The British Colonies.
Chapter I.
Our Colonial System.
A remarkable feature of the British Empire in the nineteenth century is the secret, sudden, and almost unofficial nature of its growth. At home, there has been scarcely any visible sign of extended Colonial greatness or any symbolism of increased authority outside the well-known mercantile circles or the more exclusive entourage of departments of state. A Territorial District has been proclaimed, a Province created, and a Protectorate added to the area of our Empire without exciting at home more than a temporary and passing interest in the minds of the British public. The fierce search-light of modern Europe had not yet been turned upon our distant territorial expansions in the early days of the Victorian era, and even to Britons themselves it might have seemed a small matter at the time that British Kaffraria, for example, had achieved a separate administrative status in South Africa, or that Queensland had been divided from New South Wales in Australia, or that the Province of Manitoba had been carved out of the lordly domain of the Great North- West, or, indeed, that a new centre of Colonial activity had been created anywhere. The private diaries of such heroes of exploration as Livingstone and Franklin, and the stirring exploits of our sportsmen and travellers