Arthur Patchett Martin

“ At the same time it is perfectly true, and should have been patent to the mind of Lord Knutsford, that such an appointment would be sure to arouse the more unruly spirits, and that to send Sir Henry Blake at a time of such tension to Queensland, was to play straight into the hands of such persons, and to redouble the popularity of the local Minister in his new but not altogether consistent or high-minded line of policy. We must, however, take human nature and the exigencies of party political warfare as we find them. ”

“ Gladstone's Cabinet in reference to the annexation of New Guinea has converted a naturally self-willed man into a thorough-going pessimist, who has come to regard it as a matter of absolute indifference to his colony, who is in power, or what is the policy of Great Britain. ”

“ In every colony the Loyalists (who are, of course, the large majority) , from their inherent character and nature, loyally accept those who are rightfully appointed to any office in the State, The Disloyalists, on the other hand, are by their very nature and character ever on the look-out for a cause of dissatisfaction and disturbance. ”

“ The former type of Colonial, or rather Anglo-colonial, statesmen, despite the occasional and not unwelcome intrusion on the public stage of a democratic "Fellow of Oriel," like Mr. Charles Henry Pearson, the present Minister of Education in Victoria, must be regarded as practically extinct. Whether the local universities will supply its place, the future alone can reveal. In the meantime, it has come to pass that Wentworth and Lowe have been succeeded, in the northern part of what was then the undivided colony of New South Wales, by leaders like Sir Samuel Griffith and Sir Thomas M'Ilwraith. ”

“ If only we are wise and prudent on both sides, there will follow the swift inevitable reaction of overwhelming loyalty, which will show the British people what the Australian public feeling on these questions really is. ”

“ In New Zealand there is the same contrast to be observed between the veteran, Sir George Grey, and the younger and colonially-trained race of leaders, such as Sir Robert Stout, into whose hands the Government of the colony has naturally fallen. It is with this type—the colonially-trained, and more and more actually Native Australian politician—that British statesmen will be compelled to negotiate, unless both sides agree to part company without more ado. ”

“ This was a very serious matter to begin with; and Queensland stands out, thanks to Sir Thomas, as the only Australian colony which has declined to ratify the agreement with the British Government for the maintenance of the local Australian fleet.
Sir Thomas M'Ilwraith next proceeded to formulate what he was pleased to call "The Australian National Party," by which adroit move he seems to have "dished" the local Radicals, and won over that solid "Roman Catholic vote," which is usually at the bidding of the political leader, who fathers what is believed to be an anti-British policy. ”

“ Though lacking the old-world culture, and with far less comprehensive minds than their great predecessors, it cannot be denied by any impartial critic who has lived for a number of years in Australia, that many of these later and purely colonially-trained leaders have on occasion showed marked capacity for the guidance of public affairs in new communities ”

“ Gowen Evans, who is so well and widely known in Australia, in connection with the Melbourne Argus, and who has only very recently come from Victoria on a visit to this country, observes:—"The Irish Home Ruler Party in the colonies has taken quite a nice departure since the adhesion of Mr. Gladstone and his followers, and is actively employed in diverting the Australian Natives Association to objects quite foreign to its original purpose." ”

“ The energetic vindication and protection of the civil and political liberties, rights, and obligations of the people, and the adoption of the principle that laws passed by the Australian Legislatures shall not require the imperial sanction to render them operative. ”

“ The old veterans, if their souls longed for an ideal condition of democratic equality in the new world, drew their inspiration from the time when they pondered, in some cloistered precinct, over the Republic of Plato ”