Force Of Character

It is neither by his intellig-eneo nor his talents, says Max O'Rell in the Revue de Paris, that John Buil has created the immense British empire ; it is by foroe of character. ïo maintain an empire of more than 400,000,000 scattered over the earth, to widen 11 every day, without functionaries, with a handful of soldiers, and more often with volunteers, is wonderful, it musí be aoknowledg-ed. And, at present, ] can affirm that not a single colony causes John Buil the least apprehension. A magistrate and a dozen policemen administer and hold in résped district larger than flve or six French departments. Justice is meted out to the natives as impartially as to the colonists. AU these young nationalities enjoy tbe most complete liberty, political and social. If 1 have not succeeded in proving.in spite of their thousand and one whims , the Anglo-Saxons are the only people in the world who are perfectly free I have wasted my time and yours, dear readers. Tbere are inany people in Britain who imagine that the future reserves for the British empire a confederation baving its center in London. If, during all my travels among the Anglo-Saxons of the whole world. I have acquired a deep conviction it is that the colonies will never accept the realization of this dream. Each would want to preserve its individu ality and nationality. Moreover, none of them have the least desire to be comprised In the quarrels Britain mig-ht have with any European nation. They will remain branch establishicents of the flrm of John Buil & Co., or they will be Independent. Of the Dutch settlers in África M. Blouet says: "The Boers are farmers and hunters, and nothing else. Ignorant, bigoted, backward, they do not cbange their ideas any more than they change their linen. They are hospitable, dirty, brave and lazy. They have much religión and very few scruples; they are satisfied to live lilce their ancestors and ready to die the day their independence is menaced. Johannesburg will absorb the Transvaal; theapathyof the Boers will have to give way before the ever-increasing activity of the British. The Transvaal is destined to become an Anglo-Saxon republic, which will one day form part of the free United States of South