hardly necessary to labour the point.  If all the people in this country were of English extraction and England were to claim on that account that there should be a connection with her, and that it should dominate the people here, there would be strife; and it could have but one end—­separation.  We would, of whatever extraction, have lived in natural neighbourliness with England, but she chose to trap and harass us, and it will take long generations of goodwill to wipe out some memories.  Again, and yet again, let there be no confusion of thought as to this final peace; it will never come while there is any formal link of dependence.  The spirit of our manhood will always flame up to resent and resist that link.  Separation and equality may restore ties of friendship; nothing else can:  for individual development and general goodwill is the lesson of human life.  We can be good neighbours, but most dangerous enemies, and in the coming time our hereditary foe cannot afford to have us on her flank.  The present is promising; the future is developing for us:  we shall reach the goal.  Let us see to it that we shall be found worthy.

VI

That we be found worthy; let this be borne in mind.  For it is true that here only is our great danger.  If with our freedom to win, our country to open up, our future to develop, we learn no lesson from the mistakes of nations and live no better life than the great Powers, we shall have missed a golden opportunity, and shall be one of the failures of history.  So far, on superficial judgment, we have been accounted a failure; though the simple maintenance of our fight for centuries has been in itself a splendid triumph.  But then only would we have failed in the great sense, when we had got our field and wasted it, as the nations around us waste theirs to-day.  We led Europe once; let us lead again with a beautiful realisation of freedom; and let us beware of the delusion that is abroad, that we seek nothing more than to be free of restraint, as England, France and Germany are to-day; let us beware of the delusion that if we can scramble through anyhow to freedom we can then begin to live worthily, but that in the interval we cannot be too particular.  That is the grim shadow that darkens our path, that falls between us and a beautiful human life, and may drive us to that tiger-like existence that makes havoc through the world to-day.  Let us beware.  I do not say we must settle now all disputes, such as capital, labour, and others, but that everyone should realise a duty to be high-minded and honourable in action; to regard his fellow not as a man to be circumvented, but as a brother to be sympathised with and uplifted.  Neither kingdom, republic, nor commune can regenerate us; it is in the beautiful mind and a great ideal we shall find the charter of our freedom; and this is the philosophy that it is most essential to preach.  We must not ignore it now, for how we work to-day will decide