F.—B.

sentiment and of purpose, so that wise and well-considered action could be taken towards more intimate relations in trade and government. The proposal set forth in this lately published State Paper is "that all the self-governing British communities in both hemispheres be brought into direct electric touch with each other and all with the Mother-country; that cable telegraphs should connect each adjacent or proximate community in such a manner as to constitute with the connecting land-lines a continuous chain of telegraph around the globe, and thus admit of messages being sent in either direction from any one British State to any other British State. This globe-encircling chain of telegraph cables would extend from England to Canada, and thence to New Zealand, Australia, India, South Africa, and the West Indies, returning to England by way of Bermuda, with a branch to Nova Scotia or Newfoundland. That this system of connecting lines may be of the highest Imperial advantage it is essential that it be wholly State-owned and State-controlled." The estimates go to show that the cost of the whole circle of cable telegraph proposed would not exceed £5,000,000. If such a system of cables were once established it might be used daily for the transmission of general intelligence during the hours when the cables were not required for commercial service. This intelligence might be furnished by a department to be formed for the purpose, which might act in harmony with those who supply information for the Press, and which might secure in the different countries interested the publication of intelligence regarding matters of leading importance. In one of the documents in this State Paper it is suggested that the headquarters of such an intelligence department would naturally find its proper place in England. " Besides the Imperial Board of Intelligence in London, possibly branch Boards would be desirable in Canada, New Zealand, Australia, India, Africa, the West Indies, and elsewhere. All the Boards should consist of representative and independent public men, whose duty it would be to obtain for dissemination over the Empire accurate information and unbiassed opinions on all subjects of general interest; the information so obtained would be cabled daily or weekly as might be determined to the London Board and to all the branch Boards for publication. Some such organization would become a most potent Imperial agency. It would prove to be an invaluable means of educating our people everywhere respecting the life, opinions, and aspirations of all our fellow-subjects in the several parts of the Empire. It would directly place before each section of the British world the views formed or forming in all other sections. Two hours a day would easily admit of ten or twelve thousand words being transmitted each week. This full volume of news published simultaneously in the chief centres of the Empire would have a wonderful influence. The good to result from a mutual interchange of information and sentiment is beyond calculation. Obviously it would steadily have a unifying tendency if every day in the year the pulsations of the great heart of the Motherland could be felt by kith and kin beyond the seas, and if also every man within as well as without the central kingdom could read in his morning paper the same sympathetic evidences of interest in the common welfare, and all fresh from his fellow-subjects in all quarters of the globe." Whatever diversity of opinion may be developed as to the best way of managing such a service and of preparing the statements that may be issued from day to day or from week to week for the information of the various parts of the British Empire, there could be no doubt as to the desirability of some such department as is here proposed. The system of cables would be of the greatest value in connection with the extension of commerce between the countries thus related, and even from this point of view would seemingly prove a profitable investment, as, according to evidence submitted in the parliamentary return, the charges for oversea messages by the great circle of Empire cables would be greatly reduced. In addition to the commercial value of the scheme it would serve, as has been said, to make the different parts of the Empire more intimately acquainted with each other, so that with increasing mutual knowledge there might come increased confidence, closer correspondence of national ideals, with growing unity of purpose and of life. The testimony on this point that is given in the paper before us is really surprising. The proposal has received the indorsation of Chambers of Commerce and of many prominent representative men. At the Fifth Congress of the Chambers of Commerce of the Empire held at Montreal in August, 1903, it was unanimously approved, and it was recognised that such an inter-Imperial line of communication " would constitute the most effective means by which the several governmental units of the Empire may hold communion with each other whenever they desire, and that while it would be of the highest importance to the commercial and social interests of the British people around the world, it would, by the subtle force of electricity, at once promote the consolidation of the Empire and prove an indispensable factor in Imperial 'This view was again confirmed at the Sixth Congress of Chambers of Commerce recently held in London. But while the resolutions of Chambers of Commerce may fitly represent the opinions of manufacturers, merchants, and other business men, more surprising even than their testimony is that of over fifty representative Canadians from very different departments and connections in life, whose letters on the subject are here presented, men who are outside the sphere of commercial life and who agree in regarding the scheme as thoroughly practicable and of the greatest importance. The writers are all well-known men of prominent position, and they appear to have been selected for the reason that they are removed from the active politics of the day. The evidence furnished is presented in this valuable parliamentary paper in four groups, embracing A, statesmen; B, judges; C, heads of universities and colleges; and D, prominent clergymen. Group A contains the views of three lieutenant-governors: (1) His Honour Sir Henry G. Joly de Lotbiniere, Lieutenant-Governor of British Columbia; (2) His Honour the late Alfred G. Jones, Lieutenant-Governor of Nova Scotia; (3) His Honour Wm. Mortimer Clark, Lieutenant-Governor of Ontario. To these may now be added His Honour D. C. Fraser, Lieutenant-Governor of Nova Scotia, whose views appear in Group Aas a Supreme Court Judge of Nova Scotia. There are four French-Canadians in this group, embracing M. H. A. A. Brault, President de la Chambre de Commerce dv district de Montreal; M. J. George Garneau, present Mayor of Quebec; Very Rev.

31