Page:Australian views of England.djvu/71

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VI.]
OF ENGLAND.
59

juster to the people of the British isles, and far more conducive to the general progress of the colonies, to have a complete separation. There are leading men in both Houses of Parliament, and certainly on both sides of the Commons, who are ready to go the whole length, and Professor Goldwin Smith, who on account of his popularity can afford to say what he thinks, is only a little bolder than other men with names and followings at the Universities, while the Times, ever splendid in its inconsistencies, has startled the elderly gentlemen in nightcaps, by putting . forth as a reason for the withdrawal of the military, that in the event of any of the colonies claiming their independence, England ought not to risk the shedding of blood by having troops on the spot, whose duty it would be to fight!

I was sitting under the gallery when Mr, Mills' motion came on in the House of Commons. The benches on both sides were well filled, and the mover, who is a gentlemanly young man, with clear powers of statement and an evident knowledge of his audience, was endured to the end of his speech without any sensible decrease of members, and whenever he said a pointed thing