nent representation of the Colonies at the centre of the Empire by men of such rank, preferably members of the respective Cabinets, as would enable a body of a composition similar to that of the Conference, and of great if not quite equal authority, to assemble at any time, if occasion required it. Its functions would be deliberative merely. The present suggestion does not go beyond that. But the constant potential existence of a deliberative Council, or "Conference" if you prefer to call it so, representing all the States of the Empire, would go far to keep our policy on really Imperial lines.

I am conscious of the somewhat desultory character of this article, conscious also of its many omissions. The subject is too vast for the available space. But, before concluding, there are two more points to which I would briefly refer, if only to avoid the appearance of ignoring their immense importance. The first of these is, the question of Imperial defence. I know that to many people in this country, and especially perhaps to those who look askance at far-reaching schemes of Imperial union, the most urgent of the questions before the Conference appears to be that of obtaining from the Colonies some larger contribution to the cost of the defence of the Empire, and especially to the upkeep of the Navy. But to my mind this is putting the cart before the horse. Undoubtedly the greatest common interest of all the States of the Empire is security from external attack. Undoubtedly also the maximum of security can only be attained by organized co-operation, by a system in which all would contribute, according to their capacity and on some regular plan, to military or naval forces available for any Imperial purpose. As really United States they would be invulnerable. But defence depends upon policy. Before we can expect

the Colonies to contribute, in money or kind, to the fighting strength of the Empire, in anything like proportion to their wealth and population, they must feel that they are partners in any policy which might involve a call upon that fighting strength. The idea of using them as mere tributaries, helping to support an Army and Navy, in which they have no part, and in the control of which they have no share, is wrong in principle. It is a survival of the old system of subordinate dependent States. As an expression of goodwill, a recognition of the value to the Colonies themselves of the seapower of the Mother Country, Colonial contributions to the Navy are indeed welcome. But we shall never get much farther on that road, and it is not desirable to attempt it. The true principle is to encourage the Colonies to develop their own forces, thus increasing the land and sea power of the Empire as a whole, but to develop them on lines which will enable them to co-operate in the most effective manner with the British Army and Navy, and with one another. The extent to which they can be relied upon actually so to co-operate, must depend on the success of the Imperial movement generally, on the extent to which we are able to develop common institutions and a common policy.

And now for the second great omission of which I may appear to have been guilty. So far, not one word has been said here about India, or the other great dependencies. And it is remarkable how in all discussions concerning the Conference India appears to be ignored, although she is to be represented at that gathering, and occupies a position of such unique importance in our Imperial system. The reason for this apparent indifference, no doubt, must be sought in the fact that the position of India and the other dependencies in that system,

and their relations to Great Britain, are not in question on this occasion. We may lose them or retain them, but we can never retain them as anything but dependencies. With regard to the selfgoverning Colonies, on the other hand, everybody must realize that we are in a period of transition. Whatever the future has in store, whether our destiny is closer union or separation, things cannot long go on as they are. It is from this cause, not because they are intrinsically of greater importance than India, with her great extent, her teeming population, and her vast resources, that interest centres in them at the present time. And yet it may be that in the long run the dependencies of the Empire will exercise a decisive influence on the relations of the Mother Country and the self-governing Colonies. The double aspect of the Empire is one of the most marvellous of political phenomena. On one side it is a real Empire in the old sense of the word-a country ruling with absolute, if benignant, despotism over a great number of others scattered all over the world, and of the most various size and character; on the other side it is a loose congeries, not even a confederacy of semi-independent States, of which the head of that world-wide dominion is only one, though still by far the most important, member. Almost every political principle which is applicable to it in the former aspect is inapplicable in the latter. We almost seem to be living in two different worlds. And in some respects the conjunction of the despotic Empire with the groups of self-governing States leads to difficulties which threaten the stability of this strange political fabric. To mention only one of these, there is the constant friction between the Mother Country and the self-governing Colonies over the treatment accorded by the latter to the Indian and other colored subjects of the

Crown. There is much to justify the attitude of the Colonies in this matter, as every one who has lived in Australia or South Africa is bound to recognize. But there is also a deep and natural sense of grievance on the part of the Indians, and the Government of Great Britain is in a most unenviable position between the two parties. No doubt a modus vivendi is possible, but it is very hard to arrive at, and meanwhile the strain on the Imperial system is great.

And yet, with all the difficulties and anomalies which the situation presents, the existence of the dependencies may in the long run prove a link, and perhaps the greatest of all links, between the Mother Country and the Colonies. In the sphere of common interests they may at present count for very little, but they are destined in the future to count for a great deal. Consider the ultimate importance of the West Indies to Canada, of our Central and East African possessions to South Africa, of the Malay States to Australia, of the British islands in the Pacific both to Australia and New Zealand. Consider the importance of India, with its great and growing resources, to every member of the British group of States. How seriously would the prospects of all the self-governing Colonies be clouded, if the tropical and sub-tropical dependencies of Great Britain were to pass into other hands!

From this point of view the presence of a representative of India at the Conference has a deep, if mainly prophetic, significance. No doubt it constitutes a fresh anomaly in the composition of that assembly, and on this ground it has in certain quarters been made the subject of objection. India is not really a party to the Conference, and her so-called representative is, in fact, only another representative of Great Britain. But in view of the many other anomalies presented

For

by the Conference, in which Newfoundland ranks with Canada, and South Africa has two representatives to Australia's one, the point is hardly worth consideration. In the present rudimentary state of Imperial organization, and having regard to the purely deliberative character of the Conference, such anomalies are really of small importance. Looking at the matter practically, there are questions coming before the Conference which affect India, and it is therefore desirable that some one should be present who has a special knowledge of the Indian side of the case. And, from a broader point of view, it is highly desirable that the self-governing Colonies The National Review.

should be brought face to face with the problems which the government of the dependencies involves. At present "the white man's burden," which they entail, rests entirely on the people of the Mother Country, who no doubt also enjoy the lion's share of the material benefits derived from their possession. But every year that passes increases the interest-already in some cases considerable of the Colonies in the dependencies, and it is inevitable that in the course of time that interest should extend from the material to the political sphere, and embrace the problems of administration and defence.

Milner.

Dr. Lorenz, the Vienna specialist, in recording his impressions of the United States, said nothing would convince him that Americans really believed time to be money while they thought it necessary to be personally present whenever their shoes were being blacked. This peculiar practice is not exceptional but typical. It illustrates a national characteristic which can with difficulty be accepted by the newcomer, for he brings with him the preconceived notion that a higher value is set upon time in America than anywhere else in the world, but if he remains a few years in the country his experience reveals to him that America's true distinction among the nations is as a land of leisure.

An unprejudiced observation of life in their great cities soon leads to the conclusion that Americans have more spare time to play with than any other people. Throughout the morning the chairs in the entrance halls of the hotels are filled with gossiping daw

dlers. In New York itself business is not so pressing but that the streets can be thronged and traffic suspended at 11 A.M. on account of a procession of the Order of Eagles or some other fantastic society. To attend the annual conventions of such orders, and of various patriotic or religious associations, tens of thousands of persons travel long journeys and are absent from their homes for several days at a time. Sporting and athletic events make at least as great inroads upon business hours as in the country whose devotion to the muddied oaf has been so often bewailed. All this in addition to the public holidays-Independence Day, Memorial Day, Thanksgiving Day, Labor Day, Washington's Birthday, Lincoln's Birthday (or in the South some Confederate equivalent) as well as New Year's Day and Christmas Day. And in his working days the American endures such filchings from his time by incompetence and bad management as no

Englishman would tolerate.

The New Yorker gulps his food, yet his lunch takes at least as long as the Londoner's owing to the delay in the serving of his order. And though he pays his hair-cutter or barber at a ruinous scale, the charge is not after all extravagant if it is computed not by the piece but the hour.

But surely, it will be said, the American is on the whole a pattern of activity and speed when he is actually occupying himself with his business. That is by no means my own judgment after spending four years in New York and six months in Chicago. The average office on the other side employs a larger staff than with us, but it shows by no means as satisfactory an output of work by the end of the day. The art of concentrating one's attention on the matter in hand has been very imperfectly learnt. The manager of an important firm is seldom indisposed for a chat of half an hour or so over a cigar. English tourists report with ingenuous admiration that they are able to obtain an interview with a Cabinet minister at Washington without an introduction, and can talk over with him at their leisure the affairs of his department-an accessibility which they naïvely extol in contrast with the exclusiveness of Whitehall. Shopping in the big city storesthose stores which are commonly supposed to be a marvelous development of business sagacity-is a most painful trial of patience owing to the unconscionable time consumed in waiting for change and for the packing up of one's purchase. The arrangements of these houses appear to be designed on purpose to discourage cash payments, for the delay is obviously much less in the case of customers who run a credit account. Often too, the enterprise of a business house appears to exhaust itself in lavish advertisement, in the belief that if only the name of an article

of merchandise is kept before the eyes of the public the actual sale of it will take care of itself. An English friend who was paying me a short visit was struck one day by the advertisements, in the street cars and on the hoardings all over New York, of a novel kind of stationery, and expressed a wish to see what it was like. I wrote at once asking for specimens and prices. A week later, when my friend had already sailed for home, a representative of the firm called, bringing samples of the article with him. He explained its merits elaborately and enthusiastically, but was not even then able to quote prices for all grades. In England my inquiry would, of course, have been answered by return post. The slow movement of the American business man was again illustrated when I was rash enough to order through a leading bookseller a book recently published in London. I received it three weeks later than if I had written for it direct, although I paid the importer twenty-five per cent. on its value for his trouble. Needing a new ferule at the end of my walking-stick I applied to the repairing department of one of the biggest stores. I was told that the job would cost sixty cents, and that it would be done in ten days. Ordinarily this great achievement would be accomplished in seven, but the approach of Christmas would make it necessary to allow three days more. In the rural districts of America-and it must be remembered that only thirty-one per cent. of the population is urban-the gait of business is fully as slow as in our own villages and small towns.

The quality of the means of communication in any country is a fair test of its regard for economy of time. In this matter America makes a poor showing indeed. The Director of the Office of Public Road Inquiries, an officer in the Department of Agriculture, has declared that "the United States

has probably the worst system of pub

lic highways of any civilized nation of the first class." It has been demonstrated that it costs more to move a bushel of wheat ten miles over an American country road than to transport the same burden 500 miles by railway, or 2000 miles by steamship. In what other country would one see such a newspaper paragraph as this at election time? "Rochester, N.Y., November 4,-Country roads in surrounding towns are reported to be in better condition than on any election day in many years, thus insuring a strong rural vote." In January 1905 it was reported that the sheriff and detectives at West Farmington, Ohio, were unable to get over the fifteen miles separating them from the place where a certain "wanted" man was staying, because no horses could be obtained at any price on account of the condition of the roads. The rapid collapse of the cycling boom, as illustrated by the decrease in membership of the League of American Wheelmen from 103,000 to 5380 in five years, is due not only to the mutability of the American temperament but to the discovery that there was neither pleasure nor profit in riding except in the neighborhood of a certain number of public-spirited towns. The scope of the motor-car is similarly limited. An enthusiast who travelled the other day from New York to Buffalo on his motor-cycle reported that he covered several hundred miles on the railroad sleepers, which gave him better riding than the highways. A party of English automobilists, landing in New York with the intention of making their way to the St. Louis Fair by motor-car, had to give up the attempt after a brief experiment.

Many of the large cities of the United States have been laid out on a system which consumes the maximum of time in getting from one

point to another. The rectangular plan of street arrangement makes it necessary to traverse two sides of a triangle to reach any point which is not in the same street as the starting-place. The consequent delay in communications is enormously increased, for vehicular traffic, by the atrocious condition of the city streets themselves. The waste of business time in getting wagons out of ruts, even in important New York streets, must amount to a considerable total. Just after the construction of the Subway, when the repaving of the streets was supposed to be completed, there was left for many weeks at one point within my daily observation so great a depression in the surface-it would scarcely be an exaggeration to call it a gully-that again and again drivers of coal-carts would labor for half an hour at a stretch to get over it, with the result that they had in many cases to send at last for another team. The amount of time that has been wasted until quite lately by the neglect of the municipal authorities to guide the street traffic is beyond calculation. It was only on St. Patrick's Day, 1903, that any system was introduced for the regulation of the course of vehicles at the busiest corners of New York City. The general belief that New York is in advance of London in opportunities of "rapid transit" is by no meaus borne out by facts. According to Mr. H. H. Vreeland, the highest authority on the question, the electric tram-cars in the New York streets are so hampered by stoppages and blocks that their average speed does not exceed eight miles an hour-a rate which makes it still possible to speak respectfully of the London bus. In walking down Broadway from Astor Place during business hours I have sometimes compared my own progress with that of an electric tram-car starting abreast of me, and I have reached Canal Street