sentiments of the Anglo-Canadian littérateur, whom many Australians, as well as his fellow-colonists, would like to see once again in the House of Commons. I can only hope, however, he has since learned that he need not have taken the futile Report of that particular Royal Commission quite so seriously.
But we might, with mutual advantage all round, have some light thrown on those political machinations. Why should the British Government at that time have been so anxious to cast us off? The plot, as we know, miserably failed; but the experiment gave a renewal of publicity, and subsequently of office, to a colonial politician, thought to be "played out." This was Mr. Duffy, who after his lamentable failure as a Land Minister, and his quarrel with his great countryman O'Shanassy, was completely "at a discount" in Victoria. But having profited by his House of Commons experience, he seems to have detected the drift of the Colonial Secretary's new policy more quickly than the local Legislators. Though only a private member, he contrived to get himself appointed Chairman of that spacious "Royal Commission." Shortly afterwards came one of those curious turns of the political wheel, so common in young democracies, and during a brief "interregnum" caused by the rivalry of the more trusted and responsible leaders, Mr. Duffy, who also
