As to the wisdom of the great step we have now taken, for so many
eminent men from different parts of Australia meeting in this Chamber as
delegates from their colonies is in itself a great step--as to the
wisdom of that step we have the warning of every country in the world
which has used government by a confederation.
Here we find a people I suppose about 4,000,000 strong. They have
afforded in the great cities of Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide, Brisbane
and Hobart abundant proof of their power of founding an empire. Go
beyond the cities; they have accomplished under responsible government
what appear to me, and what must appear to any stranger who knew the
country thirty-five years ago, marvels in the way of internal
improvements. Not only the railways, but the telegraphs, and everything
that conduces to the best ends of a civilized community, has been
achieved by this scattered people in a marvellous manner. But all
through this great, this noble, this successful effort, we have had
different sources of irritation, of bad neighbourhood, of turmoil, of
aggression, which, if they were to go on, must make these co-terminous
communities instead of being one people of one blood, one faith, one
jurisprudence, one in the very principles of civilization
themselves--instead of that must make us cavilling, disputatious,
foreign countries.
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