberlain, Secretary of State for the Colonies, was present at a banquet given by the Agent-General of Natal, in celebration of tho completion of the Natal-Transvaal Railway. On that occasion he delivered a very important speech. Ho said: In view of the representative character of tho gathering, I think, perhaps, I may be permitted, especially as this is the first occasion upon which I have publicly appeared in my capacity as Minister for the Colonies (cheers), to offer a few words of a general application (hoar, hear). I think it will not be disputed that we are approaching a critical stage in the history of the relations between ourselves and the self-governing colonies (hear, hear). We are entering upon a chapter of our colonial history, the whole of which will be writton in the next few years—certainly in the next generation—which will bo one of tho most important in our colonial annals, since upon the events and policy which it describes will depend tho future of tho British Empire. That Empire, gentlemen, that world-wido dominion, to which no Englishman can allude without a thrill of enthusiasm and patriotism, which has beon tho admiration and, perhaps, the envy of foreign nations, hangs together by a thread so slender that- ib may welt seem that even a breath would sever it. There have been periods in our history, not so very far distant, when leading statesmon, despairing of tho possibility of maintaining anything in the nature of a permanent union, have looked forward to the time when the vigorous communities to which they rightly entrusted tho control of their own destinies, would grow strong and independent, would assert their independence, and would claim entire separation from the parent State. The time to which they looked forward has arrived sooner than they expected. The conditions to which they referred have been more than fulfilled, and now these great communities, which have within them every element of national life, have taken their rank amongst the nations of the world, and I do not suppose that anyone would reckon the idea of compelling them to romain within the Empire as within the region of intelligent speculation. (Hear, hear.) As tho possibility of separation has become greater, tho desire for separation has become less. (Renewe'.' cheers.) W'hilo we on our part are prepared to take our part, and todoall that may fairly be expected from tho Mother Country, and while we should look upon a separation as the greatest calamity that could bofall us— (hear, hear)—out* fellow-subjects on their part see to what a great inheritance they have come by mere virtue of thoir citizenship, and they must feel that no separate existence, however splendid, would compare with that which they onjoy, equally with ourselves, as joint heirs of all the traditions of the past, and as joint partakers of all the influonco and resources and power of the British Empire. (Cheerß.)

In a strain of equal wisdom, Mr. Chamberlain referred to the subject of Iraporial Federation. He said There is a word which I am almost afraid to montion, lest at the very outset of my career 1 should lose my character as a practical statesman. I am told on every hand that Imperial Federation is a vain and empty dream. (Cries of 'No, no.') I will not contest that judgment, bub I will say this, that that man must be blind indeed who doea not see that this is a dream which has vividly impressed itself on the mind of the English-speaking race, and who does not admit that dreams of that kind, which have bo powerful an influence upon the imagination of men, have, somehoworanother, an unaccountable way of being realised in their own time. (Hear, hoar). If it be a dream, it is a dream that appeals to the highest sentiraonts of patriotism, and even of our material interests. It is a dream which is calculated to stimulate and to inspire everyone who cares for the future of the Anglo-Saxon peoplo. (Cheers.) I think myself that the spirit of tho time is, at all events, in the direction of such a movement. How far it will carry us no man can tell; but boliovo 1110, upon the temper and the tone in which we approach the solution of the problems which are now coming upon us depends the security and the maintenance of that world-wide dominion—that edifice of Imperial rule — which has been solely built up for us by those who have gone before. (Cheers.

The hatred of Great Britain in France,is characteristically expressed in the following extract) from ft Paris paper, the

Silhouette :4-" Wouldn't we like to hare Jeans Bary now, aye, and Surcoufs, too And be assumed that there aro not wanting along our cmsts willing lads ,n oar days roady to take up once more the campaign against th< hereditary enemy, if Cur rulers werfl only less pusillanimous and, ready to follow the example of Louis XVI. and Napoleon the Great would gite our good Jack Tars a chance. Our sailors are itching to lower the high talk 4f the Jersey Goddam and 0 | invincible (!!!??!) Albion herself. At, 1 yet, while the tig of tho United Kin^om is floating over a portion of our nation,.l soil, a French journalist dares to hold up to us an English official—the Lord Ma v of London-as 1 model, though this rich brewer is tho verj personification of Briii-h characteristics But the cock of Gaul will yet stop the depredations of that insatiable hyena which hides beneath the leopard skin of (Jreat Britain."

The latest ncwi from New York show,, that considerable difference of opinion exU- s with respect to tho President's attitnd's about the Venezuelan question. Th« majority of the Chambers of Commerc* have endorsed the Pres.dent's messiir,. but thoy do not desire war cn the subject. Tn« Bill has been passed Betting up tho Venezuelan Commission. In the meantime there has been quite a panic on tho New York Stock Exchange, and Government ?tocKj are unsaleable. President Cleveland has asked tho House to relievo the danger of depletion of the gold reserves, which will have to be dono bt borrowing, At the meeting of the Loan and .Mercantile Company, the Chairman said that the company possessed ample liquid working capital for all requirements.